Last year around this time, a coworker shared that they would feel valued by a Stonemaier company retreat. After asking other coworkers about the idea and hearing that they were supportive of it, I started the year-long process of planning the trip, which culminated in roughly 3 days in Phoenix last week.

The main feature of the retreat was that it was the first time all 8 of us have ever been in the same place at the same time, as we all work well from home in Missouri, Oregon, Florida, Nevada, and Minnesota. My happy place is at my desk at work, but I was happy to serve my coworkers by arranging and participating in this trip.

Details about exactly how the trip worked are in the article I wrote in June. Basically, I found a location (Phoenix) that met the environmental preferences of all coworkers and was within a direct flight for almost all of us, and I found a rental property where we could all have our own rooms to meet privacy, introversion, and sleeping needs. The trip was only for Stonemaier employees, and the focus was on each other and Stonemaier Games (opposed to nearly everything else we do, which is focused on our customers). The trip was during the week, as it was a work trip–I wanted everyone to be able to return home for a weekend with their families and friends.

Two things that evolved after I wrote that article in June are as follows:

• Food: I heard some good advice about food planning–make it easy for everyone–that I took to heart. For breakfast, we picked up a few basic items from the grocery store on the first day. For lunch, I researched nearby restaurants from which we could order delivery or pickup. For dinner, I made reservations at a few local places that met everyone’s dietary preferences.
• Schedule: I heard some other good advice about having some sort of structure to each day, shared in advance so everyone has a clear vision and can plan accordingly. Here’s how it looked:
  • casual breakfast individually at the house
  • mornings are free time to do anything you want in and out of the house: work, sightsee, meet outside the house with local friends, relax, etc.
  • order in together for lunch
  • stay at the house for the afternoon (not necessarily for anything in particular, but just to create the potential of working together if there are things to playtest, discuss, or just play for fun)
  • go out together for dinner
  • play games together, hang out at night, and/or have quiet time

The only last-minute changes involved (a) those of us in St. Louis getting a huge snowstorm just before the trip, resulting in a longer flight and a much later arrival than planned on Tuesday and (b) we rented an 8-passenger van rather than taking rideshares around the city.

Before the trip, I printed/assembled a bunch of prototypes and packed them along with a submission and some pre-production copies. We spent the majority of the two afternoons (plus one evening) playtesting and discussing these games.

My coworkers shared a wealth of feedback for me to consider and implement, which was as helpful as it was exhausting (if you’ve ever run a playtest of one game for a few hours, you know how much mental and emotional energy it requires–this was six games over a total of at least fifteen hours). This resulted in me returning from the trip with a staggering amount of work. Their feedback was great, though, so I’m navigating how to better include coworkers in the playtesting and product design process in a more spaced-out, remote, and independent way.

I think my favorite couple of hours during the retreat happened on the last night after the final playtest session. We were tired enough to go to bed, but instead we drifted one by one into the living room and talked. Just 8 people hanging out, joking, sharing, opining, etc. It was really nice to have that idle time with such delightful folks.

I’m sharing all this partially to close the loop I opened in June’s article and partially to offer an alternative template to traditional corporate conferences filled with speeches and teambuilding activities and intense meetings. We essentially just got together in a nice place and worked/playtested for a few days.

Would I do it again? I’m not sure. I’m definitely not looking to add another job to my job, and this was no small effort for me to plan, coordinate, and execute; I also returned with far more work than when I arrived. I think we work well remotely (in fact, in many ways this was a reminder of why I prefer to work from home, especially as an introvert), and much of the product design discussions can happen virtually on a rolling basis. Three of my coworkers are here in St. Louis and already participate in playtesting (though I could do a better job of inviting them more often). The idle time was intangibly important, though, so every few years I think it would be nice to get together for that purpose, even if it’s just a quiet evening before Design Day when most people are in St. Louis anyway.

I’m curious to hear your reactions, thoughts, and questions to this style of work retreat–feel free to share in the comments!

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