As we prepare for our annual 2024 in-person meeting, we thought we'd re-share this reflection from last year's corporate retreat. This article was originally published on June 30, 2023.
So much has happened since the last time we all met in St. Louis! We’ve expanded our program offerings, developed new and improved educational materials, celebrated the opening of over 100 licensed facilities, and welcomed new folks to the team.
In celebration of our accomplishments, we brought the team back together earlier this month for our 2023 corporate retreat. As most of our team lives and works outside of the St. Louis area, this annual event offers the only occasion many of us have to see each other together in person. With this in mind, and to maximize our time together, the week’s events focused on both professional development and team building.
We spent the bulk of our time together in a series of workshops moderated by our friends from Psych Associates. Our goal in these sessions was to identify Pritikin ICR’s core values, mission, and vision statement. After some healthy debate and much collaboration, we landed on mission and vision statements we are all proud of.
Mission: Inspiring and empowering individuals and communities, driven by caring professionals with a powerful message of hope.
Vision: At Pritikin, we enhance healthcare delivery and extend the healthspan of patients through evidence-based lifestyle education.
The final outcome captured the heart of who we are as an organization so well that we launched into an impromptu wave.
Much like last year, our biggest takeaway at the conclusion of the two-day session was that our organization’s greatest strength is our dedicated team! Each of our employees care about what they do and are collectively committed to improving access to heart-healthy education.
After each day of professional development, we all got together for a casual dinner. In keeping with tradition, the location of our second dinner and accompanying activity was a surprise. Those of us who live outside of the St. Louis area were introduced to a local institution, the whimsical City Museum!
After a delicious dinner complete with St. Louis specialties, we adventured around the 600k square-foot artist-built playground. We climbed in the world's largest jungle gym, explored the enchanted caves, and slid down several slides.
Exercise is a core tenant of the Pritikin program and at the Museum, we certainly practiced what we preach. It was an experience we won't soon forget!
To cap off the week, the Pritikin ICR team ventured to Rhineland, Missouri where we enjoyed a day in the great outdoors, made all the better by fantastic food and amazing company.