Our May All Hands

At Steadfast Collective, we value collaboration, communication, and connection. 

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve adapted our ways of working, becoming a fully-remote team spread across the UK (and France), but we still understand the importance of getting together in person. That’s why, twice a year or more, we aim to gather the whole team together in one place. 

Gathering together is a great way to get to know each other at a deeper level, share stories, enjoy meals, debrief projects, get excited about the future, share achievements, dream big, and share vision. 

Last week, we brought the team together in Winchester and Romsey for three days, hosting the team together in an Airbnb just outside Winchester, and hiring out Kimbridge Barn for our daytime activities.

To kick off the All-Hands, Pete shared reflections on the past three months, our progress towards company targets, and vision for the months ahead. 

We then had a Content Workshop, run by our new Production Manager Ross, taking a look at content we enjoy consuming online, how it was produced, and why we liked it. This exercise was a great springboard for creating ideas as to how we, as a studio, can be creating content going forward. 

After coffee (and delicious Kimbridge cakes) each of the team shared a five-minute presentation focused on something they are proud of that they have worked on over the past three months. This provided an excellent opportunity for the team to celebrate one another’s wins and learn something new along the way. 

We then enjoyed a wonderful two-course lunch before taking a look at the results of our StrengthsFinder questionnaires. We used the ORID (Objective, Reflective, Interpretive, Decisional) framework to share perceptions and emotional responses to our StrengthsFinder results, suspending judgment during the discussion, and gaining a broader and deeper understanding of what we discovered.

The late afternoon was a chance to enjoy some time chatting in the sun, before making our way back into the barn for a content mind-mapping exercise and some company dreaming, imagining where Steadfast Collective could be 5/10 years from now, with a team newspaper challenge.

On Tuesday night, we enjoyed a meal at Forte Kitchen in Winchester, where Pete presented our team awards, including; Client’s Favourite, Most Valued Player, Best Coach, Rapid Learner, Calm Under Pressure and Solo Flyer. 

Wednesday was a day for the developers to have a go at a mini hack day, working together to code a minimum viable product of an app. The team chose to work on developing a mental health tracker, called You OK?, originally thought up a few years previously when the team attended Hack For Good. 

It was so great to have the team together. The All-Hands provided valuable time to connect, inspire and spark ideas together. We are super excited for the next one, where we’ll have (at least) two new members of the team joining us.