If Day One of Team Week was about whole-of-business strategy, Day Two was about something just as powerful: giving teams the space to strengthen themselves.
We started the morning in our functional teams - but how that looked was entirely up to them:
- Some had authentic chats over a coffee (can highly recommend the cafe at Hub Perth for great coffee and even better service),
- Some had strategy sessions to unpack both current challenges and their vision for the future
- Some choose simply to co-work, side by side, or
- Some chose a ‘feeting’ (see our earlier blog ‘Team Week: Where Strategy Meets Connection’ for more on these) to get gelato from Gusto at Elizabeth Quay.
It wasn’t about dictating the ‘right’ solution that was one size fits all. It was about meeting teams where they’re at and empowering them to choose the most impactful way to spend their time. Very similar to the focus on strategy day, it was about working on their team, not just in it.
The reason behind this is simple, feelings of autonomy fuels ownership. Ownership fuels impact. When people feel trusted to choose how they collaborate best, they show up differently - more invested, more accountable, more empowered to achieve outsized goals.
Breaking Bread
After the morning session we shared a meal together with delicious pizza from a local restaurant. Because time with our immediate team matters, but time with the wider business who you may not interact with each day also matters. Shared meals surface the things that make people people - passions, quirks, hobbies, and stories. You never know when you’ll discover a fellow Star Wars enthusiast, gamer, or baking aficionado.
Learning How to Work Better Together
The afternoon focused on learning and development with a powerful session run by our awesome friends at Zest HR. We’ve worked with Zest HR for a few years now on our soft skills development and can highly recommend their work - they get our business, our people, and our goals. The focus this time was not technical skills, but how we show up for one another - how we listen, how we interact, and how we constructively amplify each other. Because collaboration isn’t just about meetings. It’s every interaction and sometimes we can lose sight of this in a brief Google meet or Google chat. Also, we’re a diverse crew with different communication styles, strengths, preferences, and ways of thinking. When we understand and appreciate that diversity - truly understand it - this can turn friction into momentum. After all there is no point rowing at a hundred miles if everyone in the boat is not rowing in the same direction.
Taking time to create shared spaces and shared experiences we can accelerate that understanding. They help us see:
- Where we complement each other,
- Where we need to flex to support and supplement one another; and
- How we can empower and amplify our separate voices rather than unintentionally derail.
When we work with each other’s strengths instead of against them, the whole business moves faster.
Beyond Our Walls
The wonderful learning sessions don’t stop with us, they also allow us to better reflect on how we interact with all our stakeholders. Understanding their unique perspectives, challenges, and strengths and aligning our engagement to best turn a thorny problem into an innovative and robust technological solution. That’s just as critical in how we partner with clients. The better we understand what drives them, the better we can help them achieve meaningful outcomes.
And it shapes how we welcome new Gaians, too.
If we want people to thrive from day one, not just survive, we don’t ask them to adapt to us immediately. We meet them where they’re at. We create space. We empower them to contribute early and confidently.
Day Two wasn’t about big strategy announcements.
It was about something more foundational - our people, learning, growing, sharing, and empowering one another. Because strong teams thrive on clear understanding and shared experiences. All of which results in us empowering our people to succeed.
Because when people feel understood and empowered, impact follows naturally.
Jarrad