Simone Stander
How do you ensure a team not only exists together but truly moves forward together? For an international organization, there was a clear ambition: to work on next year's targets in an inspiring environment, with room for relaxation and connection. The choice fell on a workation to Lisbon: a city that energizes, invites you to go out together, and perfectly suits a team accustomed to traveling together more often.
Not an easy task, because the bar was set high. The team knew well what it wanted, had traveled together before, and was explicitly not looking for a standard setup. Precisely because of this, everything had to be right: from the hotel choice to meeting facilities, and from free time to shared experiences.
It quickly became clear for this trip that sun alone wouldn't be enough. The team from this international organization was looking for a destination where substance and relaxation could effortlessly come together. During the day, they needed to be able to seriously work on plans and objectives, while at the same time there was also a need for good restaurants, atmosphere, and activities to experience together.
The accommodation played an important role in this. Not an anonymous chain hotel, but rather a boutique or design hotel with character. At the same time, the location had to have three meeting rooms, allowing for flexible work with different group compositions. It was precisely this combination that made this request interesting: style, content, and group dynamics all had to be in balance.
Because GSE-The Agency has already organized several trips for this organization, we were able to act quickly based on previous experience. We know what the group values, where the sensitivities lie, and how important it is to build a program that everyone can embrace.
Beforehand, all participants received a clear script, so everyone knew what to expect. During the trip, everything revolved around hassle-free support. With a workation, you want participants to be able to fully focus on the content and on each other, without being occupied with logistics, changes, or practical details. This was no different here.
Lisbon turned out to be a strong choice once again. Not only because of the city itself, but also because the setting offered exactly what this trip needed: enough dynamism, many good food and drink establishments, and an atmosphere where business sessions naturally flowed into informal conversations.
As is often the case with foreign projects, this trip did not go entirely smoothly. The technology in the meeting rooms failed, meals in restaurants sometimes took longer than hoped, and the weather threw a major spanner in the works. Instead of summer days, the group encountered severe storms in Portugal.
It is precisely in moments like these that you see how important on-site guidance is. Technical problems were solved together with the hotel, even if it sometimes went slowly. For the bad weather, we arranged ponchos and umbrellas on the spot and, where possible, we cleverly moved around the rain showers. And if the pace in the catering didn't match what the group needed, it sometimes simply meant stepping in ourselves to get things moving.
You can't prevent everything, but you can ensure the impact remains small. And that's precisely where the added value lay for this client: knowing there's someone ready to act immediately, resolve issues, and maintain calm.
Despite the circumstances, the core of the trip remained intact. The team spent five days away together, worked intensively with each other, and also had ample opportunity to spend time together in other ways outside of the sessions. This is precisely where the strength of a workation lies: not only making progress on content but also building mutual understanding, energy, and connection.
The city absolutely helped with that. Lisbon has enough character to spark something in a group even outside of the program. Eating together, going out into the city together, working together when things don't go as expected: it's precisely those kinds of moments that make people return differently than they left.
As is often the case with foreign projects, this trip did not go entirely smoothly. The technology in the meeting rooms failed, meals in restaurants sometimes took longer than hoped, and the weather threw a major spanner in the works. Instead of summer days, the group encountered severe storms in Portugal.
It is precisely in moments like these that you see how important on-site guidance is. Technical problems were solved together with the hotel, even if it sometimes went slowly. For the bad weather, we arranged ponchos and umbrellas on the spot and, where possible, we cleverly moved around the rain showers. And if the pace in the catering didn't match what the group needed, it sometimes simply meant stepping in ourselves to get things moving.
You can't prevent everything, but you can ensure the impact remains small. And that's precisely where the added value lay for this client: knowing there's someone ready to act immediately, resolve issues, and maintain calm.
Despite the circumstances, the core of the trip remained intact. The team spent five days away together, worked intensively with each other, and also had ample opportunity to spend time together in other ways outside of the sessions. This is precisely where the strength of a workation lies: not only making progress on content but also building mutual understanding, energy, and connection.
The city absolutely helped with that. Lisbon has enough character to spark something in a group even outside of the program. Eating together, going out into the city together, working together when things don't go as expected: it's precisely those kinds of moments that make people return differently than they left.
Ultimately, the group's reactions were positive. Not because everything went perfectly, but precisely because they noticed how much was being absorbed along the way. That was seen and appreciated. Afterwards, they were all on the same page again and the team could move forward with renewed focus towards the new targets.
Perhaps that was also the real benefit of this workation. Not just a few days of working abroad, but a trip that helped to set a new course together.
And for us, the greatest compliment was in something very concrete: we're invited back in September.
Karen van den Berg
Team Manager
