Retreat (n.) - A physical or virtual gathering where teams connect as humans
Book a callI left the retreat feeling grateful and excited about future collaborations with the incredible leaders around me. I highly recommend the folks over at PeopleStorming. The sessions were great and they kept us engaged the entire time - which is no easy feat.
Thusha A. - Director of Engineering - Aurora Solar
A worthwhile offsite or retreat is a gathering where your team takes a collective breath and spends time together thinking about topics that are usually suppressed by the busyness of their day-to-day routine.
For most teams, the opportunities for these gatherings are rare so it's vital that they are well-thought-out and a great experience for all participants.
Unfortunately, offsites and retreats typically go one of two routes. They are...
You want to avoid both of these extremes by striking the right balance. That involves wearing a lot of hats. In addition to your already-packed set of responsibilities, you'll need to become an expert...
Our approach differs from the norm. We focus on deeply understanding the goals for your retreat and designing a blend of content and activities that will help the team feel connected both to each other and their mission. We do this whilst also achieving agreed-upon business goals in a genuinely engaging way.
We believe it's critical to know your goals for the event inside-out before you write one word of an agenda, so we've developed a streamlined process using human-centered design. The result of this process is a retreat that's memorable for all the right reasons.
We'll be your end-to-end experience designers. We'll take ownership of delivering a positive experience for your team, from the very first communication through to the event itself and beyond with evaluation and follow-ups.
Whatever you need, we've got the facilitation skills and industry experience to deliver it with a playful touch that gets everyone involved and connected.
We'll work with you to create a successful event by...
To go a little deeper, listen to one of our co-founders being interviewed on a facilitation podcast about a wild virtual retreat we designed and hosted...
There are a myriad of topics and themes to consider for your retreat. Below is a selection we've supported for a variety of clients. Ultimately, there is no right or wrong choice - it's all about understanding what's needed.
If a team or company retreat is on the horizon (even if it's just the seed of an idea), get in touch with us to talk through your ideas, vision and questions. We nerd-out on this subject and it's our pleasure to help you shape your thinking.
When scheduling a call, please bear in mind that we ask for 8-16 weeks lead time for designing and delivering an event (depending on its complexity).
Our retreat was an amazing way to slow down from the day to day work and spend quality time with the team. We were able to connect, understand each-others backgrounds and way of thinking. We greatly enhanced the depth of our connection with the team.
Thanks to all the great exercises you created and facilitated, we walked away from the retreat with a common vocabulary and better awareness of how each of us thinks. This will equip the team with a frame of reference when working and communicating with each other.
Dima P. - VP, Operations - Machina Labs
The retreat was excellent - we had some great workshops. In between the deep dive sessions, we had breaks and activities to strengthen our relationships with each other.
As a new member to this team, I left the retreat feeling grateful and excited about future collaborations with the incredible leaders here.
I highly recommend the folks over at PeopleStorming, the sessions were great and they kept us engaged the entire time, which is no easy feat.
Thusha A. - Director of Engineering - Aurora Solar
The retreat strengthened how people feel about the agency, so that was really helpful. It would have been easy for us to say "you know what - this year we're just not going to do the retreat - it's not feasible" and that would have been understandable. The fact that we did invest in it and that it was something that people really enjoyed - there's a lot of value in that because we want to retain amazing people and the retreat certainly was a big step along that path.
The facilitators had a super positive attitude, that was awesome. It wouldn't have been half as good without that. The energy that you brought to the table was infectious and I think that was really important especially in a virtual retreat where you know you're not getting together.
To have you be excited, play amazing music and get the right energy was something that we thought made the retreat what it was - really special.
Jason M. - CEO & Co-founder - Movement Strategy
We chose to work with PeopleStorming because you emphasized that the retreat should be about a blend of culture, values and business goals. When I was shopping around I didn't really hear anyone talk about that. Others were very much focused on having fun and games and only that kind of stuff.
Usually, as Director of HR, I'm planning everything so it was a good feeling to have somebody else take over in a way that I could trust. It was like you were a part of the agency. It was just seamless. You were so responsive.
You literally took our culture and soaked it up and then spat it back out with how you communicated to us and designed and created everything!
With the retreat itself, I was blown away. It exceeded my expectations by far. As a company, we gained skills, we gained insights and you enabled the team to share ideas for the future of the agency.
We would definitely hire PeopleStorming again and recommend you to any company as great partners.
Colette G. - HR Director - Movement Strategy
