THE BIG CAREER STRETCH HOLIDAY

It’s a tougher-than-usual climate at work right now. And an epoch when we are bombarded with alarming news about the state of the world. But The Big Career Stretch was not born of doom. We’ve discovered through five years of Stretches in Spain, that able people can always find a professional ‘sweet spot’ — the project, organisation or role where they will flourish and their work makes them feel fully alive.

That’s why The Big Career Stretch was born. We agree with work psychologist Laurence Boldt that “to the extent that your work meets the needs of the world, it will be meaningful. To the extent that through it you use your talents, it will be joyful”.

If this makes sense to you, then you’ll welcome The Big Career Stretch. Amazingly, we’ve also discovered that people can normally reach that spot where personal values, passion and purpose intersect without huge financial compromise or 'starting at the bottom'.

Of course, The Big Career Stretch is deeply rejuvenating too – a week’s Spanish holiday in a place of stunning physical beauty, amongst interesting and refreshing people. You're mentally and physically stretched by day, but have every creature comfort by night.

"If you find your passions, you'll never do another day’s work." — Anonymous

HOW DOES THE BIG CAREER STRETCH WORK?

As soon as you’ve booked, the process begins. You receive some engaging, speedy preparation worksheets which help you review your career story with fresh eyes berfore you travel to Spain. Once there, you step right out of your current working environment… and into to a luxurious mountain hotel. For seven days you go walking in wild landscapes. Away from everyday assumptions, stretching your body in magnificent vistas, your outlook naturally starts to expand.

At the same time, high calibre coaches lead you through an incisive coaching journey.

We start each day with some yoga stretching. After breakfast, our coaches guide you to put your finger on your personal values and what's important to you. Clarifying which people and causes you’d most like to make a difference to is helpful if you want sustained interest and fulfillment on your new path.

No one tells you what to think – Career Stretch is a neutral space to get clarity and formulate your own direction.

You’ll map who you currently affect in the wider world. You explore how your talents, reputation and experience might influence matters that are important to you. Within this, you explore possible levels of involvement that are neither too abstract nor too detailed to engage you.

From here we help you frame questions about reaching the role where you’d be playing to your natural strengths. You might be starting an initiative in your current work, or moving job. You might need to bring others on board with you, if there's a higher or common purpose. Things that have been holding you back — from self belief to external circumstance —come into sharp focus . Your coaches enter fully into the details of your situation, and help you be creative where change promises to be hard.

Walking out in the mountains each afternoon, your mind incubates on the morning's thinking; exciting notions will resonate and grow. Untenable avenues become apparent. Disparate strands of your career situation come together, and whole new possibilities take shape. Our guide lays out delicious picnics on the hills.

At the end of each day you relax in your private jacuzzi - where insights often bubble up, unbidden. Dinner is at the best restaurants in the region.

During this productive week you’ll:

The Big Career Stretch programme will engage you at an emotional as well as an intellectual level. The coaches don't just challenge you around your big questions, but help you reach some very personal answers. They also make sure you become practical and specific, with a time-based plan of action that means you still provide comfort and security at home. You leave inspired and prepared to create a future rooted firmly in your values.

You have follow-on support once you’re back at your desk, and there’s the option to continue working at regular intervals with your coach or to call Stretch facilitators into your organisation and catalyse wider creative change.

"The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist" - William Blake

CHANGE MANAGEMENT, COACHING AND CREATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING COMBINED

The Big Career Stretch combines three powerful disciplines. Our process is not prescriptive, but open enough to allow you to create your own meaning which is authentic to you. Some parts are inspiring, and others challenging.

One element is values-based change. The exploratory exercises which we use here (and in business schools worldwide), spring from our philosophy that as individuals we don't find ourselves...we create ourselves and our circumstances . We also believe that this is best done from a healthy starting point: our values towards our ‘clan’, wider society and future generations.

