I’m writing this on the day that, in Tennessee, we all fell back. Daylight savings time ended at 2:00 a.m. this morning. 

I was sure grateful for the extra hour of sleep. The Tennessee/Kentucky football game and an untimely (is there ever a good time?) water heater leak kept me up way past my bedtime. 

Normally I don’t like backing up, personally or organizationally. At least one great leader, Abraham Lincoln, had a similar sentiment as he said, “I may be a slow walker, but I never walk back.” And, did you know that airplanes don’t have a reverse gear? They have to have help to back up, and most often, only to back out of the gate. 

There are some rare occasions when a retreat is in order. 

Retreat is in order when things are headed down the wrong road. Too often, though, we want to invest a little more time, investment and people resources. We don’t want to lose the progress and investment we have made. Truth is, the farther we go down a wrong road, the more time and expense are involved to get back. It’s hard to do, but cutting losses and retreating sooner rather than later is the best call. 

Retreat can be helpful when more time is needed to get everyone moving together. It can give time to create more urgency. It gives more chance for education, discussion and feedback. A retreat can actually, in this case, speed up momentum toward the goal. Finally, external circumstances can make retreat the right choice. The COVID epidemic is an example where external circumstances dictated some temporary, and some permanent, retreats. 

So, sometimes, falling back can be a useful tool as we L.E.A.D.! Do you have other times when a retreat, or at least a temporary one, can be helpful to organizations? I’d like to hear that story!