Getting To Know You…

“I’m a great Italian cook.”

“I swim across rivers.”

“After dropping out of college, I went back and got two master’s degrees.”

“I lived in the bush in Africa for a year.”

So began a board-staff retreat we led last weekend – with similar reports the week before, and the week before that.

It’s the summer…time for retreats. And time for slowing down, enough to get to know your fellow nonprofit travelers – as people.

The prompt? A standard: “Tell us something personal that no-one in this room knows about you. Something you’re proud of.”

The result? A roomful of people who appreciate each other a little more, who have a little more respect for the out-of-the-box individual before them.

Sure, we’re all here to further the mission. And we all bring professional strengths to the table – comfort with finances, an understanding of risk, instinct for what makes a good story, a group of friends who show up when we ask. But we’re also in it for the juice…the ease, comfort and interest we get from each other’s company.

Boards of Directors work well when people are glad to see each other, when the pleasure and respect is mutual and helps tide the group over the terrain when times are tough.

Well times are certainly tough enough, now-a-days.

The personal…is the professional…is what helps us stick around.