We had a really successful staff development day not long ago, so I thought I might share the format - as it might be useful to other small companies or project teams. If you have a lot of associates and flexible workers as we do, it's important to get together now and then to catch up.

1. Vision - the vision behind the company or project, the inspiration behind it all. Does the mission statement need renewing?
2. Celebrate ourselves - review recent successes. It's easy to find in routine operational meetings that you're discussing mostly challenges and problems, and success is not lauded. You might find, as we did, that we had many successes to celebrate.  We made time to thank one another for the support we got within the team.
3. Review of projects, feedback from clients and learning points! We realised we had some strengths and skills we hadn't previously identified.
4. Magic Wand - if you could wave a magic wand and change something for the company what would it it be? (We decided moving en masse to the Seychelles wasn't really on, but as we actively promote remote and flexible working, an employee moving to  sunnier climes would not have to resign!) /more
5. Beat the niggles - what really bugs you regularly that we could change? We ended up with some new more ergonomic chairs, productivity software and a "cooler" phone!
6. Practicalities - new holiday forms or whatever systems are being introduced or improved.
7. Value words - what are the concepts that we live by every day on our company / team? Do we all share them (we did!).
8. Current projects - two-minute presentations on current projects from project managers so everyone knows a minimum.
9. Future projects - what should we be doing - wacky ideas?
10. Lunch - or other refreshments. We've found that good food helps to build a team.

It's a pretty simple format but it was effective for us.

Do you have any useful activities that have been particularly succesful for your team or group? Do let us know.