Why two days together at CEO CF are worth the journey

Two days away from the business is a meaningful commitment. There is travel to arrange, a diary to clear and a team that still needs decisions. If you are going to make that space, it should serve a clear purpose.

At CEO CF, the purpose is to give important questions sustained attention with people who understand the responsibility of leadership. The structured sessions matter. So do the conversations that continue over a break, at dinner or the following morning.

A two-day meeting gives those exchanges room to develop. The programme and travel arrangements vary by summit, so the commitment should always be considered against the published schedule.

Make attention an appointment

A difficult question can remain unresolved for weeks because it never receives an uninterrupted hour. You think about it between calls, respond to the latest symptom and promise yourself you will step back when things become quieter.

Preparing to meet your peers creates a different commitment. You choose the issue, organise the evidence and make time to work on it. In a Challenge, the group is there to understand that question and help you examine it.

Being physically present does not guarantee attention. What matters is arriving prepared, participating fully and giving other leaders the concentration you would want from them.

A conversation can continue after the session ends

An insight does not always arrive at the moment allocated to it. You may need time to consider a question, remember a relevant experience or recognise why a recommendation troubled you.

Meeting together allows a conversation to resume naturally. A peer might ask during a break whether a point was useful. You may return the next morning with a clearer way to describe the problem.

Those informal exchanges also help people get to know one another. A shared meal gives you more context about a person than their company description. That familiarity can make it easier to ask for help when the subject becomes difficult.

There is work for each of us here: speak with someone beyond the people you already know, make room for a quieter member and take an interest in their experience.

Use the medium that suits the work

Research offers a useful distinction. Brucks and Levav’s experiments found that pairs communicating by video generated fewer creative ideas than pairs meeting in person. They did not find that video groups were less effective at selecting an idea.

The finding concerns specific tasks, not every business meeting. It supports thinking carefully about the work: opening up possibilities may benefit from different conditions than reviewing an agreed action.

Digital meetings remain useful for continuity, access and follow-up. Our core peer groups meet in person three times a year, with members staying connected between meetings. The physical and digital parts serve a continuing relationship.

Balcony time gives you a wider view

Part of the value of leaving the office is the chance to look back at it. Balcony time means stepping far enough from day-to-day activity to notice patterns, including your own role in them.

The metaphor is associated with Ronald Heifetz’s work on leadership, as described in this Harvard Business Publishing brief. It is a way to think about perspective, rather than a measured benefit of travelling to a summit.

Consider an illustrative example. A CEO sees a growing queue of decisions and concludes that the management team needs to move faster. A conversation with peers raises another possibility: every decision still requires the CEO’s permission.

From within the queue, the task is to process it. From a little further away, the question is why the queue exists. That change of view can alter what you choose to do when you return.

Energy is part of being able to lead

Being understood can make a difficult responsibility feel more manageable. So can finding a useful next step, hearing that another experienced leader has faced a similar situation or realising that your own experience has helped someone else.

These are reasons to value the human side of the meeting. Renewed energy may come from clarity, encouragement, a fresh possibility or simply the reminder that leadership need not be carried in isolation.

We see that as a benefit to seek and discuss, rather than a guaranteed wellbeing or productivity result. The practical question is what the leader feels ready to tackle afterwards.

Give the journey a useful return

Before you attend, identify a question worth the group’s attention. During the meeting, contribute to other people’s thinking as seriously as your own. Afterwards, give your chosen action a place in the diary and return to what you learned.

Travel costs, accessibility, caring responsibilities and time all matter when deciding whether this form of membership fits. Our team can explain the programme and practical arrangements so that you can make an informed decision.

Speak with us about an upcoming meeting. We can explore whether the community, the group and the commitment are right for you.