Sustainable Surf Company Retreat

We’ve been working with the team at Sustainable Surf for many years and across multiple projects and so it was an absolute privilege to design & facilitate their company retreat in Encinitas, California this October.

The design of the retreat was inspired by the concept of building a playbook (a book containing a sports team's strategies and plays, especially in American football).

The team has grown from 2 people to 8 within a few months and so it was the perfect moment to step out of the day-to-day running of the organisation and spend time together looking at the big picture and learning how to ‘do good’ better, together.

As always, with our residential retreats, we create a print workbook, something that everyone can hold in their hands, scribble down notes and refer to in the future when thinking of the work we did together. We’re big fans of sharing all the tools we use - so a workbook is an awesome way to do that.

“In sports, a playbook defines what needs to be done to win the game, breaking the team's strategy down into actionable plays and defining roles and responsibilities to be successful.

Building a playbook isn’t a one-off job - it’s something that needs to be revisited, refreshed & updated year on year. Our aim is to co-create Sustainable Surfs’ playbook. We’ll build it together - through conversations, workshops and individual deep dives.

The playbook represents the whole team - the roles you play, the goals you are working towards and the strategies required to achieve your potential.

Think of this notebook as the first, scrappy draft. A place to work through ideas, map out strategy & scribble down any notes. “

We designed the day to incorporate a number of workshops that helped build the teams’ strategy, explore new ways to reach their goal of supporting 100 coastal ecosystem restoration projects by 2030 as well as giving the team time in smaller groups & solo to talk through challenges, vision for the future and build a clear set of design principles together.

And of course, nature was our co-facilitator - so we spent time in the surf together, enjoyed a sit-spot session on the beach and were rewarded with an epic sunset to wrap up our day.