2023 Team Retreat: Thinking Outside the Box by the Lakeshore

This May, our team took to the skies and open road to gather together for another Annual Team Retreat. We spent the week at the beautiful GENEVA Camp & Retreat Center on the pristine shores of Lake Michigan in Holland. We happened to be there during Tulip Time, the “Best Small Town Festival in America” and got to experience some wooden shoes, lovely Spring tulips, and (of course) local beer. As a remote team spread across three different states, this time together in person is incredibly valuable and deeply cherished amongst the crew. This year, our new dad, Aaron, Zoomed in from Buffalo so he could stay home with his new baby girl, but we were able to keep him engaged in many of our fun and enriching activities from afar.

What we accomplished

While we had plenty of fun, we did some work, too! A couple of really meaningful parts of the retreat were the Enneagram Workshop with Katie TeBrake and the Design Thinking workshop led by our very own Sara Walker. 

Diving into the Enneagram as a team allows each of us to grow in our understanding of ourselves and discover how we can support and better understand each other. This work is especially valuable in strengthening our team and how we communicate. 

The Design Thinking workshop opened up a conversation about how we can set and subscribe to standards for the output of our work as a team rather than putting too much focus on simply following a process. While the process is important, it can often overshadow the true intent of the work itself. By shaping our standards, we’re able to ensure we are serving the bigger picture, our purpose.

How we gave back to the community

We spent a fun and rewarding afternoon volunteering at Kids Food Basket, a local West Michigan organization that provides sack suppers to children experiencing food insecurity.

Most importantly…the fun we had

We also learned which team members are hyper-competitive and which team members have secret skills!

We had a high-energy game room tournament, cycling through foosball, air hockey, and ping pong, and ending with a sudden death round of lightning on the basketball court.

Then we sprinted (literally) around the camp finding hidden QR codes in a scavenger hunt.

Our team left this year’s retreat energized and excited for the future! We’re already dreaming of what next year’s retreat will look like, and all the opportunities coming down the pipe that we’ll be able to celebrate!