With the first two days of Team Week spent on our strategies for the future and empowering our teams we turned our focus to one of our other core goals - leaving the world a better place. Our destination for the final official day of Team Week was the beautiful Rottnest Island and our vibes were more relaxed - less office desks and laptops, more sunscreen and boardshorts.
Rolling up our sleeves
Wrangling the team of 30 to get together for an 8:30am ferry was made a lot easier because a bunch of the team had spontaneously organised breakfast beforehand in the hotel cafe at the stunning Quay Hotel. Shuffling across the road to the ferry terminal for the hour and a half trip to Rottnest saw some people sleep, some take photos, and lots getting together to talk about all the exciting things we’d already done during the week.
In our own salute to Clean Up Australia Day we grabbed some gloves, lathered on the sunscreen, and started trawling the picturesque Thomson Bay to remove all the rubbish we could. After an hour of us combing the beach, like all good scientists, we got together to sort and log all the rubbish (as part of the Tangaroa Blue Foundation’s work) so that the impact of marine debris on the environment can be tracked.
Lunch with a View
As a reward for everybody’s hard work we headed to the Rottnest Island Golf Club for a delicious feast of fish and chips in the surprisingly quiet area away from the regular tourist haunts - we can definitely recommend it as an option next time you’re on the island. It was also the perfect moment to capture the team together - all in our Gaia Resources shirts, complete with employee numbers on the back. A subtle but powerful reminder: whether you’re an original crew member or one of our newest joiners, you’re part of something shared and special.
Giving back to our people
After giving back to the environment it was time to give something back to our people and this meant an afternoon of free rein on Rottnest Island. For the next few hours our staff did what made them happy:
- Some snorkeled at the lovely ‘The Basin’ beach surrounded by schools of fish
- A few of our staff took a trip on the train to learn more about the history of Rottnest Island and its importance to protecting the Western Australia coastline. A special few even got the once in a lifetime opportunity to drive the train on the trip back from the tour - this was a story shared many times over drinks when we got back to Perth.
- Taking a bicycle trip around the island kept a few others busy seeing the sights, stretching their legs, and enjoying the nature we are so passionate about supporting and protecting
- Those already sapped by the sun decided the safest route to avoid more sunburn and dehydration was to station themselves at the pub and enjoy a few quiet sodas…
Different speeds. Same purpose. Connection.
Once the troops had finished their adventures around Rottnest Island it was time to get some rest on the ferry back to Perth for a final dinner and drinks to celebrate the whole week together. The time together spent at Little Creatures brewery was a wonderful way to finish the week before we all went our separate ways and returned to our normal remote first culture. People laughed, they shared stories, and they just connected as humans - all the things we hoped for when planning this week.
We started the week with strategy.
We strengthened our people.
And we finished by making an impact - on the environment, and on each other.
That’s a Team Week (and company) worth showing up for.
Rachel