Each year, Kahler Slater closes the doors of our offices and hosts a one day retreat.  During this one day of fat markers, big sheets of blank paper and no cell phones, our entire firm comes together to learn, discuss and laugh until we cry.  That is the goal anyway.  While “expensive” in terms of time away from our clients, room rental and catering costs, the benefits of hosting an annual retreat far outweigh the once-a-year costs.

What are those benefits?
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I was privileged to be asked to write for  BNET, the CBS Interactive Business Network, an amazing resource for actionable intelligence for corporate managers and small business owners. The amount of well-written, thought-provoking content on the site is amazing.

My post is a riff on an idea I’ve been writing a lot about lately—passion. Our firm is based upon it. And I believe that it is essential to creativity and productivity, which adds up to business success.
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Last summer I was invited to attend the American Society for Quality World Conference in St. Louis where I facilitated a workshop with senior quality executives.  I also had a chance to hear Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford, give the keynote address, and I have to tell you, I think this is the guy who may be bringing authenticity back to Ford.
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When we published our book Better Make it Real: Creating Authenticity in an Increasingly Fake World last year, our publicist, the fabulous Patti Danos, worked hard to distill 163 pages into some key takeaways on which the media could nibble.  Lucky for us, the media bit and we got some great press attention. But as a bonus, one of her pitches, Testing Your True Readiness to Embrace Total Experience Design, has become a handy little nine point overview of what expressing organizational authenticity in your workplace requires.  I thought I’d write a little today about one of them.
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In the new book, The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, the author, Carmine Gallo, attributes Jobs’ success to eight pretty straightforward principles, the first one being “Do What You Love.”  Gallo writes about how Jobs believes it’s a pretty tough thing to consistently come up with innovative and creative ideas that break new ground if you’re not seriously passionate about what you’re doing.  I’d concur.  At Kahler Slater, one of the questions we ask every potential staff member is:  What are you passionate about?  And if there isn’t some corollary between that person’s stated passion and the work we’re doing, then odds are they won’t get a job offer from us.  Being creative and innovative day in and day out is tough enough if you don’t have the staying power that passion brings.
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