Every year, Friends of the Children — Boston sets aside one week to look back at the year and realign on what's next.

We call it our Annual Friends-Boston Org Planning Week, and it starts with two questions: what worked, and what didn’t. Our Friends (professional mentors) stay with Achievers for 12+ years, no matter what. Keeping a promise that long means checking, at least once a year, that we’re all still pointed the same way.

The first three days are for planning. We start by setting the organization’s goals for the year. From those, our elementary and adolescent teams each set team goals. Then Friends break off to write an individual plan for each Achiever they mentor, because no two Achievers are alike, before coming back together to share them.

Sharing out is where our differences come into the room. Our team brings very different lived experiences, backgrounds, and ways of leading, and we don’t always see the same challenge the same way. We’ve learned that we shouldn’t.

Daniel DeLeón, our Chief of Staff, put it this way:

“Alignment does not require sameness. Our differences expand what we’re able to see."

On the final day, with the planning done, the whole staff headed to Pinnacle Leadership & Team Development for a retreat focused on teamwork, communication, and leadership. On the ropes course and high wire, each group agreed on a goal and assigned roles, much like they do at the office. The go-karts came with a deadline: build one in time, or don’t qualify to race. Even on the clock, someone had to lead, and everyone had to know the goal.

Last came the bottle rockets. Before launch, the team gathered and shared their intentions for the year out loud.

Then they sent the rockets up!

Pinnacle has been part of our work for almost 12 years, nearly the length of the commitment we make to every Achiever. Over that time, they’ve hosted staff retreats and visits with Achievers. Stacy Dell’Orfano, our Director of Development, explained why a day like this matters to a team like ours:

“We’re a bunch of problem solvers with our kids and sometimes we tend to jump right into things. And so it’s a good reminder of how what you do here also applies to what you’re doing at work.”

Thank you to Pinnacle Leadership & Team Development for opening your space to our staff and our Achievers, year after year.

The rockets came down. The lessons and the intentions came home with us, back to the plans we wrote for every Achiever in Roxbury and East Boston.