What your teams will remember in 10 years — and it’s not your summer offsite

A general manager contacts me. Third reorganisation in two years, difficult first half. He wants a team day away to remobilise his people.

I say no.

Not because those days don’t work. But because his real need wasn’t an exceptional moment — it was to preserve, in the day-to-day, what truly sustains people.

What my former colleagues still talk about

It’s 2009. Sales collapse 40% overnight. With my HR team, we invented Friday evening venting sessions. And some days we came in with our toothbrush, not knowing when we’d get home.

That’s what my former colleagues still mention today. Not the eighth strategic plan presentation.

What we worked on together — differently

With him, we looked for something else. Not a new offsite. What creates genuine connection in the daily grind — the micro-moments teams never forget.

Keeping a meaningful project alive in the middle of the urgencies — something the team can feel proud of building, without waiting for a major win that may not come anytime soon.

Giving yourselves permission to be human: to laugh, to vent, to let the grain of madness show in small groups.

Creating simple, precious rituals: pizza nights when the budget is due the next morning, the absurd signal word in meetings for ‘I’m at my limit’, the ‘malabar bi-goût’ that becomes a team inside joke.

Celebrating small wins genuinely — not letting them drown under bad news and ‘yes, but…’

Why micro-moments build more lasting commitment

After 20 years managing teams, those are the moments I remember most. And that former colleagues still bring up.

We are serious leaders. We are also grown children. Our brains need these memories to keep fighting together — and to want to stay in the same team when the going gets tough.

An annual offsite creates a breath of fresh air. A weekly ritual creates a bond.

What are you building together right now that will be worth telling in 10 years?

→ Want to work on team cohesion and engagement differently? Book a session at manentiel.com