REI’s Strategic Thinker’s Forum Helps REI Move Toward a More Focused Corporate Identity, With More Work Yet to Come!

Question: When you put a lot of gifted and experienced people in the same room for nearly three days straight, what comes out at the end?

Answer: A lot of great ideas!

That is what happened on December 1-3, 2010, at REI’s Strategic Thinker’s Forum. REI’s President and CEO, Roderick Beidler, called together twenty “strategic” REI and non-REI staff to discuss and think through the identity of Resource Exchange International.

Over the course of three days, REI staff and friends ate together; shared stories of their work abroad; listened to presentations on the history, current state of REI, and the values and goals that have made REI distinct since its inception; reflected on all they were learning and their role within REI; and discussed in small groups the direction REI should go in the future. Taking into account REI’s past and present, they began the essential first step in re-visioning REI.

During the next few months, REI leaders and staff will re-clarify REI’s mission, vision, values, and philosophy of humanitarian service. After 20 years of effective development work and relationship-building in the 21 nations where we’ve served, REI leaders and staff have begun to address these fundamental questions once again.

We are asking questions like what are REI’s values? What makes REI distinct as an organization? Who should REI serve? What sort of work should REI’s staff do around the world? And how should REI do that work?

REI leaders also anticipate that REI’s upcoming Global Staff Forum, set to be held on July 5-8 of 2011, will also play a role in clarifying REI’s identity and future focus.

Needless to say, this is a very important period in REI’s history. Much of REI’s future is dependent on the discussions of December 1-3 and the conversations that are yet to be had in the coming months.

While REI is aware that its mission and vision are in a state of healthy upheaval, we have no doubt that we will land and will be stronger for having gone through this process. Every so often, it is necessary for organizations, as well as individuals, to reexamine who they are, what they believe, and what they are working toward.

Much growth and change will be happening within REI in the next few months. While necessary and stimulating, it may also be a demanding time of self-examination for REI staff as they consider their future in a changing organizational culture.

We’ll be excited to share the results of our discussions with you in the coming months!