Global Child Health & the Sustainable Development Goals team retreat 2023
Every year our team meets outside of the KI campus for a team day. It is a chance to kick off the academic year together, getting to know each other and increase the chances of research synergies and collaborations. This year we spent the day at beautiful Ersta Diakoni on Södermalm in Stockholm. One of the highlights was the session with invited speaker Anders Nordström, Ambassador for global health.
The day started with team leader Tobias Alfvén welcoming everyone participating online and in person. He discussed some of the latest global events and how the day will focus on strengthening our group. Everyone was then teamed up in pairs to do an ice breaking challenge. The task was to draw your partner without looking at the paper. Afterwards everyone showed their drawings and introduced their partner to the group.
Ambassador for Global Health Anders Nordström
We were happy to have Anders Nordström with us to give the session Global Health with a special focus on child health and the SDGs- How can research contribute? Some of the topics we discussed were NCDs, physical activity and how to influence decision makers. Anders will continue his work at KI working with health diplomacy.
Success stories- how to achieve success and thrive in our team
After a coffee break the group went on to do an exercise with the aim of identifying ways of achieving success and thriving in our team. The exercise consisted of the following steps:
- Identify a concrete example of success in which you participated. Reflect individually about how you achieved this success.
- Walk and talk in pairs, each taking 15 minutes to present their success story.
- Gather in three groups and present your partners story. While others present, take notes on themes and key words related to how success was achieved. After everyone has presented, note down all themes and key words on a flipchart/slide.
- Gather in plenary to present and discuss the themes and key words
Some of the key words were trust, passion/enthusiasm, receive/give feedback, empower others, and mutual goal. An important next step for our team is to reflect on how we make sure to incorprote these themes in our work.
Going from a team to a group: what is our aim, how do we connect, what are our roles and responsibilities, and how can we work better together.
After lunch at the beautiful Erstaterasssen overlooking Stockholm, the team split up in smaller groups for thinking tables. The groups were given four questions to reflect on
- How can we improve our website and other types of communication both internally and externally?
- We are going from a team to a group. What are some overall ideas to strengthening this group?
- Ideas for our bi-monthly team meetings. More often? How long? Change format?
- What research areas should we focus on?
Great ideas were presented and have been summarized and sent out to the team so that we can continue the work and discussion in the coming year.
Thank you to everyone who participated, and we are looking forward to a great academic year ahead!