By Anna Kernus, Associate Director of Immersive Experiences
In late October, Moishe House staff from around the world gathered in North Carolina for our All-Staff Retreat—our fifth to date! Folks came in from six different countries and 14 cities total. The intention was to explore different perspectives and experiences, discover new approaches and possibilities, connect with other like-minded people, debate conflicting views, choose promising ideas, prepare to experiment, and coalesce with others.
This All-Staff Retreat was the first of many steps to prepare for Moishe House’s next round of strategic planning, which will officially kick off in early 2020. We spent time diving deep into the current Strategic Plan, created at our 2015 All-Staff Retreat to last through 2020, to better understand what questions are left unanswered, what challenges remain true, and what visions we hold for the direction of our global community. We also had an entire day dedicated to collaborating face-to-face with our colleagues from far-away places in order to address the pressing challenges facing each of our teams.
Just as important as all of the time spent in sessions and meetings was all of the FUN that we got to have with our coworkers. On the first night of the Retreat, Roey and I hosted the “Moishe House Game Show Network,” playing Scattergories, Family Feud and trivia. Everyone was put into groups with folks from other offices to test their Moishe House knowledge and see how silly their team could get. We also had a fun night out in Boone, NC, on Tuesday, enjoying pizza and beer at a local brewery.
Everyone got something different out of the All-Staff Retreat. Some staff members were meeting their coworkers in person for the very first time (more than 50% of our team had joined Moishe House- mostly in brand new positions- since we last gathered two years ago). Others reveled in reuniting with old friends and meeting new ones. All left feeling reinvigorated and ready to jump into 2020 head first. The Moishe House team cherishes these staff retreats as a time to feel heard and truly feel like a part of a vast and important global organization.
