Jean Lizza reports from beautiful Flowerdale in Central Victoria for Worklogic’s annual workplace retreat.
Each year, the Worklogic team come together for our annual work retreat. Having offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, it’s a fantastic opportunity for the team to have some rare facetime with each other while embarking on some fun team building exercises as well as essential brainstorming sessions- where everyone has an opportunity to speak on what matters to are important to them.
Day 1
We arrived in Flowerdale, located in Central Victoria, a lovely village in in the Murrindindi shire, just over an hour from Melbourne. We were hosted by the fantastic team at Flowerdale Estate , which is a beautiful sprawling farmhouse property with all the modern amenities.
We gathered under a big oak tree and met Uncle Peter Moser from the Taungurung Land and Waters Council who delivered a Welcome to Country on behalf of the Taungurung people. Unfortunately, the weather conditions didn’t allow for a smoking ceremony, but we were able to ask questions about Peter’s life, for a deep listening session.
On reflection later, it struck us that Peter is not a very old man and it’s amazing the things that he has experienced over his lifetime- how historical trauma can play out and a ‘take it on the chin’ attitude was how he has navigated his life, being part Aboriginal.
After some delicious Devonshire tea, Worklogic directors Jodie Fox and Jason Clark took us through our yearly business update. The Worklogic team are kept up to date at our monthly all staff meeting as transparency is a core Worklogic value. This yearly update allows the directors to provide an overview of the business, show areas of growth as well as providing context to the graphs and pie charts!
We reconvened for dinner and were split up into teams for a fun session of general knowledge trivia presented by Capacity Crowd. Our host Gabbie expertly guided us through the rounds, with patience and good humour. (Her Brooklyn Nine Nine knowledge was appreciated!) Our team didn’t too badly- just don’t ask us any sports questions. LOL
After an epic, multi-course dinner, we retired to bed.
Day 2
The Flowerdale grounds are wonderful to explore- those early risers enjoyed a stroll around the venue, saying hello to the array of goats, chickens and dogs that live on the property.
The theme for this year’s retreat was Worklogic 2030. Looking forward, the retreat theme encapsulates strategy, values and future proofing- all presented by the team, for discussion and assessment.
Jodie and Jason kicked off Day 2 with a Strategy session- discussing some of the businesses overall strategic goals and the direction they wish to take the company. This allowed the team to ask questions and find out more information about what is in store for Worklogic in the future.
After morning tea, Mediation Practice Leader, Melanie Roberts and Associate Director and Practice Leader, Angela Seach lead a Values Refresh session. Being a values-based company, Worklogic is guided by theses values, to provide independent, procedurally fair work to our clients but also to provide a framework for a collaborative, people centred workplace.
Angela and Melanie broke us up into pairs and then teams, where were given a whole set of words and we had to choose which ones best reflected the values of our business. It was quite a tricky task!
Finally, we brainstormed in the wider group and discussed why we chose the words we chose. It was interesting what the teams came up with and the session proved to be very valuable.
After lunch, myself and Principal Consultant, Tanya Hunter delivered a session called Reconciliation Plan 2030. The aim of the session was to engage the team in the process that organisations undertake to take meaningful action to advance reconciliation.
I introduced the session by explaining my own journey with Reconciliation Action Plan. How the process has made me ask difficult questions of myself, questions that don’t have simple answers.
We split the team into pairs and asked them to reflect on the things that they heard at the Deep Listening session with Uncle Peter on the first day. Using the work of Nancy Kline, who created the Thinking Environment exercise, one person speaks while the other listens and indicates, non-verbally that they are listening. It shows how difficult it is to be unconditionally present without interrupting.
We then put the pairs into groups and asked them to come up with some ideas of how we can create pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, in our sphere of influence. The aim of the session was to get the team in engaged in the process of RAP and how we can practically achieve some of our goals.
After a quick break, we were on to our next session with the fantastic team at Charity Chef. Set up similarly to a MasterChef challenge, were split up into groups and given a task: create two dishes from the food provided and make ten portions of each.
This was such a fantastic challenge, and we had a blast coming up with some pretty great looking dishes! Each team did well and were guided by Chef Rob, who provided advice and good humour and branch director, Matt. The meals made are donated to families in need- in this case, people who have been affected by the recent bushfires. What a fantastic initiative!
It was a bumper day of learning and activities, and we were all delighted to sit with an afternoon beverage while hanging out with the dogs of Flowerdale Estate. After dinner and a catch up with team, I fell into my bed, ready for a great night’s sleep.
Day 3
Practice Support Officer and trained yoga instructor Jack Bolton lead a morning yoga session for the team, under the beautiful oak tree for those early birds. Such a lovely way to wake up, saluting the sun as it rises. 
After another epic breakfast, and onto final day session.
Principal Consultant Gina McColl joined the Directors to discuss developments in the A.I investigations space. There was a lot of discussion, and it certainly has some room for improvement but it’s interesting and important to stay up to date with technological developments.
Finally, the Directors opened the floor to questions for an Ask Us Anything session. Th team took the opportunity to pick Jodie and Jason’s brain about all things Worklogic.
And that’s a wrap on another successful Worklogic Retreat! Thank you to then team at the Flowerdale Estate, who made everything easy and to the Worklogic Retreat Committee who worked very hard to put together a meaningful and enjoyable retreat. I’m looking forward to next year!