<img src="https://cleanmark.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/CleanMark-Community-Retreat2-290x300.jpg" alt="" width="290" height="300" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-18273" />CleanMark continues to invest in its people. At its annual retreat CleanMark welcomed its North American management team from across the US and Canada to two days of professional development in Fort Lauderdale. With a focus firmly placed on nurturing a learning community and team building, colleagues engaged in thought provoking activities that were both practical, educational, conceptual and collaborative.

“What’s really pleasing to see is the connections that colleagues are making, irrespective of their geographies, that they can draw on moving forward,” remarked John Vavitsas, CleanMark’s Founder and CEO. “It is this collaborative and supportive network that makes CleanMark such a unique place to work.”

<img src="https://cleanmark.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/CleanMark-Community-Retreat3-290x300.jpg" alt="" width="290" height="300" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-18272" />Highlights from the retreat included speaker Fotini Iconomopoulos, Professor from York University Schulich School of Business, who imparted powerful negotiation advice and in particular, the importance of the mental “pause” button and its ability to allow you to bring rational thought back into a potentially charged situation. We were also joined by Kris Diershaw from Transglobal Development Associates who delivered an exceptional time management workshop.

As one colleague commented: “The time management workshop was my favourite element of the retreat. It really resonated with my work life – I simply never realized how easy it is to get caught up in wasted time. It was a real eye-opener and the accompanying information and useful tools have already made me more productive.”

We were also really pleased to welcome back our branding stalwarts, Dr. Jeffrey Zink and Harold Howell. Their presentation and brand exercises helped new team members find commonality with their colleagues as they understood the “bigger picture” of what CleanMark’s values bring to their everyday responsibilities. Finally, CleanMark’s very own Director of Innovation, Technology and Integration, Dr. Peter Androutsos gave us critical insight into a topic that is affecting all businesses in our connected world – data privacy.

<img src="https://cleanmark.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/CleanMark-Community-Retreat1-289x300.jpg" alt="" width="289" height="300" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-18274" />The retreat was a resounding success, delivering team-building time alongside clearly articulated, actionable insight from leaders in their respective fields. Already paying dividends, getting together in person has had a positive impact, not only on the CleanMark team in attendance, but on the business and its operations as a whole.
