Day 17 of travel – Day 1 of retreat

Buckland House in North Devon, where I am facilitating a client retreat this week. Clients from Canada, Scotland and England all made it here in time for dinner on Sunday evening and a general “get to know”, then after a good night’s sleep in this palatial house, we all congregated for our first day. The house is simply magnificent – and we have it all to ourselves as well as 280 acres of grassland and woods, a boating lake, an outdoor swimming pool and an in-house cook for 3 meals a day (diets are on stand-by). It is truly an environment to facilitate thinking and planning – the site has been used as a home since the Norman Conquest and the current structure was largely built in 1810 after a great fire destroyed the previous manor house – so we are in Regency architecture at it’s finest.

This morning began with a general introduction of each client’s business background and then a lecture from yours truly on what the retreat is about – followed by some work on the Clean Sweep 100 and Tolerations. But this isn’t about speeches from Chris Barrow – so the bulk of the day has been spent in separate private conversations with each couple – helping them to formulate a 3-year vision that will be shared after dinner this evening.

They have been working hard today (and will do so for the next 4 days) – so as wonderful smells begin to drift down the hall from the kitchen (where Carmen, our cook, is hard at work) – I’m letting everyone take a break before dinner. I intend to throw my running gear on and take a jog down past the lake and into the woods. I’ll share some more pictures tomorrow.