I2I’s Heart-2-Heart on Team Retreating, Birthday AMA, & I2I Takes Portland
Welcome to October’s Heart-2-Heart (H2H) — I2I’s monthly newsletter where we share what’s on our mind, in our hearts, and up our sleeves.
This month, we're setting intentions for our upcoming team retreat, celebrating Kathleen’s birthday with a round of AMA, and gearing up for I2I’s presentations at AEA 2024.
On Our Minds
Intention 2 Impact celebrated six years earlier this month!
In “small business years,” six years is old enough to prove our strengths in the market, yet young enough to think we can change the world by next Tuesday…. you heard it here first.
Every Fall, around our birthday, we celebrate, reflect, and level-up at our annual team retreat. Next week, our team is retreatin’ in Portland, Oregon (and sticking around for the American Evaluation Association’s annual conference)!
The 2.5-day itinerary includes the perfect mix of: team bonding, exploring the city, delicious food, a photo shoot, and a full-day of organizational design and strategy facilitation from Jason Beck. Jason even led our team through several pre-retreat sessions to identify intended outcomes, lift up the challenges and opportunities we’re facing, and co-create the agenda.
Here are our main objectives for this year’s I2I team retreat:
Cultivate (even more) team cohesion 🧩
Solidify a shared understanding of I2I’s unique value propositions 🔥
Establish foundations for a more generative feedback culture ↔️
We’ve come a longgg way since our first virtual retreat in 2020! If you’re planning an upcoming team retreat, here are a few tips we’ve amassed over the years:
Find a cozy location. We usually rent AirBnBs for our team retreats so we can be comfortable and retreat to our rooms if we need a break. We’ve also enjoyed having a shared kitchen to cook meals together and stock the fridge with snacks.
Bring in external support. As consultants who spend most of our days facilitating client experiences, there is nothing better than being expertly facilitated! It is valuable to have a third-party hold space for our team so we can show up authentically, think outside the box, and reexamine our norms.
Set intentions. Each year, our retreat has different intentions and outcomes depending on our business priorities and what’s going on in that season. We make sure to co-create intentions with the team, making visible our individual and collective goals.
Mix it up with a balanced itinerary. It’s tempting to jampack IRL time with activities to brainstorm and problem solve together. However, it’s important to create a spacious, balanced itinerary with a mix of fun, work, and rest. This year, we’re going on a food tour and Jason will be leading us through breathwork and a cacao ceremony.
Stay tuned for next month’s newsletter where we’ll report back some retreat magic. T-minus four days until Portland!
I2I team ideating at the team retreat in Pasadena last September 2023
In Our Hearts
#AskMeAnything with Kathleen Doll
Oct 17th marks another rotation around the sun for I2I’s COO, Kathleen! To celebrate, enjoy a round of Q&A between I2I Team members and Dr. Doll herself.
Oct 17th marks another rotation around the sun for I2I’s COO, Kathleen! To celebrate, enjoy a round of Q&A between I2I Team members and Dr. Doll herself.
Q from Sahiti: What’s something that will always be in fashion for you, no matter how much time passes?
A. Kindness. And my Chacos! I’ve been rocking the same pair since 2013!
Q from Emma: If you were writing a book about this current chapter of your life, what would the title be and why?
A. “Worth the Squeeze.” The meaning is three-fold. (1) If you ask any I2I-er, the expression “the juice is worth the squeeze” is def on my I2I work-lingo bingo card. 😅(2) It’s an affirmation that this current season of life is a result of a whole lotta past squeezing. The juice has indeed been worth it and oh so sweet! 🍋And (3) a prayer & hope that the long hours & deep focus in this chapter are going to pay off in my next act, too.
Q from Blake: If you could live a month in someone else’s life, who would it be and why?
A. Is it creepy to say, “Sahiti’s daughter”?! It would be refreshing to live life through the eyes of a 4-year old for a month. There would no doubt be a renewed sense of wonder and pure joy from the simplest of things.
Q from Ashley: If you had to eat the same meal for the next year, what would it be?
A. An egg scramble, of course! 2 eggs, spinach, mushrooms, garlic, avocado, and a metric ton of salsa. Eggs & salsa are the perfect foods in my book.
Q from Nina: What are your top 3 practices that help you thrive/excel at work?
A. (1) Morning workouts to get the blood pumping & endorphins groovin’. (2) Time blocking to align my deep work windows with my attention & energy flows. (3) Making time at the top of all meetings for levity & human connection.
Up Our Sleeves
As you already know, the full I2I team is Portland-bound Oct 21-26th for the annual American Evaluation Association annual conference. This year, you can find Team I2I presenting at a couple time slots:
Thurs, Oct 24 from 5-6pm: Stop, Collaborative, and Listen: How Donor Collaboratives Amplify Diverse Perspectives to Measure Impact
Fri, Oct 25 from 1:30-2pm: What Will It Take to Amplify Evaluator Voices in the Social Finance Sector?: An Emergent Learning Exercise
Are you headed to AEA next week and wanna meet up with us? Slide into our DMs! Can't wait to see so many of you at our Pay Her Forward Fundraiser on Wednesday! If you RSVP'd, you should have received an email with the address.
Onward and upward, y’all!
You know, heart-2-hearts are supposed to be a 2-way street…
So comment below, what’s on your mind, in your heart, and up your sleeve? Hopefully a lil’ bit of good trouble. 😉
Subscribe to the newsletter here!
Until next time,
Intention 2 Impact
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