There has never been a more compelling time for communications teams to come together to help shape the future of work. More than two years into the pandemic, communications professionals are universally feeling both overwhelmed and underwhelmed.

The pace of demands is relentless, technology and organizational change is constant and stakeholder expectations are sky high. At the same time, communicators are fragmented, disempowered and disillusioned in ways we’ve never seen before.

Whether your team is in trouble, or you just have a nagging sense that things could be so much better, investing the time and mental space in aligning and energizing your team is critical. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is to slow down in order to speed up – inviting your team to step away from the daily grind and thoughtfully consider both what you do and how you do it.

One way to do this is a communications team retreat. It’s an opportunity to take stock of what’s working and what’s not, while reimagining how you can work together to deliver maximum value and impact. This is the ideal time to invest in energizing, empowering and enabling your communications team. As we evolve to new ways of working, an in-person, hybrid or online retreat can be a great way to turbo-charge your performance.

Communicators are on the vanguard of shaping the future of work – to do this vital work effectively, we must start by investing in ourselves. That could involve convening a team retreat and stepping up your planning or building capabilities in key areas such as agile, change communications and navigating disruption.

After all, if you don’t invest in your team, who else will?