Retreat to advance…

Yep, I’m off to cool my heels for a few days at the local monastery.

Contemplative author, Margaret Silf, is leading a retreat around the theme of “transformation.” It seems to sync with some of my daydreaming of late, particularly following discussions on committees and commissions that, confronted with the need for change, are tempted to tinker around the edges – or even change their nomenclature.

Hence committees become “action groups”, convenors become “team leaders” and so it goes… but the same old structures and methods remain.

Organisational behaviour seems to be going through a time of angst that reflects the mood of our times. There is a yearning for change that will unleash life, creativity and compassion – real community – but a fear that that too much is risked if we abandon familiar ways and stances, even though they crumble.

So it does one good to retreat  –  stand on a hill and survey the whole battlefield, identify purposeful objectives – then advance.