The practice of retreats used by companies’ leadership is generally done by conducting meetings, for a short period, at places away from its normal places of work. The goal of such a practice is to brainstorm by company leadership on issues, such as, strategic planning, find ways to motivate and reenergizes employees, develop methods of effective communication between organization’s rank and file, etc.
The practice of retreats used by companies’ leadership is generally done by conducting meetings, for a short period, at places away from its normal places of work. The goal of such a practice is to brainstorm by company leadership on issues, such as, strategic planning, find ways to motivate and reenergizes employees, develop methods of effective communication between organization’s rank and file, etc. Existence of such practice can be traced back to about a 2,400 years’ example of “The Sermon on the Mountain” where Jesus taught his disciples on ways to becoming a good person. This is presented in my book, Prophets: Their Lives and Times. This is summarized below.
Jesus traveled all over Galilee and taught in synagogues, which were his normal places of giving sermons. As he preached, many people with issues came to him with great faith; he healed them. As the news of his good work spread around, many people, from different areas, came to hear his sermons. Unlike many priests, Jesus used the language of common man so his message could reach the ordinary man. This resulted in large crowds following Jesus. Now was the time for Jesus to have an organization with clearly specified teachings to be communicated by his disciples to congregations at different places at different times. To achieve this goal Jesus went up a hill, spent time in meditating, and brainstorming on various strategies of effective communications. He then began giving sermons to his disciples in front of a large crowd. This was a kind of Retread for Jesus and his disciples. Some of the key points of his teachings were as follows:
- Happiness: Jesus said that true happiness is attained by those who are humble, are merciful to others, work for peace, and are pure in heart.
- Anger Control: Get rid of your anger, “Do not Commit murder”, and “make peace with your brother”.
- Do not commit adultery.
- Charity: “Those who have been blessed with wealth should give something to needy people” and “do not make a big show of it.”
- Judging others: “If you want to be a good person in God’s eyes Do not judge others.”
In addition, Jesus offered many other teachings in his sermon.
Jesus’ ways of motivating his disciples and energizing them resulted their doing good work among the common people. They were impressed with his teachings resulting in increasing his number of followers rapidly. All this was the result of Jesus’ effectively organizing his followers in a retreat where he brain stormed with key followers, and came up with strategies to effectively communicate with a common person. Overall, I would say that “The Sermon On The Mountain: Jesus Teaches” was the first known example of conducting a Retreat by Jesus about 2,400 years ago.