Manager's Retreat 2023: Self-Awareness and Personal Development

Organisational life carries many physical and mental demands and effective leaders are people who maintain a focus on lifelong learning and development. The Manager's Retreat extends Henley Business School's famous personal development and is designed for MBA alumni who have completed the Personal Development module. The programme will consist of self-discovery and awareness and plenty of space to stop and think.

The goal of the Manager's Retreat is for you to understand who you are. It is a renewal and boost of your personal development across two reflective days, with everyone granted their own space to reflect, think, work or write in the company of fellow alumni. You own what you find, including new ways of understanding yourself, changes in how you see your past and future, decision points and clarity in matters of importance to you. Participants are encouraged to bring a dynamic curiosity.

Over the course of the retreat you will meet, network and learn from fellow travellers with experience and knowledge that can enlighten you. Informed by our systemic approach, the three key themes for the retreat are sense-making, meaning-making and health and wellbeing.

As the Manager's Retreat is residential, the campus itself is a vital and revitalising element of the retreat that facilitates restoring the flow of organisational health and finding meaningful paths to resolve complex challenges. You have the opportunity to retune into the reflective environment at Greenlands and its 75+ years of history dedicated to personal development, as well as browsing the library of relevant books provided. You will be encouraged to bring a book of your own that has inspired or helped you and contribute to the temporary bookshelf.

The retreat is led by Dr Chris Dalton, Associate Professor of Management Learning and Personal Development module convener at Henley Business School. Chris is joined by the Personal Development MBA tutor team of Dr Tatiana Rowson and Dr Kelly Sloan, along with Kirstie Papworth, who will be exploring compassion in organisational and personal growth and development.

There is no required preparation or pre-work for the retreat - just bring an open mind and perhaps reflect on any aspect of your work, career or personal development you have identified as a current issue, question or puzzle. Participants are all asked to abide by confidentiality at the start.

The registration fee for this retreat is £800. Fees cover all sessions and facilitation, use of the Greenlands campus facilities, all meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with refreshments in between) and overnight accommodation in the Greenlands campus hotel on 17 March 2023.

Accommodation and dinner can also be provided for the night of 16 March 2023, subject to room availability and on a first-come-first-served basis. You can request this at the time you submit your booking.

There is a maximum of 16 spaces available for the Manager's Retreat, with a waiting list for anyone wishing to book if spaces are already filled. Signups to attend the Manager's Retreat are now full, so anyone that has not already registered will need to email Alex Baker on a.j.baker@henley.ac.uk to request to be added to the waiting list in case of cancellations. For anyone missing out on March, we will announce further retreats from autumn 2023 onward.

An agenda will be announced in the future to all registered attendees. For further information about the Manager's Retreat, contact Dr Chris Dalton on chris.dalton@henley.ac.uk

See below some quotes from former Manager's Retreat participants:

"The identification and removal of those restraints that limit the likelihood of sustainable individual, organisational, social and environmental health and wellbeing."

"My most memorable and impactful MBA experience. A rare timeless creative space. Filled with bravery, facing fears. Safe and challenging, uniquely inspiring and timeless. 'Thank you' is utterly inadequate as a response."

"Before attending the retreat I did not have an idea what to expect - just another Personal Development class perhaps? However, this retreat was a welcome shakedown from the daily routines and stresses created by dealings with work, family life and the looming Management Research Challenge work. The retreat offered a step back from the daily routines to a state of awareness and self-discovery. To me, the retreat gave a sort of 'helicopter view' of my present situation and an opportunity to evaluate and even critique my priorities. In addition, it helped me to raise questions - what do I really value and am I living by those values or by somebody else's values? Some of the exercises, especially around the theme of compassion, were powerful, emotional and eye-opening."

"The Manager's Retreat was a great place to learn about oneself. At a time when I was so busy with life and unable to take even pause, the Retreat helped me pause and rethink my priorities, my approach to addressing them and at the same time learn new skills that will help me as an individual and a leader. Chris has created a unique combination of topics, sessions and activities that let us each identify and let go of the things that are dragging us down. He used the unique environment and facilities available at the Greenlands campus to create a true retreat for managers, a retreat from which I came away ready to face my life armed with a better insight of myself, a few more soft skills that I need and friends that I trust."