Team Hang 2018
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Last week we had our annual Team Hang™.
This year we returned to where the first one was - Palm Beach. I love how it’s close to Sydney but you feel like you’re somewhere else entirely. And I get to sneak out for early morning surfs. 😉
I haven’t found many blogs about team offsites so wanted to share a small part of what we’ve learned after running 5 of these.
It’s worth mentioning that I didn’t do much of the organising - that was Kat and she did an amazing job. Thanks Kat!
AUTORESPONDERS ARE GOThere’s always going to be work to do, but this time comes up once a year and it’s precious.
I had to clearly communicate to the team that it’s okay to let your autoresponder do the work for a few days. There was a phone number clients could call and there were time we needed to pop out and send an email or two. But ultimately we had some nice focus - the kind where you totally lose track of time.
It definitely helped that the fancy house we rented had terrible phone reception and spotty Wi-Fi.
COOKING AS A TEAM, FOR YOUR TEAM
We’re a bunch of food nerds here at Lookahead. Every year we randomly assign people with a partner and a meal to cook for the whole team.
This year I paired up with Fi for Thursday’s dinner. This year we had amazingly elaborate Vietnamese food (that took me hours as a sous chef)
It’s always been a huge hit. Every meal is so different but they’re all amazing. There’s something about breaking bread that really brings a team together. There’s something about creating together that makes it even better.
TOO MUCH VS NOT ENOUGH STUFF
Last year we didn’t have enough stuff. I wanted the team to enjoy chill time with their workmates but chill time just became work time (albeit in an idyllic location).
This year we added more to the schedule, including fun stuff. Balancing work vs fun is tough but this year’s structure worked really well.
EVERYONE LEADS A SESSION
I kicked things off with a short + relaxed talk at the start about Lookahead’s past, present and future. Once that was done I was a participant like everybody else. That’s how it works day-to-day so it made sense for Team Hang to run that way too.
It’s great to see other people lead sessions in their own style. We have an agile coach on the team as well as an educational designer, so they run a session better than I do anyway. :)
ITINERARY:
DAY 1 - WEDNESDAY
09:00 - Do some emails, put on your autoresponder.
10:15 - Convoy to Palm Beach!
12:00 - Steve talks about Lookahead’s past, present and future.
13:30 - Jonah’s for a long lunch.
19:30 - Relaxing Dinner at the house.
DAY 2 - THURSDAY
09:00 - 11:00 - Rather rotund retrospective.
11:30 - 12:15 - Mindfulness training with Sarah Nguyen.
13:30 - Lunch by JP & Sox.
15:00 - 17:00 - Session: How we could do things differently.
19:30 - Dinner by Fiona & Steve.
DAY 3 - FRIDAY
10:00 -11:00 - Brownbag about feedback.
12:30 - Lunch by Hannah & Debbie.
14:00 - Fiona talks about Ignite for Women.
15:00 - Beach cricket, bocce and bubbles.
17:30 - Team Hang is done! We have a Saturday checkout so stay back and enjoy the view for one more night, if you like. :)
