Annual Summer Gathering Roundtable | Istanbul Highlights
Get a glimpse of the unforgettable moments from our Roundtable Annual Trip 2024 in Istanbul – watch the highlights now!
Our team sat down for a roundtable discussion, reflecting on the powerful connections and core memories created. Tune in to watch!
With the new world of remote working, it’s now more important than ever that opportunities exist for teams to connect and grow with each other beyond virtual screens. Coreteam is built upon the bedrock of a thriving work culture – deep in the heart of a virtual environment. This summer, an incredible adventure summoned us to Istanbul. This adventure drew us closer to each other and sealed and confirmed our commitment to creating engagement, leadership, and lifelong memories together.
This trip was no holiday but an experience that brought members from different corners of the globe to meet in person for the first time. The team stretches over continents-from North America to Europe, Asia, and even beyond. Istanbul, with its uniqueness of culture blending as well as centuries of history accumulated within it, was the ideal location for our eclectic group to come together, greet, and build bonds that last.
Team Bonding: Why is it important in a remote setting?
We are a remote-first team, which means we make connections over video calls, messages, and collaborative documents. Though this flexibility makes us work from anywhere, sometimes we miss out on those random moments of bonding that develop naturally in a traditional office setup. Our summer trip was designed as an opportunity to reconnect as human beings first, then colleagues. For us, it went beyond the constraints of a vacation; we had a chance to bond more profoundly, to learn leadership skills, and to have the value of face-to-face interaction expand our professional relationships.
The human connections were, for all of us, quite the magic of this trip. This was the first time we put faces to some names we saw every day on our screens. This was the first time you would ever hear each other laugh in person, stories shared, and realized just how much one could have in common with others. In fact, this experience was special because of these moments of connection, when for the first time you meet someone yet find yourself like old friends.
Arrival: Setting the Tone for Engagement
The first day of the trip was a day of arrival, introduction, and settling in. Istanbul was warm and welcoming – full of cultural heritage and lively atmosphere. There were various people arriving at different times, and so the opening hours were kept free for relaxing and exploring while people could pace their own time and take in the sounds and smells of this great city.
As the people began gathering, one could feel the atmosphere in the air-an air borne of longing to meet colleagues in person after months or even years of virtual collaboration. Our first evening together started with dinner at a local spot called F&B Culture, an easy stroll from the hotel. It was a perfect evening, light in mood and the preparedness to put aside the pressures of deadlines and projects to enjoy one another. This casual gathering set the tone for the entire trip – laughter, good food, and authentic conversations. We encouraged people to reach out beyond their comfort levels and meet teammates they had not directly worked with and to celebrate our diversity as a strength.
Casual space for informal interaction would make the team members feel relaxed and a nice, relaxed dinner as an icebreaker to start their journey of bonding.
Yacht Trip – Leadership, Team Awards, and Making Memories
It was a day designed for bonding while we explored an adventure-filled team building exercise. We boarded a yacht and set off for a day-long tour of the wonderful Bosphorus Strait. The panoramic views, the salty air, and the thrill of being out on the water all harmonized to provide the right setting for some of the most structured team building exercises along with unstructured spontaneous moments of mirth.
As we passed along the Bosphorus, our various backgrounds and different time zones no longer mattered. Whether you were one of New York City’s busy habitants or a small-town resident in Europe, or an energetic citizen of an Asian metropolis, it didn’t matter. You all shared the same desire for fun and befriending others. The conversation was flowing and people who until then had seen only each other’s faces on screens, laughed, smiled while sharing personal stories.
This was not a sightseeing tour, but rather an event to celebrate what made each of us different in unique contributions to the team through awards. Not corporate honors, personal and light-hearted, to help celebrate the difference in all of us with awards such as “Best Problem Solver,” “Spirit of Positivity,” or “Most Likely to Brighten Your Day.”.
The boat trip also then served as a forum for an important leadership activity by demonstration. The team leaders encouraged everyone to join in, be it by participating in the games with the teams, trying out something new like swimming off the boat, or just being on hand and supportive. Witnessing our leaders taking an active role in all this helped instill openness and camaraderie among the members.
Leading is not delegation. It is a model to be emulated and fully participated in. Active engagement of the leadership team in team activity empowers others to work towards the same goal, tear down walls, and further diversity.
