This past weekend marked the inaugural Actionable Books Team Quarterly Retreat, and might I say, it was fairly excellent. The five of us headed up to Blue Mountain, Collingwood for 2 nights and three days of strategy, food and fun. Oh… and Elvis.
As it turns out, this weekend also marked the annual Elvis festival in Collingwood; apparently one of the largest and most celebrated Elvis conventions in North America. And so, between Blue Suede Shoes, Hound Dog and being All Shook Up, we took some time out to connect as a team and talk about the future.
It’s hard to put an ROI on such an activity. Did it generate immediate sales? No. Did it guarantee an increase in productivity? No.
But it humanized our company. Working remotely, as many of us do, there’s a tendency to slip into “transactional exchanges” with our co-workers. “I need this” “what’s the ETA on that?” sort of dialogue. I think this can happen anywhere, but even more so with a virtually based business.
And so, we came away from this weekend with great focus and fairly clear strategy, which is great. But we also came away with some great memories and a better understanding of how the others tick, and stronger relationships as a result.
Oh, and we learned that we have a closet Elvis fan in our midst as well. So what more could you ask for, really?
