Corporate Retreats in Nature

Team retreats are a growing trend in the corporate world.

We all get caught up in the daily grind of business-as-usual and so the critical business planning, high-performance team building, and creative thinking take a backseat. While retreats are not a band-aid for poor performing teams and culture, they can provide incredible benefits to team morale and innovative thinking.

Our modern “me culture” where everyone is out for themselves can permeate the business culture, creating distrust and a lack of true collaboration and innovation. According to a 2017 research study by University of New Hampshire professor Paul Harvey, he concluded that me-centric workers:

Are more likely to get into workplace conflicts
Have problems accepting negative feedback
Are less likely to enjoy their job
Have unrealistic expectations
Are more likely to put blame on others if something doesn’t go right
Are more likely to take credit for something they haven’t done

If we want to shift our business culture from a “me” to a “we” culture, we need to demonstrate the benefits to individuals of the power of teams. Where teams are effectively organised and led, the outcomes include significant improvements in productivity, process management, innovation, self-responsibility, cost efficiencies, job satisfaction, morale and financial performance.

So how can corporate retreats help build strong teams?

The power of an offsite: Simply by changing the environment can have dramatic impacts on what can be achieved. The workplace can often be a stressful, disjointed place where we all politely pass each other in the corridors but never truly build trusting, healthy teams where we acknowledge each others’ strengths and together achieve great things.
Improve company morale: If we want high performing teams rather than workers who simply turn up each day and complete set tasks, we need a culture of trust and value. Staff now expect more than a salary, they want to find purpose in their work. They want to feel they contribute to something bigger than themselves. By creating incentives such as offsite retreats, staff can be more motivated to do their best work.
Time to reflect: The busyness of work-life can mean that carving out time to simply think and dream is rare. Retreats allow for vision casting, goal setting, innovative brainstorming and reflective self and organisational SWOT analysis.
Connecting people: if we truly want to move to a “we” culture where people are connected and powerful teamwork results, we need to deliberately create time for this to occur. It is often at the evening dinner table or on the tennis court, where insights are gained about each other and deeper connections happen. Don’t underestimate the power of a meal and the community that it can create.

So if you are looking to create deeper connections, carve out time for reflection, improve staff morale and build more trusting, healthy teams in your business, then a Noonaweena Corporate Retreat may be just what you need.

We can create a bespoke package to suit your team’s needs, everything from catering styles to overnight accommodation choices, to team building activities to conference room set-ups.

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