Free Time and Personal Contact: Trusting by Giving Space
Saturday was our arrival day and included some available free time for everyone to go off on their own and explore Istanbul. It is easy in the structured work environment to lose sight of the fact that every person is an individual with private tastes and interest. Free time allowed each of us to pursue aspects of Istanbul in which we had an interest personally—visit local markets, stroll through historic streets, or just relax at the hotel.
For free time, this has been a very integral part of our bonding journey. The setting has been free for organic conversations that more often than not go beyond work. An impromptu visit to a bustling bazaar, taking a relaxed cup of Turkish tea together, are just some of the memories that brought us closer. When we reconvened in the evening, everyone had something to share, and new experiences emerged, and it led to rich discussions and deep understanding among team members.
Being allowed to take time for exploration makes team members gain autonomy, and the depth of conversations by the team is also enhanced. The distance between each person that is afforded by allowing people to find unique experiences in order to share them helps build trust and interdependence within the team.
Exploring Istanbul’s History Together: Shared Experiences Outside the Workplace
On Monday, we embarked on a tour of the two famous landmarks: the Basilica Cistern and the Blue Mosque. This shared experience was more than just a montage of a site-seeing sort; it was about taking a moment in time together, marveling at the wonders of heritage, and reflect on how crucial it is to understand yet another perspective.
Such places are very humbling, and walking through them was really an inspirational experience. The old architecture, stories from the past, and beauty in all those different traditions made it easier for us to be one team. Especially visiting the Blue Mosque reminded us that respect is something important-be it respect for that culture of the place we are in or the diversity of thoughts we bring together to the table.
Everyone at the visit was dressed appropriately to show respect for local customs – arms covered, legs covered, and for females, hair covered. This collective display of respect reinforced one of the core values of the Coreteam: being considerate and inclusive of the communities that we form part of.
A team bonding factor is built by sharing experiences in different cultures. Understanding and appreciating the different worldviews strengthens the team bonding factor and makes the overall experience of belonging grow.
Hammam Experience: Comfort Zones and Team Support
After our historical walk, we ventured into experiencing a traditional Turkish hammam – a ritual that certainly does leave inhibitions behind to take the people to a new world. All of us couldn’t participate in the exercise, but it showed to be pretty relaxing and thrilling for whoever did.
This created an analogy for team dynamics: stepping out of your comfort zone, trying something you’d not tried before, and having the teammates give you room to grow and open your mind to new experiences. Those who did not join the hammam were given their free time, and no one felt held up or obligated to be part of this other team. It was a reminder that even as we aspire to grow as a team, individual comfort and choice are of equal importance.
Encouragement to step out of their comfort zone but respecting choice and decision makes it a growth-oriented culture. Whether the member of the team chooses or does not choose it respects his/ her autonomy, therefore creating an inclusive culture.
Nightly Gatherings: Celebrating Our Successes and Building Bonds
We would celebrate every little success, regardless of whether it was a small or big accomplishment, with our evenings onboard from the awards ceremony of the yacht until dinner. These nightly interactions to bond, unwind, and enjoy ourselves as one solid group were not based on who put in the most effort and achieved the most within the working environment; it was about the acknowledgement of what makes us strong as a unit – our tenacity, creativity, positivity, and values that we hold in common.
Diners at Mahzen, one of the best local restaurants with a beautiful, cosy atmosphere, good food, and lots of laughter, always remembered the day’s stories, laughed over the adventures, and strengthened their bonds in informal and comfortable settings.
All these activities reminded me that team building is not about packaged activities or rigid structures, but it provides a space for celebration, breaking bread together, and just enjoying each other’s presence.
Celebration strengthens the team’s spirit. True recognition doesn’t necessarily have to be at arm’s length; informal acknowledgements through shared experience help to create a cohesive team culture.
Remote Team Bonding and Carrying Forward the Spirit of Togetherness
A working trip to Istanbul was a very wonderful reminder of being part of the Coreteam. Being a remote-first organization, such moments of interaction in person were probably what actually strengthened the bonds that we would take forward in our virtual interactions. It wasn’t just the memories created in Istanbul but the culture that we, as a group, were building that embraced openness, nurtured each other’s growth, and brought individuality together to work toward a common goal.
We continue looking into the future: creating a culture of bonding inside and outside of work. This may be through regular virtual coffee chats where we share stories from different parts of the world or plan the next adventure together. But regardless of these, we are committed to strengthening the bonds that make Coreteam more than just colleagues but a global family.
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