We recently worked with a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization to help them kick off their new year with a day-long retreat. We worked closely with the leadership and organization’s team to refine the purpose and goals of the retreat, develop the agenda, and facilitate the session. Together, we determined that the goals of the retreat were to work on communications challenges relating to providing and receiving feedback, spending some time getting to know each other, and talking about 2023 goals.

To achieve these goal, we designed a variety of activities, both in breakouts and as a whole group together. These activities included a hypothetical scenarios discussion where team members shared how they would handle different thorny situations that resemble actual dilemmas they have faced, a discussion of every member of the team’s “16 personalities” type and how this affects team dynamics, two ice-breakers, and a review of the year’s goals. To ensure the retreat met the team’s priorities, we asked everyone on the team to complete a brief survey beforehand.

It was truly inspiring to see the team connect on a deeper level and gain a better understanding of each other’s personalities and priorities. By the end of the retreat, the team had learned new approaches to effective communication and were excited to implement them to work more cohesively as a team.