We entwine this big-picture proactivity with life coaching, which helps people achieve balance and fulfilment, roundedly, in their personal and professional lives. The fastest-growing profession in the world, it embraces all the elements of life and some fundamental questions too. On The Big Career Stretch, we make it easy to access your personal truth by converting these huge questions into exercises and games.

Promising avenues are then made practical using creative problem solving. You re-frame old questions. You challenge old sticking points with lateral thinking. We organise a safe, creative session where others give you fresh ideas how to proceed. You convert wild but interesting ideas into workable, concrete, time-based plans.

With this approach, our clients have found they can go ahead and pursue success in ways they'd never thought possible before. Whether you’re spearheading a better way of working in your existing company, or researching a new field in which to apply your skills, The Big Career Stretch sets you up to make practical and positive use of your time, education, reputation, vision and influence.

The Big Career Stretch is a powerful experience. It takes a little bit of courage to sign up. Once you're on board it take a little more courage to go for your higher ambitions. However, The Big Career Stretch taps hidden reserves of creativity just when you need them. You've got nothing to lose but the work which doesn’t fulfil you and everything in life to gain.

"A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimension." — Oliver Wendell Holmes

There are also a couple of ways you can access the power of Big Career Stretch at home:

PATHFINDING AT REDUNDANCY

If you’re facing redundancy, ask your employer to fund you through the core pathfinding elements of The Big Career Stretch as a four-session coaching package.

THE BIG CAREER STRETCH AT HOME

Our coaches, and Rosie Walford, author of this process, can lead you through tailored elements of The Big Career Stretch process in a one-to-one coaching process at home. This may be particularly suitable for Career Shifters who are already underway in their project – e.g. you have already begun a freelance practice or cannot for some reason come to Spain.

WHAT THE PRESS SAY

We've had extraordinary praise from journalists who've brought their personal career and life issues to The Big Stretch. Read in-depth features in Psychologies, The Financial Times, Harpers and Queen,The Guardian and more by clicking here.

CASE HISTORIES

Jane — age 35; same job, new work

Jane was working in Packaging Design for a large supermarket. She was feeling uncomfortable at work, and came to Big Stretch wanting to leave. When she looked further into it, her discomfort was with the values of those around her — they cared so little about their production of so much plastic — while her personal passion was for the environment.

She realised that if she wanted to make a difference to the environment, she was already in a very influential position… so she decided to stay at work, but privately rename her role — from Head of Packaging to Head of NO Packaging.

Once this direction was clear, she used the creative exercises to flesh out the ‘how’. She went home armed with ideas to inspire and align her team at work, plans for overcoming resistance as she presented environmental concepts to the Board. Two years on, she and her employer have made great strides. A fulfilling career — and real change in the world.

Steven — age 42; stepping sideways into a new field

Steven was a management consultant. He’d gone straight from university to working in a big firm on government projects. He was well rewarded and intellectually stimulated by his work. He liked his cushy house and the national importance of his work. But he was restless, lacking in confidence, envious of others.

We quickly identified that Steven longed to see the world — and not from the luxury of a hotel room. He liked the idea of using his education and know-how in Africa, where he’d travelled many times. But he hadn’t pursued this thought, assuming he’d have to start at the bottom of a new career.

Exploring his situation, we realised his project management skills applied as much to aid programmes as UK clients — he had transferable skills! After an in-house placement on a development project with the UN, he applied for work with an international agency. Within a year, he was matching his original salary, still working on globally important matters, and enjoying his contribution much more.

WHAT CLIENTS SAY

"A week of exercises which helped me realise who i really am and what i'm capable of, pushing through the clutter to get to the point" — KL

"coaching gave me my answer...why and how to go on with work; the outdoors gave me time and space to let ideas settle." — IvV

"it's two years now since my Stretch and the transition is still unfolding. I've started my own business which uses my old PR skills to publicise subjects and brands i want the world to know about. It couldn't be more different, or more related, to what i was doing before with consumer electronics in a huge greedy firm". — MH

“Human happiness springs from individual creative expression and meaningful participation in the life of society.” — Aristotle