At Encurio, we have a hybrid team of professionals scattered across the US! This June, we had our first opportunity to gather all together for our Summer Session.
Welcome to the Office!
Thursday was a travel day for all our out-of-towners. Whitney flew in from Texas and spent the day with us in the office! As an office of foodies, we took the opportunity to treat her to some of our favorite local tacos. Suzanne, our newest teammate, arrived just in time to make an ice cream run at Thriftys.
The rest of the afternoon was spent gathered around our team lunch table, playing games, chatting, and relaxing in preparation for our action-packed day two. Kelly arrived later in the evening to join the other out-of-towners for a delicious shabu shabu dinner with Tiffany.
Giving Back with Giving Children Hope
To kick off day two, we made the trek to Buena Park for a morning with Giving Children Hope.
Giving Children Hope is a faith-based non-profit serving Southern California. Their mission is to provide aid and education to families in unstable housing, with the goal of helping them find a path out of a cycle of need by building their community and teaching self-sustainability habits.
We joined Giving Children Hope in their Weekly Produce Distribution. This program distributes fresh produce including milk, meat, fresh vegetables, and baked goods to over 200 families weekly, with 50 to 80 pounds of fresh food going to each family.
At the dairy station, Gaby, Mackenzie, Mallory, Suzanne, and Whitney handed out milk, eggs, and yogurt to every car that drove through the pick-up line. Across the way, Jake, Tiffany, and Kelly handed out oranges and lentils while Andrew passed out meat nearby.
“I’m very grateful to have had the chance to volunteer with GCH,” Gaby said. “It was a very fulfilling experience. It was heartwarming seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces when we were loading up their cars with groceries. GCH is a wonderful organization and I hope to continue helping them serve the community.”
Connection with our community is the Encurio way and getting to live out our values together was the most fulfilling part of the weekend for all of us.
The Encurio Summer Session
After volunteering (and a quick break for In-N-Out), the team settled into our conference space.
Tiffany and Jake led us through a presentation to review our strengths and our plan for the year ahead. Following the theory in one of Tiffany’s recent favorite books The 6 Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni, we compared our results to see where our different “geniuses” are.
Knowing what parts of the process we enjoy (and which parts of the process drive us crazy) lets us strategize how to live in alignment with another one of our values – “be your full self.” And it was another way for us to all learn a little more about each other!
Next was a brief team building break, where each group had to assemble a tower using twenty pieces of spaghetti, a marshmallow, a foot of tape, and a piece of string. The goal was to build the tallest tower and mount a marshmallow on top. Despite stiff competition, Kelly, Mallory, and Tiffany were declared the winners!
Once everyone settled back in, the conference closed with a review of our goals for the second half of 2023.
Bowling & Bonding
Once everyone had the chance to go home and recharge, we met back up for an evening of bowling and conversation best summarized in photos. But for the record, Whitney was definitely our most skilled bowler – even if Jake was the only one to take a bowling course in college.
Brunch & Pictures
Before we said goodbye, we had to celebrate with one more meal. We congregated at Tiffany’s house for a beautiful brunch and spent the morning eating, chatting, and laughing. The morning was rounded out by a very lively game of Heads Up before the final event of the weekend: a photo shoot.
Safe Travels!
Sending off our out-of-towners at the end of the day was bittersweet after such an exciting weekend.
“It feels so different when you’re in person,” Tiffany said. “The main point of the whole summer session was to get to know each other outside of work, to deepen our relationships, and do things outside of the office.”
At Encurio, we want to grow together, and creating positive relationships is key to growing and being happy at work. Having the opportunity to nurture that bond and know each other beyond emails and meetings during our summer session was amazing – and pivotal to our company culture. We can’t wait to meet again!
