We have found that the most formative relationship-building happens in three ways.

Retreat!

Chenmark has geographically disparate, decentralized operations. While this has many benefits, one downside is that the leadership team rarely spends time together. Since strong interpersonal relationships across companies are the backbone of the connective tissue that makes Chenmark special, a couple of years ago we decided to dedicate resources toward bringing the team together for an in-person annual retreat.

For this type of thing, some companies spend a lot of money going to fancy resorts. Others bring in name-brand leaders to do keynote motivational speaking engagements. Others do trust-based team-building activities.

Over the years, we have dabbled in some of the more traditional approaches to corporate retreats. However, we have come to question the ROI of many of these check-the-box type events. It’s easy to get distracted by big price-tag flashy activities and forget the point of why we’re getting together.

We have found that the most formative relationship-building happens in three ways. The first is some sort of shared suffering. The second is friendly yet intense competition. The third is tequila.

As time goes by the agenda for our annual retreats will change but we’re pretty sure these three aspects will remain constant. That said, as we write this, we are currently experiencing the acute day-after downsides of tequila-based team bonding, so we may have to reconsider that last part…

Have a great week,

Your Chenmark Team

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