Pictures from the Alto Cayma Retreat 2009

Photo: A group exercise on collaborative governance

Photo: The Master Teacher/Trainer - Ken Kraybill

Photo: Steering Committee exercises on "strategic planning"

Photo: Day 1 of the retreat - Team Building

Photo: Planning with Father Alex and Jessica Alpaca

Day 3 of the Alto Cayma Retreat

Whenever you have multi-day retreats or conferences, there is always a sense that there is more than "enough time." Time to meet your objectives, time to answer everyone's questions, and time to really teach or train the subject (or subjects) you have defiend for your work. Boy is that a false sense of security.

The night before our last day of the retreat, Ken and I realized that we had an agenda that could easily fill 12-hours of instruction and discussion - and a final day of meetings that was advertised to be less than 8 hours. The challenge for us was to focus our time and the information we discussed in order to maximize the materials we were sharing and presenting to the Mission of Alto Cayma Steering Committee. Boy - this was no easy task.

As our primary objective for the two-day Steering Committee retreat was to develop a core body of leaders within the Mission and to empower them toward a new level and mechanism of governance; we felt pretty secure in the work that we had accomplished in the first 2-days of the retreat. However, one of the other main objectives we had defined with Father Alex and Bruce Hazen in our curriculum was the structuring of a "Strategic Planning" document.

How do you develop an entire Strategic Planning process in just 8-hours (actually less than 8-hours, as lunch in Peru is often a 2-hour affair with an extended post-lunch break)?

Our approach was to focus on the basics. Essentially we took the foundational elements of any organizational design - forming, storming, norming and planning - and we expanded on these ideas as they related to the formation of a Steering Committee (Father Alex plans to call them a "Steering Board;" as there is a different connotation to the term Board in Peru). As such, our last day of training focused on helping this new group of leaders structure their ideas, concerns and issues into an agenda for their first meeting.

We are excited to think that a new model for vetting ideas, developing strategy and moving forward with programs and projects has been born out of this 3-days of meetings. Even more, we are humbled to have been a part of such an amazing experience with a fantastic group of really dedicated, very intelligent and extremely compassionate people.

Day 2 of the Alto Cayma Retreat

Planning, planning and more planning. Our goal for day 2 of the Mission retreat was simple - and quite complex all at the same time. We decided to take on the bold task of creating a "Steering Committee" and engaging this new governance group in a series of exercises to develop a Strategic Plan. Wow was that much easier said than done!

With an agenda that was developed in keen partnership with one of the best business coaches on the planet (Bruce Hazen from Lee Hecht Harrison), we felt really prepared for our task at hand. In fact, it actually went really well. We were able to work through a number of very complex ideas and organizational dynamics in a little under 8-hours. It was truly amazing to see how engaged and interested our Steering Committee participants were.

For the better part of an entire day, we discussed the various ways that a group can coalesce and come together around the governing of an organization. We talked about setting up a structure for a steering committee - from deciding on a meeting framework to determining who would facilitate their first planning session. A great deal of our time was spent in interactive exercises - experiences that required group participation and interaction.

By the end of our second day of the retreat - we had a "for real" Steering Committee and a platform to discuss the development of a Strategic Plan. As it turned out - all of the planning really paid off.

Look for additional updates on this HBI facilitated retreat in the days to come. Thank you for your continued support of Health Bridges International.

DAY 1 of the Retreat

How do you organize a three day retreat for a faith based, mission driven organization in a Latin American country with a staff of over 80 people - who have never met as a group before? The answer - very carefully!

Day one of the retreat - The morning started with around 65 people, and we steadily lost about 10-15 folks over the course of the day. This is not the 100 that Father Alex had originally expected, but it was still a good number and represented people from all aspects of the Mission. We had sessions dedicated to: a "state of the union" address by Father (in which he described the current programs and projects of the Mission and talked about the structure of the Mission), a discussion of self care and a session focused on an exercise Ken call's the "River of Life."

The River of Life exercise asks people think of their lives as the metaphor of a river and track the flow and challenges that they have met (including the tributaries or streams that have fed their river) as the movement of a river. We did this exercise as a "life" river and a "work" river - and used the "work river" as an opportunity to pull insights from the attendees regarding their "challenges and triumphs" of working at the Mission.

