At the start of September, twenty-three team members traveling from five countries spent two days together at our largest in-person retreat yet under the theme Individual Strengths, Collective Impact. We highlighted individual achievements, celebrated the impact we have had on health systems and people and reflected on where we need to do better – both for our team and the people we serve.

When you bring together a large part of an organization, it is not just an event, it’s also an opportunity to strengthen values and connections and reflect on what it is that makes D-tree, our people and culture, unique. Here’s a snapshot of what we were up to.

Competitions that connect

We know a fun competition can connect people, and we made use of that more than once.

Before the retreat, team members were invited to submit a story about a time they collaborated with people across the organization to achieve something. The best story would win bragging rights, a round of applause from the whole team, and a certificate to prove it.

The winning story came from our Senior Grants Manager, Duncan Muguku, whose day-to-day work truly spans countries and departments; his story showed that beautifully. Other stories carried the same spirit in different forms: a cross-organizational IT migration that only came together because a colleague gave up his own time to help another; a redesigned tool built by a squad spanning programs, tech, and government partners; and the quieter, often invisible work such as advocacy meetings, budget tracking and system integrations that kept major transitions with government on track.

We also brought the team to a go-kart track, and if we didn’t already know our team was competitive, we know that now. Turns out the same people who collaborate seamlessly at work will absolutely not let you pass them on the track.

Advancing our strategy

Last year we launched our new strategy, and ever since, teams have been occupied meeting with people, health workers and the government to truly understand how and where we can support. Currently, we’re busy working with governments to design what care journeys should look like for children with pneumonia in Zanzibar, people with hypertension and diabetes in mainland Tanzania and pregnant women with hypertension in Malawi.

Building on our over two decades of experience in supporting governments to strengthen their health systems, we’re now leveling up, changing how primary care is organized, how care is delivered, and how care providers collaborate. We’re moving beyond improving access and quality of isolated encounters into improving the entire patient care journey.

Leaving time to connect outside the meeting room

As a partly remote team, it was important to leave plenty of free time for team members to connect outside presentations and moderated discussions. We know that the best connections are formed and ideas sparked when sharing a cup of coffee, enjoying a big lunch or having an ice cream together.

As we close the chapter of our largest in-person retreat yet, what stands out is the stories people told about showing up for each other and the sense that this team can do hard things together. Our work is about closing gaps in primary care so people experience care better and last week was a reminder that the same is true inside D-tree: the care we take with each other is what makes that mission possible. And we’re carrying that forward into how we work. Staying curious about what colleagues in other teams and countries are dealing with, stepping in before someone has to ask, and giving credit loudly when it’s earned.

We’ll be sharing more about how our strategy is unfolding soon. Make sure to sign up for our newsletter to make sure you don’t miss any updates.