This is the view from a walk here at Bean Up The Nose Art's 2011 End-of-Year Executive Retreat, at Sea Ranch up on the Sonoma/Mendocino Counties coast in northern California.By "Executive," we mean owner/artist me, and my dog Gracie.
By "2011 End-of-Year Retreat," we mean we are up here, taking a look back on our business year . . . seeing what went right, what needs improving, and where we want to take things in 2012.
How do we do that?
As you see, Bean Up The Nose Art believes in the power of analogue. Of old school, elementary school art time -- where you cut things out with scissors, paste them on a page, and write about them with juicy colored markers. We also believe in handwriting our morning free-writes. We believe in recording things in journals full of images, words, charts, graphs, photos, rubber-stamped reminders to ourselves of what our creative voices are telling us right now.
Yep, there are "faster" ways. You can use screens and keyboards and programs. But in our experience, that is like buying the premade cookie dough and slicing off a piece to put in the oven . . . instead of making from scratch. You get a different cookie.
Why apply creative skills on an executive planning retreat? And why plan, at all?
Because . . . as was so well-put in an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal (passed along to us via tweet from the fabulous @sally_k) . . . "nothing makes people feel happier and more engaged at work than making meaningful progress on something they care about." (Teresa Ambile and Steven Kramer, authors of The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement and Creativity at Work.)
That is so true. And how do we find out what we care about? Aha! In our journals! When we ask ourselves those questions, and when we allow our hands to fashion words and images that our deep, creative part has been wanting to say.
That is so true. And how do we find out what we care about? Aha! In our journals! When we ask ourselves those questions, and when we allow our hands to fashion words and images that our deep, creative part has been wanting to say.
And how do we start making the meaningful progress? By setting goals. By writing those goals down. (By hand.) By making lists of the things that we need to do to achieve those goals. By breaking those things down into achievable time & task components, so that you will know how to spend your time to achieve that meaningful progress THAT FEELS SO GOOD. (And you know. It does. It does feel so freakin' wonderful.)
It's not all fun and games here, though, at the Executive Retreat. There is also bookkeeping being done.
Because we also know how good it feels to move forward into a new year having all of your tax information put together and ready to go. How do we know this? Because last year, we didn't do it that way. AND IT FELT AWFUL. And what we have learned, in a half-century of living, is that the best way not to feel awful is to do the thing different this time than the way that it felt awful before. Don't keep repeating the same thing that makes you feel awful. Do the things that make you feel good.So, take THAT, all you receipts!
And for every few hours of bookkeeping accomplished, there's the reward of going out into this.
It's a good system.
