Last Tuesday started off as a relatively normal day at Hatch – normal in that there was nothing ‘normal’ about it. It was the first day of Hatch Week & the theme was Curiosity.
In the spirit of curiosity the team had no clue of what I’d planned for them when they arrived at 8am. Yet, they strode into the office ready to tackle whatever was heading their way.
No team retreat could start without a review of the previous year. We set ambitious goals at the start of 2016 and are stoked that most of these have been ticked off the list:
In 2016 we:
✔ Developed an iOS app
✔ Developed a digital product
✔ Maintained a great culture & happy team
✔ Hired a Front-end designer
✔ Hired a Front-end developer
✔ Hired a Sales & Marketing manager
We also talked about what we, as a team, want Hatch to be, and the reason why we turn up to work each day.
The mission statements of most businesses tend to be just that – statements. They’re not typically embedded in the team culture and don’t represent anything beyond the paper they’re written on.
We’re not interested in recycled buzz-words. It’s more important to capture the reason that we open our doors and turn on our computers in the morning. This is why we were stoked to hone in on why we turn up at Hatch:
Our mission is to add humanity back into people’s lives.
Our time on earth is limited.
We want to spend every moment doing things that make us feel good; that connect us to one another and make us more human.
Whether helping businesses to communicate their stories in new and interesting ways, or automating processes to give business owners time to spend with their families, we seek a more human world.
With this in mind, we mixed humanism with curiosity and headed north to Brick Bay Winery, Matakana, ready to embark on their infamous sculpture trail.
TLDR: it did not disappoint!
As we chartered windy paths around lakes, green forests and steep hills, we viewed over 60 sculptures ranging from marble statues to audio soundscapes.
Sculptures are the perfect exercise for the curious mind. They encourage you to look at an object, sound or experience from a different perspective, and inspire a range of questions at every turn:
Pairing this with wine was not just a great way to build the team culture, but also to inspire similar questions. Wine is so complex. It was great to learn how to drink it properly and appreciate the subtle differences. To truly get into the spirit of curiosity we also headed to Villa Maria Estate to test out a few more glasses.
It’s amazing to think how many different varietals there are. It’s also awe-inspiring to see how much work goes into producing a single glass of wine. Everything that happens to the grape, from the composition of the dirt, to when the grapes are harvested, to how the grapes are handled affects the end product.
Needless to say, we sampled a wide selection of wine and although there were a few heated discussions about whether Sauvignon Blanc was lemon juice or wine, a great time was had by all!
Curiosity makes life interesting. There is always something more to learn, and new paths to explore. In essence, curiosity is a large part of what it is to be human.
How curious are you as a person? Do you tend to answer a lot of questions with the N word, aka "No"? Here are a few tips from the Hatch team if you want to increase your curiosity levels:
And assume nothing — you’ll be surprised by how much you actually enjoy it.
This blog is part of ‘Hatch Week’, a week where we escape from our day to day to improve as a team, individuals and as a company. Every day had a theme, and every theme a blog.
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