Three big ideas to bring your team back together now with compassion and hope
Many staff or board teams have not met in person for almost two years, during which time the world has been rocked by a global pandemic, the movement for racial justice, a deepening awareness of climate crisis and tragic world events.
Nonprofit staff retreat ideas to meet the moment
There is some “catching up” that needs to happen in order to build the connection and alignment to get everyone on the same page and find a path forward together.
Keep this in mind:
Many people on your team are holding so much right now. Those big feelings – which may include everything from the need to grieve and process to mental health challenges, burnout, or anxiety around change and instability – are the elephant in any shared room. In order to focus the group on the present or future, leaders need to find a way to acknowledge that however the people in the room feel, it is justified and valid.
Belonging and inclusion matter more than ever. Recent research found that the highest indicator of a toxic work culture is team members not feeling included or treated fairly due to their identity (“Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation). With the Great Resignation and staffing shortages, building an inclusive culture is key for staff retention and recruitment.
The Ross Collective uses a Past, Present, Future format with clients to reconnect and find a path forward. This format can be used for everything from half-day retreats or a multi-day retreat conversations with board or staff teams:
Past: “What happened to us over the past two years?”
How to do this:
Have participants meet in pairs to discuss opportunities and challenges that the pandemic period presented. Then reconvene the group to share and reflect on themes. When we’ve done this exercise, participants have mentioned the grief of losing family members, the challenge of online schooling, mental health struggles, and political contentiousness. And participants have mentioned positives such as having more time to slow down, go on walks, and enjoy nature.
Have participants respond to the question, “What has been your biggest work challenge over the past two years?” by writing their answers anonymously on a large piece of butcher paper. Other staff members then respond in writing on the butcher paper with compassion and encouragement. Then do a large group debrief conversation to reflect on what people have “heard” from other team members and what these challenges demand of the group.
Review and celebrate organizational achievements or financial successes and challenges.
For all of us, planning around the uncertainty of the pandemic took a lot of time and effort, and there is learning that can happen from discussing each team’s ability to work flexibly.
Present: “Who are we right now as a team and organization?”
How to do this:
Review organizational values, which may have been created before the pandemic, to reflect on whether the team is living up to these values and whether they still feel applicable.
Reflect on organizational mission. For many organizations, the mission was created before the pandemic. Teams need to look at this mission with fresh eyes, considering, “Is this still our core work?”
Explore the question from a developmental perspective. One recent client grappled with the fact that, although old-timers could remember when the whole team could fit in the lunchroom together, this was no longer the case – and many team challenges had come from this growth. The pandemic period had paused the process of making sense of this new way of being together – and it was now time to talk through a way forward.
Given the need to build belonging on teams, leaders must create a culture that affirms race, gender, sexuality, and other facets of identity and power.
”Future: “How can we build a hopeful shared future together?”
Language matters. When we lead these conversations, we don’t talk about getting back to ‘normal.’ Instead, we prefer to ask participants about their vision for a hopeful shared future.
Leaders must be willing to act on the ideas that are generated. The questions throughout this article will build a more invested team – but only if their ideas are taken seriously.
How to do this:
Ask the above question directly! Visioning builds connection and alignment. So many team members have been “languishing” or stuck in the weeds over the past two years, it is energizing to zoom out and dream about possibilities.
Many teams have taken some time to reflect in small groups on trends that might impact their work going forward. These conversations provide opportunities for new team members to deepen their understanding of past work.
We’ll often brainstorm with a question such as, “Given everything that has emerged in these conversations, what meaningful actions can we take?”
A nonprofit staff retreat that energizes
At the end of these days together, something exciting happens. Despite the hard stuff, team members come out of these conversations energized. And that’s what we need – energy to find shared solutions to the challenges in front of us.
This is the next step of finding ways to support our broken world, the subject of the previous post, within your organization. In it, we’ve challenged you, our dear readers, to amplify the things that you’re doing. We discussed the “Yes, and…” movement and continue to encourage you to share your approach to address team cohesiveness beyond these challenging times. Please share with us so that we can showcase the important work that you are doing now.
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