Planning retreat for R&D project

The author tried a new approach in R&D planning. A ceramics research group went on a two-day retreat for the purpose of planning the implementation of an R&D program. Everyone in the group was involved and the group leader led the retreat. The process consisted of: prework; identifying the technical problems; defining experiments; and cutting the research back to achievable proportions. The plan which was derived by the group was superior to the preexisting plan. More importantly, the new plan belongs to those people who are actually doing the research work.