Retreat Facilitation and Education

Retreat Facilitation

The Camden Group facilitates retreats or off-site meetings, which have become a fundamental part of education, planning, and goal-setting sessions for leadership groups of all types. For healthcare organizations, these can include board members, medical staff leadership, and management. While the success of a retreat is dependent on numerous factors, engaging strong, knowledgeable speakers/facilitators, such as our thought leadership team, can help make the most of your retreats and assure that you achieve your retreat objectives.

The Camden Group works with healthcare providers, health plans, boards, management, physicians, and other groups to plan and conduct board and management retreats tailored to your needs. The events vary in length from half-day to two or three days. We can help participants achieve many objectives, such as:

• Developing a common level of understanding on an issue(s)
• Engaging in a robust interchange of ideas and "stretch" thinking
• Setting vision, goals, and strategies
• Prioritizing resource allocation
• Developing specific solutions to one or more business issues
• Encouraging collaboration and accelerating "buy-in"
• Developing action plans and committing to implementing the work products/outcomes
• Creating successful teams and meaningful relationships between group members
• Establishing strong culture and strategic vision

We can provide a variety of tools and approaches to assist you in your retreat objectives including:

• Vision by Design^SM Process
• OptionFinder® System
• Discussion Techniques
• Team building Exercises
• Additional Activities and Exercises

Education

In addition to facilitating retreats, our senior advisors can provide continuing education, such as project management training, to your team. We are available to present educational programs and seminars not only for board retreats, but for medical staff meetings, other senior management, and department level sessions. For example, an education program we currently offer is "Strategic Operations Business Planning for Department Managers" in which participants learn how to translate strategic plans into departmental business plans and budgets.

Vision by Design^SM Exercise

Utilizing The Camden Group's Vision by Design^SM process, participants identify the characteristics of their organization in a highly successful state at a date 10-20 years into the future (i.e., continuum of care provided and service line focal points, target markets served, physician alignment techniques applied, ventures with other providers and/or vendors, adoption of clinical and information technology).

By focusing first on describing a successful future state, the process encourages innovative thinking and reduces the extent to which historical factors and perspectives restrain thinking (i.e., "we haven't been successful with action 'A' in the past," "the physicians in specialty 'B' won't support this concept," "we don't have sufficient resources to enable this to work").

OptionFinder® System

The Camden Group uses the OptionFinder® System to better focus and leverage the value of the input received during board retreats and other critical decision-making sessions. The OptionFinder® System is a computer-based decision management tool which can bring ideas and opinions of a group of people into a focused plan of action within a very short time period. Incorporating the speed and anonymity offered by computers, this tool helps reduce or eliminate the downside of group dynamics while strengthening the positive results of creative group thinking. Participants are more candid, no one person dominates the discussion, and everyone has equal input.

Discussion Techniques

Our advisors are skilled discussion facilitators who use various methods to encourage participation, ensure that every opinion is heard, collect large amounts of input, and prioritize feedback and ideas.

Team Building Exercises

Our team building exercises can help you create successful teams and meaningful relationships between group members.

Additional Activities and Exercises

Our team can help you establish strong culture and strategic vision with exercises such as "Culture & Shared Values Trade-Offs," "Conjoint Analysis," and "Competitor Role Playing."

Contact us today to book our trained retreat facilitators or to find out more information on our educational programs.