If only you still had the luxury. The reality is that such a protracted time away from the desk simply isn't an option for today's executive. Yes, you need to solve those business issues - but you also need to address the myriad other tasks that form part of your to-do list.
It's because of this 'time poverty' that quick, impactful interventions are gaining favour worldwide. Dr Leandro Herrero, a world-renowned organisational architect, author and speaker has dubbed these interventions "accelerators", and describes them as "unconventional management alternatives that, if spread, can completely transform the way the organisation works without the need for a massive change management programme."
The power of these accelerators lies in their ability to address strategy, leadership, management alignment and innovation in a manner that results in rapid team learning, so that new ideas can be implemented with immediate effect.
This is done by helping leaders get past established ways of thinking; in effect, rebooting them. As Herrero points out, everyone - no matter how visionary or successful - eventually falls prey to 'functional fixedness'. This can be likened to getting stuck in a thinking rut; because certain strategies have worked for you before, it's easy to revert to them time and again, without experimenting with new approaches. It's easy to see how this can negatively impact one person's thinking.
Now, imagine what happens when all members of the team are experiencing the same stumbling block. Staleness is bound to ensue; and the situation only becomes more complex if you consider that, often, members of an organisation are reluctant to speak out with fresh ideas for fear of offending others.
The way to overcome this, according to Herrero, is to help leaders reframe their thinking, so that they are better able to concisely articulate their objectives, and define the small goals they need to achieve in order to attain their overarching ones.
One of the most important qualities leaders need to cultivate in order to reach this point is innovation. Indeed, nurturing a culture of innovation has become one of the key challenges facing today's organisations - and one of the most difficult. But it's certainly not impossible, says Herrero, who again suggests reframing viewpoints in a manner that disrupts the established status quo. The idea is that this is done incrementally. After all, you can experience a major difference in your life by doing just one thing differently every day - so imagine the power of several individuals each making one small adjustment to the way they operate.
Your organisation may not need a complete overhaul, after all. Instead, a new focus may be all that is needed to give your members the boost to take the company forward - and a few hours are all you need.
Herrero's ideas have been packaged into accessible one-day courses called The Reboot! Accelerator (an intensive intervention that shakes up organisational thinking, enabling leaders to change the status quo) and Disruptive Ideas, a brief innovation exercise that immerses leaders in management innovation.
