From Meetings to Meaning: The Retreat That Helped a Leadership Team Reset, Repair, and Rebuild
What happens when you give senior managers the space to tell the truth—and design a new way forward
A few months ago I was invited to support a senior management team in a large public organisation. Nine leaders. All competent. All dedicated. All tired.
They weren’t dysfunctional.
They weren’t fighting.
But they also weren’t a team.
They were a group of individuals who met every week, shared updates, and left with the same frustration: “We have important responsibilities, but we’re not pulling in the same direction.”
In the introduction, I briefly explained that teams naturally move through phases of development (some call it Tuckman’s model). But theory wasn’t the point. What mattered was this:
They had skipped the emotional work of becoming a team.
A retreat wasn’t a “nice-to-have”.
It was the only responsible thing to do.
The Real Reason Senior Teams Need a Retreat
Because meetings don’t create trust
A calendar full of back-to-back meetings gives leaders contact, not connection.
What this team needed was something different:
Time
Distance
Honesty
A chance to see each other as human again.
When leadership teams don’t get that space, small tensions become large ones, small misunderstandings crystallise into silos, and the entire organisation feels the consequences.
A Leadership Team on the Edge of “Almost Working”
Competent individuals ≠ a high-performing team
Here’s what was really happening beneath the polite surface:
Two directors were quietly competing for influence
A newly arrived leader felt invisible
The acting leader was carrying disappointment from months of uncertainty
Several were unsure about their shared mandate
Everybody was avoiding the difficult conversations
On paper, the team looked “stable”.
In reality, they were functioning at 40% of their collective potential.
This is precisely when a retreat becomes powerful.
Not to “fix people”.
But to create the conditions where people can finally tell the truth and rebuild trust.
Inside the Retreat: A Journey From Politeness to Partnership
Day 1 – From Professional Masks to Real Conversations
Morning: Re-introducing each other as humans
Instead of diving into strategy, we went backwards.
Each leader shared:
why they chose leadership in the first place
one moment that shaped them
one thing they were carrying that nobody saw
what they needed from colleagues but rarely asked for
For the first time, the room breathed.
People cried.
People laughed.
People saw each other again.
The acting leader said, “I didn’t realise I was holding so much resentment until I heard myself say it out loud.”
Someone else whispered, “This is the first time I feel like I belong here.”
Afternoon: Naming the elephants
We mapped tensions.
We explored communication habits.
We held a structured dialogue between the two directors who had mutual discomfort.
Nothing exploded.
But everything softened.
Honesty, not harmony, was the goal.
Day 2 – Designing a Team That Works (Not Just Meets)
Morning: Creating clarity
Now that the emotional dust had settled, the team could finally design their future.
Together, they defined:
their true shared mandate
their leadership principles
how decisions should be made
how disagreements should be handled
how they wanted to show up for the organisation
The transformation was visible.
Less defensiveness.
More curiosity.
More shared ownership.
Afternoon: Building momentum
We shifted from repair to ambition.
The team worked on:
strategic priorities
cross-functional dependencies
early-warning signals when things slip
shared routines and leadership behaviours
commitments to each other
By the end of day 2, one leader said:
“This is the first time I understand what it actually means to lead together.”
When Is a Leadership Retreat Necessary?
Use these signals as your early-warning system
A retreat is essential when:
The team is changing (new roles, new structure, new people)
Politeness hides the truth
Leaders work more “next to each other” than “with each other”
Strategy requires alignment that doesn’t exist yet
Tension, fatigue, or frustration sit beneath the surface
Everyone is busy, but nobody feels progress
If any of these resonate, the team is ready.
Or rather, they can’t afford not to be.
When a Retreat Won’t Work
A useful dose of honesty
A retreat is not the solution if:
Leadership is not willing to participate fully
The team is in deep psychological conflict
The CEO doesn’t support the process
People see it as a checkbox exercise
There is no follow-up afterwards
A retreat accelerates courage, not avoidance.
Three Months Later: Proof That Space Changes Everything
After this retreat, the organisation reported:
clearer, faster decision-making
fewer escalations
improved cross-department collaboration
renewed trust within the leadership team
a more confident leadership narrative toward employees
They didn’t become perfect.
They became aligned.
And that changed everything.
Final Reflection: Teams Don’t Become Teams by Accident
A senior team becomes a team when they have:
space for truth
courage for tension
structure for collaboration
and the humility to reset
A retreat is simply the container.
The real work happens when leaders choose to see each other fully — and start leading like they mean it.
Ready to Design a Leadership Retreat That Actually Makes a Difference?
Most leadership teams don’t need another off-site with flipcharts and polite discussions. They need a carefully designed space where they can speak honestly, rebuild trust, align around what matters, and step into the next chapter with clarity and confidence.
This is the work I specialise in.
My workshops are designed to provide the structure required to quickly align and move forward with a plan or idea so you can reclaim time, energy and headspac
If your leadership team is approaching a transition, carrying unresolved friction, or simply needs a reset to move forward with intention, I can help you design and facilitate a retreat that creates real movement and not just a well-organised agenda.
If you’d like to explore what your next leadership retreat could look like, reach out.
Let’s talk about your team, your context, and the outcomes you want to create and build a retreat that makes the time, travel, and investment truly worth it.
Please contact me at jose@facilistation.com