I really feel like we accomplished our goals of showing people they are respected and supported, creating a safe environment for people to provide feedback, and we had an opportunity to model a communication style for people to pull from. The entire first day of the retreat lasted 8 hours. Reflecting on the feedback we received from the participants - it seems fair to say that everyone really enjoyed themselves. One attendee even remarked, "I consider it important to be more united at our work, to love our neighbors, and to help others. I feel that this retreat helped us to reunite around our common goals and efforts."

Tomorrow we will have our first day with the "steering committee" portion of the retreat; and our plan is to discuss the basics of developing a steering committee, organizing job descriptions and developing a template for strategic planning. The entire retreat is a fantastic opportunity for HBI to work on building bridges that are all about empowering local organizations and efforts. The work that the staff and leadership of the Mission of Alto Cayma have committed to undertake for this three-day exercise is very impressive.

Alto Cayma - Slow and Steady

It does not matter how often I come back to Peru and the community of Alto Cayma - I really just can't get enough of the people and the beauty that is the Andes Mountains.

Today is Sunday, a traditional day of rest and recuperation in most of the world. Yet, in the Pueblos Jovenes of Alto Cayma, people are busy with work. In fact, the work never really stops for the people of this area.

Many of the extremely impoverished communities will have 7-day work weeks. This morning for example, there was a steady stream of people walking down the only paved street in Enace (Enace is the name of a Peruvian government owned construction company that built a large housing project in the Alto Cayma communities in the mid-1990's; the details of the Enace project is the stuff of political legend and is far too complex to mention in this post; if you follow the URL hyperlink of Enace - you will be directed to an interesting article dating back to 1999; the people of this sector of Alto Cayma collectively refer to their area as "Enace" - even though the construction company and the houses they developed have long since departed.) toward the more "developed" sectors of Alto Cayma (Alto Cayma is a very typical Pueblo jovenes - in that there has been years and years of "invasion" into the area; and as time passes and people become more established in their lives, they are able to leverage more economic opportunity for themselves and their families). I asked my friend Adon where everyone was going - as it seemed strange to me to see so many people out and about on an early Sunday morning.

He told me that people were headed down the hill to the houses of the "more established" members of the Alto Cayma community. He told me that they were going to work in the morning hours - helping with cooking, cleaning, laundry; and then, in the evening they would track their way back up the long hill to perform all of the same chores in their own homes. I asked him if people ever get a chance to rest - he laughed and said "when we are dead."

And so goes the lives of people living in desperate poverty - each day is a set of challenges that many of us never have to consider. Each day can be filled with the challenging scenarios of how to get their basic needs met. Yet, in spite of this constant struggle - the people are vibrant with life.

Yes, poverty is all around - and yes, this poverty can (at times) seem a bit overwhelming. And, there is hope. The one thing we can never loose sight of in the work that we are doing is the hope. The hope that people all over the world share - that tomorrow will be "better" than today.

This week HBI will be helping to organize and facilitate a 3-day staff retreat in Alto Cayma. Our goal is simple - to help the Mission of Alto Cayma continue to bring hope to people living in extreme poverty. People with so much hope - that their optimism is infectious. People who have so much to teach us about the true blessings of life.

Alto Cayma Retreat

I am on my way back to Arequipa. The purpose of this trip is to facilitate a three-day planning session and staff retreat for the Mission of Alto Cayma. The retreat will focus on team building exercises and work to provide every employee of the Mission an opportunity to learn about the programs and projects of the various segments of the Mission.

The goal of the retreat is to unite all staff and employees of the Mission of Alto Cayma (MAC) into a team building event. Activities will include a discussion of the mission, vision and focus of the MAC, team building exercises, brainstorming session to discussion future projects and programs of MAC and an opportunity for staff and employees to provide their input and ideas on the current operational state of the Mission. We will discuss employee challenges and concerns and build ideas for the future direction of the Mission.

Days 2 and 3 of the retreat will be focused on the “Steering Committee” of the MAC and will work to develop a structured strategic plan for the Mission. Key members of the MAC staff will be invited to participate in this second day of the retreat and a structured agenda will be facilitated by the HBI retreat team. A strong focus of the second day of the retreat will be the development of 1, 3 and 5-year goals for the Mission. These goals will be developed with the ideas and input of the entire staff from day 1 of the retreat.

HBI is so fortunate to have Mr. Ken Kraybill as a co-facilitator for the events. Please check out the HBI BlogSpot for frequent updates over the next week.