Last Thursday we held our first team away day for over 5 years. When planning the day it was very clear that we had a mountain of topics to get through so getting everyone away from the distractions of Whitechapel was important. So, we ended up on a boat, in Regents Park, on a vintage red bus and then back on the canal.
Before we could start discussing the huge agenda, we had to loosen up a bit. We started our team
building with The Marshmallow Challenge to help us think innovatively, creatively
and collaboratively.
We then used personas to help us imagine new goals for the team and inspire us to 'think big'.
But this wasn’t just a bit of fun, we really
considered how to make (the more plausible) ambitions a reality.
Some of the big messages to come out of the day been
around improving communication within the group, consolidating the ‘Barts MS’
brand that encompasses all of our initiatives and ensuring that our clinical
service, research projects and public engagement efforts are inherently linked.
We also spent time considering individuals roles
within the group and how peoples day-to-day work can feed into these main
ambitions. Some of the new ideas to come out of the day involved:
•
Innovative funding ideas
•
Improving our MS Nurse service
•
Our move to the new Royal London
Hospital building and the potential for new clinics
•
Barts MS within UCLP and QMUL
•
This blog! (you might notice some
new authors - please be gentle)
•
Education via Centre of the Cell
•
The Future of the MS Research Day
•
New research avenues
•
Operational procedures within the
group
Apart from that, there was a lot of nitty gritty discussed that will ultimately make us a better functioning team. We hope you will see the benefits of the day through our work and in the coming years. And on top of all that, we even got a team
selfie!