Key learnings from first work trip in almost 3 years !

Key learnings from first work trip in almost 3 years !?

Since joining Wildlife 6 months ago it has already been a journey with many development opportunities in a super cool sector that was all very new to me - the vast world of gaming. With that, recently I had the privilege to travel for the first time to S?o Paulo, Brazil - where our HQ is based. This was my first time in over 2 years being at an offsite, being in an office environment, presenting in person to a group, having conversations at the coffee area, being at team events/dinners, the list goes on. I must admit that all of these things on the flight to Brazil did cross my mind; “would I fall into the same ease of these situations over 2 (almost 3) years on?!”

The answer was indeed yes (plus 1!). One of the big realizations for me from the visit was that face to face time truly does hold a different level of productivity.?

Some examples ….

(1) Seeing your colleagues as truly human - one memory of the full team blasting out Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, locked arms at a karaoke evening springs to mind - it doesn’t get more real than that !?

(2) The ability to get things done at speed - one example of this was when myself and 2 colleagues were asked to join a conversation and after literally 30 seconds the matter was resolved and a comment made from a colleague was “isn’t it interesting, if we were all at home this would have taken us a few hours between meetings and getting time on diaries to get that done?”.?

(3) The ability to experience the real benefits of diverse thoughts, opinions etc. In our main planning meetings all week it was a truly diverse group - a great bunch who all met for the first time but consistently bounced off each other irrespective of the topic via an air of positive energy.?

(4) Simply building relationships - getting to know people more for who they truly are - work styles, reactions, forming opinions, sense of humor, body language … in summary general interactions - that are all so much less visible over Zoom.?

(5) Experiencing in our case the true S?o Paulo Wildlife office culture - from the great office location in the city, to walking in the impressive main building entrance, to the noise and buzz of the office floor, to the warm welcome of our facilities team every morning, to the super cool balcony to take lunch - all of this does add up to walk away with a much more real feel of what Wildlife represents.?

I currently, being based from Cork, Ireland, am located roughly 3 hours from our Dublin office. I know now however that the learnings from this recent trip have motivated me to go to see colleagues much more in our Dublin office in person which I truly look forward to - a number of us already have confirmed plans for this!?

If I can achieve at least some things from this post it would be to (1) remind just some of my network the value of face to face as for me at least it has been easy to forget this in recent years (2) Travel brings with it some hiccups (remembering back to the morning of my return flight realizing I lost my main bank card) - but all of these things are easily fixable vs the positive experiences we get from such a trip (remembering back to the great history of S?o Paulo conversation that same morning from our driver as we drove through various parts of the city on the way to the airport) (3) Let’s not forget the almost 2 year period in most countries where we could not meet in person - it is fantastic that we have overcome this time and let’s be grateful that we can now do these normal things again. (4) 3 years on, visibly standing outside a meeting room when the previous person is still in there finishing their own meeting still works - I was both the victim plus the instigator of this practice during that week in the office? - that one hasn’t changed ?

Please note - this post is not intended as a “working from home bashing post” - we are absolutely a remote first culture - this is more; if you do have the opportunity to get to an office every so often maybe consider doing it if you aren’t already - it can be pretty cool

And of course lastly - I wouldn’t be a recruiter if I didn’t mention - we are hiring, we are at a super stage in this journey with endless potential, I am definitely excited … please feel free to get in touch if this seems of interest and let’s see if you happen to be the next “Wilder”

Have a great rest of the week ahead all!

#freethecreators?#wildlifestudios?#wearewild

Ozden Onder David Buckmaster Antonella Schiavoni Brandon Lukach Renata Cho Rafael Garcia Ana Luisa Bordonalli Santos Andrew Chan