For any group working together towards a common goal, achieving optimal performance on both the individual and collective level is vital. We prioritize this objective for its direct impact on our company, our clients and the community we serve. Among the initiatives to keep our creative machine well-oiled, team getaways yield massive positive outcomes. While ROI doesn’t immediately show up on the bottom line, the long-term evidence is as clear as the nights we gaze up at the stars.
Anticipation of trips increases morale, motivation and productivity
One way of increasing dopamine, the feel-good brain chemical, is to anticipate a reward. Looking forward to an upcoming getaway creates buzzing excitement around the office. While counting down the weeks and days, creativity is heightened and productivity increased, as team members focus on wrapping up what’s necessary before a break from work. Nothing speeds things up quite like an unbudgeable deadline.
“Anticipating a reward increases dopamine. While you may have learned that dopamine is a neurotransmitter that results in pleasure, you might not know that it’s also involved in behavior. Scientific research has found that spikes in dopamine help regulate levels of motivation, which leads individuals to initiate and persevere to avoid something negative or obtain something positive.
Change of environment facilitates deliberate rest and play
Deep focus and high performance diminish over time. Keeping it up requires rejuvenation between periods of intense output. Yet, the modern always-on, always-connected surroundings are not conducive to rest. By getting people out of the norms into an unfamiliar environment, getaways help people fully disconnect and recharge. A “no work” policy is recommended to encourage both rest and play. Besides rest, play is among the best ways to improve mental and emotional health, increase social bonds and collaboration, as well as enhance learning new skills, conceive new ideas, and the occasional epiphany. An effective way to harness group creativity is to encourage people across disciplines and ranks to play freely together. When there is a “no work” declaration, we shift our presence from thinking to being. Through deliberate rest and play, we recharge our physical, mental and emotional batteries. For some of us, these trips can fill up our spiritual cups, too.
Improvement in wellbeing translates to improvement in performance
People who feel good do good. Healthier and happier people think better and more clearly. A team with strong bonds can do more and go further together. Best collaboration takes place when everyone trusts each other on both professional and personal levels, knowing they are a part of something much bigger. This sense of solidarity improves the team’s motivation and readiness to take on the big challenges ahead.
As for our team
Pixel Dreams getaways take place in a variety of locales—from homely cottages by quiet lakes, isolated cabins high up on mountains, to artsy suites in bustling metropolitan areas like Montreal, NYC and Saigon. No matter the size of the group, we are always tightly packed in our choice of accommodation. This by-design closeness gives us a chance to rub shoulders, work out personal discomforts, poke fun and experience each other from newer perspectives. With work not being the focal point, our minds shift to letting loose and getting close.
As we depart from our familiar environments into newness, residues of self-imposed stressors melt away, smiles grow wider, conversations sillier, jokes funnier, ideas fresher, and relationships deeper. More than a group of professionals from different walks of life, these experiences bond us closer as a family working towards a set of common goals.
