Small- and medium-sized businesses often run micro retreats that compress strategic planning into a day or less. Too often, these retreats are poorly executed: there has been little preparation and the decision-making process is opaque. Alternatively, a successful micro retreat depends upon four key factors: a lean strategic planning process, preliminary research and detailed preparation, dynamic group process and skilled decision support, and strong, consensus agreement to act. This post uses a case study from the credit union sector to illustrate each of these factors and demonstrate how to run an effective strategic planning micro retreat.