Are you familiar with business retreats? They are either intensive brainstorming sessions or employee trips with an emphasis on relaxation. Typically, organizations that mostly operate in a fully remote manner gather about once every six months.
The specifics vary by organization, but the one constant is that you are always spending time with other members. Usually, there’s some kind of curriculum where everyone gathers in a room to work on activities together. Even during free time, there’s pressure to engage in conversations, discussions, and interactions with other members.
Sure, you can refresh yourself in an extraordinary environment, temporarily distance yourself from work to relax, and deepen relationships with members. But that’s all there is to it. Something critical is being forgotten.
Originally, “retreat” implies “withdrawal”, “evacuation”, or “seclusion”. In religious contexts, it refers to going to a temple or the mountains for training.
The essence of these is solitary silence. First, there has to be solitude. While nurturing relationships with members is important, a retreat is not such a trivial endeavor. Next, there must be silence. In this context, silence means completely disconnecting from work and personal life. For instance, there are no interruptions, and, of course, no curriculum like a camp or trip. The value of a retreat lies in obtaining these two elements, which are almost impossible to access in everyday life.
A True Retreat refers to a company event dedicated to obtaining solitary silence.
It is an overnight event, ideally lasting at least one night and two days, but preferably two or three nights or more.
There are no obligations during this event. You don’t have to work at all, and unlike traditional retreats, there’s no forced curriculum where you have to exert effort on unwanted tasks or social interactions. Of course, those who want to can engage in activities at their own discretion, but it’s by no means mandatory, and in fact, it’s discouraged. So, what do you do? You simply relax alone. At the same time, you reflect inwardly alone. You confront your work, your organization, and your life. The method doesn’t matter. You can bring your work PC to write or use your personal PC. In any case, you relax in solitude.
You might think that way, but that’s not it.
A true retreat imposes solitary silence on all members. Therefore, it involves having all eligible participants join as part of an event.
Whatever you experience in a True Retreat must be shared.
While there’s no right way to do this, there are three timing options:
If the aim is to fully respect the True Retreat, then option 3, post-event, is sufficient.
However, typically, after several days of solitude, people tend to either “get bored” or “feel overwhelmed”, leading to stagnation, so it’s better to have checkpoints. Having checkpoints means requiring people to convene, which can be quite a hassle. Honestly, I dislike it and find it irritating. However, as a Knowledge Architect, I’ve realized that having checkpoints is more practical, which is why I explain it this way.
As a compromise, one might prepare notes, wikis, or channels where people can asynchronously share their experiences. However, with this method, there’s a downside where you start getting curious about everyone’s posts as can be seen on X and other SNS. Even though you want to spend a True Retreat in solitude, you end up getting overwhelmed by information.
You probably haven’t experienced a true retreat yet. Let me introduce you to the concept of a “True Retreat”. Its core is solitary silence, and the value lies in relaxing alone.
While retreats for deepening relationships are important, having an experience where you thoroughly delve into yourself in solitary silence is even more crucial. I encourage you to consider it. Until next time.