Why team events are even more important in 2023

The nature of work has changed, and it’s not returning to the ‘normal’ we may have experienced before. With remote and hybrid workforces and geographically disparate teams being a normal way of working, the rules for team culture can feel like they’ve changed. However, connection and cohesion amongst your team are still extremely important, and making a conscious effort to create it is essential!

Luckily, there is a solution that can create cohesion, connection and build culture – all while achieving outcomes for the company. It’s a team event.

Three reasons to do a team event this year

Whether you call them team events, sales kickoffs, company retreats or something else, gathering together your employees for a few days out of the normal routine is a powerful thing. Here are just three of the many reasons you should do an event for your team this year:

1) Set and inspire vision and mission

When your staff unite around the vision and mission of the company, it improves their work through vested interest and values buy-in. We all want to know our work is meaningful, and setting the vision of the company helps you unite all staff around the same meaning.

So why set vision at a retreat versus just in the office or over video call? If you have a distributed team and often do team meetings over Zoom or Microsoft Teams, it might feel like that’s good enough to do your vision setting too. Resist this urge!

Setting a vision is much more impactful outside of the ‘office’ and in a place where the leader and the team are on more equal footing. Being on retreat together also creates the perfect opportunity to inspire staff and generate great ideas.

For example; after the vision speech is given, split the team into smaller groups and run a brainstorming session on different aspects of your vision. Give them butchers paper or whiteboards or whatever tool you like to use to generate ideas. Encourage all their thoughts and collect them to review later. You could even incentivise the exercise to get more buy-in.

2) Create team cohesion and build culture

Even though the lockdown experience is in the past (hopefully!), people are still feeling disconnected, especially those in distributed workplaces. Building culture and team cohesion is just as important with hybrid and distributed teams and needs to be even more intentional.

Without lunchtime and water cooler conversations, staff can struggle to connect on a social level, which makes connecting on a professional level less appealing. By bringing everyone together in one place, you facilitate all staff knowing each other, and building better relationships through both work and fun team bonding activities.

In the Blue Mountains, there are so many amazing activities for your team to do together to help build their cohesion and culture. Just a few I love to implement include; stargazing, bushwalking, basket weaving, local history walks and wine tasting.

Check out our full guide to Blue Mountains Team Building Activities >

3) Recognise and reward your staff

When your team feels fulfilled and recognised, they’re more motivated to continue giving their best. A team event or company retreat is also a great way to reward your staff and recognise their hard work. Without them, the company wouldn’t be what it is, and you can acknowledge that through an enjoyable retreat that combines play and work.

Some suggestions of how to reward staff through a retreat are; holding a special dinner, giving out staff awards (even funny ones boost morale if done well), bringing them to a beautiful location and giving them space to enjoy it, telling them thank you and verbally recognising their work in casual 1-1 conversations throughout the time together.

In-person team events might feel like part of the ‘old guard’ of work, but in fact, they’re even more important in 2023 and into the future as we continue to pivot the way we work. As we seek ease and technology in the -day-to-day of work, set aside time and space to create connection, vision and culture for you and your team. The company will flourish because of it!

Contact me to learn how I can organise your next multi-day team event.