Dream Big. This was the theme for our most recent team off-site and I started the first session with the following quote.
“If you can dream it, you can do it.” – Walt Disney
We take time twice a year to get away from the office for a couple of days and focus on individuals and team rather than work. This year we traveled upstate for 2 days of fun, focus, strategy, and food. We talked about values, shared personal and professional goals, and brainstormed about goals for the year ahead for Studio MM. For fun we got our hands dirty in the workshop at TinkerBox and hiked through the woods, walking 3 of our current project sites. (When your projects are located in the Hudson Valley, site visits feel like play and not work!) Our 2 days were organized into individual and group sessions meant to build trust and respect, and encourage team spirit.
My hope is that my team is as excited as I am to come to work every day. My goal with these off-sites is to inspire each of my co-workers as much as they inspire me. We are a team of creative, smart, motivated, positive, and ambitious people; if I can create an environment in which we all thrive, the sky is the limit.
“The last 2 days have been some of the greatest inspiration for Studio MM since starting the firm: strategy, teamwork, values, process, problem-solving (what ditch??), encouragement, trust, support, excitement, fun…. I am extremely lucky to have such an amazing team of people around me who are as excited as I am about making Studio MM as awesome as we can be!! #proudarchitect #entrepreneur#StudioMMoffsite #2018goals” – my post on Instagram after our off-site.
To give you a very good example of the kind of team-building exercise we might do on one of these off-sites, I’m going to tell you a story… In a perfect how-to-react-in-a-stressful-situation / problem-solving / team-bonding scenario no one could dream up, I got my car stuck in a ditch on the way to one of our sites. (I believe I can share this with you because I am actually a good driver so this is not something that happens often – or will ever happen again! I blame all the snow…..) Stuck, as in 2 tires on one side of the car in a deep, snowy ditch. We brainstormed, tried a few strategies, and nothing was working. I should mention that the road was also on a slope – then, no kidding, I unintentionally maneuvered the car to get both front tires in the ditch? Not helpful either. My team dug around the tires, 2 sat in the back to add weight (in a last ditch effort 😉 ) and one stood outside directing turns and yelling at the car. ….Well, we did it! Nothing like support, encouragement, motivation and positivity to get you through a difficult situation!
Though I’ll have to think up a less stressful team-building exercise for our next off-site, I am looking forward to it! 🙂
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