Ship-Shaped Away Day 

Before we said goodbye to summer for good and welcomed in our new Financial Year, the 100%Open team set sail to a little town in the heart of Surrey, where a narrowboat awaited us on the River Wey.

In the tight cabins of the narrowboat, whilst we got adjusted to our river legs and swaying heads, we delved right into discussing company strategy, marketing, finance, people and Union retrospectives as well as how we should celebrate 100%Open’s 10th birthday in style.

Though productive and insightful these sessions were, the true treasure was shorely in testing our teamwork and communication skills.

Several tree brushing, bank crashing, cow spotting, meandering miles later, we found ourselves needing to turn around. Navigating a 60 foot long 2 foot wide floating home through a three-point turn, on a moving river… well, that is no small task.

With a diverse team, including one regular boat go-er, four strong rope pullers, two clear direction givers and one with a Master’s in Maths (phew!), we managed to turn the boat around.

It was at this moment that we realised… communication is the key to creating trusting relationships. It is from this place of trust that a better quality of innovation happens. Anyone can learn this, and we’re glad to have had this eureka moment.

Whether that’s brainstorming new ideas, improving collaboration across internal teams, or… navigating the River Wey, openness in innovation really is what it’s all a-boat.