You Shouldn't Always Get What You Ask For

A 12 person non-profit asked to do a Strategic Planning retreat. Before taking on the work, we interviewed the management team individually and discovered that the entire team was very closely aligned on vision, direction, and the method to be used for getting there. They already had a strategic plan, but didn't realize it. It turns out that what they really needed was coordinated marketing, customer relationship management software, and dramatic improvements in their work processes. So, they asked for a Strategic Planning retreat, and didn't get it, and that was a good thing.