Nanette Cuccia is a partner in the New York office of Management Practice Inc., which acts as a facilitator of the strategic planning process. MPI also conducts strategic retreats where top level executives can pursue strategic thinking and team-building.

The work environment is a hectic one in which fires are constantly being extinguished. It is difficult to remove oneself from the daily routine in order to envision the future and the strategic moves that would guarantee ones future position in the market.

For this reason, strategic retreats have become popular ways to remove key executives from the daily operations and immerse them in strategic thinking. In this manner, they are free to "Imagine The Possibilities" of how each executive can contribute to the strategic vision of the company. The strategic planning process is vital to a company's long-term success. Participation of all key executives is important for their "buying into" the corporate vision. They are the ones who will be initiating policies, allocating resources and balancing risk. They must envision what the future will hold for the industry and competition.

Team-building is another key element of the strategic retreat. Team-building exercises/games enhance the working relationship of the team, build ties between members and bring out members' strengths and weaknesses. They strengthen the bond that is needed for executives to work together and understand each others’ needs.

Management Practice facilitates strategic retreats. We work with top management to understand the strategic goals of the meeting. We then develop methods whereby each executive is personally involved in the strategic thinking process. For example, we have used a procedure that involves presentations made by each executive, who thinks through their contribution to a particular strategy and makes a coherent case to the group for the action they would like to take. Their peers participate by reacting, asking questions and assessing the reasonableness of the proposal. It ends up being an interactive, team-building exercise. Management Practice also uses a number of team-building exercises which emphasize the interdependence of each team member. These exercises are often used as ice-breakers in a strategic retreat to get the communication process started.