It was time again to celebrate the meteoblue day: A yearly retreat with the entire team, leaving the office, laptops, deadlines (and home) behind. This year, we travelled to Konstanz (Germany), as always, by train (as the climate demands). The challenges started already at departure because our train was cancelled without replacement. Thanks to the event management team, rapid communication and Swiss Railways SBB's help, we arrived at the lake of Konstanz with just a few minutes of delay- and gorgeous landscape views on the way.
After snacking, we were ready for some more challenges. The warm-up exercises included freeing ourselves from mutual leashes, bringing more than 40 people from isolated virtual ice floes to safe ground in less than 100 seconds, and making a round marble flow through 40 meters of air with just the help of a few plastic gutters. Then came the bigger challenge: Building a real raft for real lake exploration, using blue barrels, a few wooden boards, ropes and harnesses. Creativity was abundant, as five different groups created different designs, and so was speed. All rafts were ready to float within one hour. And they did float (for the most part). A race was held to test the best design, with a clear winner, one capsize, a successful rescue, and lots of fun. If you want advice in raft-building, guess which raft capsized?
After having dinner and (a few) drinks in the evening, we set out on the next morning to explore the cultural part of Konstanz including city gates and ancient townhouses, changes of control and wealth, travel routes and boundaries, from pre-Romans to present, and the local stories and dialects. This was very attractive not only to us visitors but to many people who came here to live. After lunch, the train took us back to Basel, and this time, we arrived in time. It was great to meet the whole team again, and some of the learnings from our challenges can now be transferred to our daily operations and business. It's the reality which proves which ideas will work.
PS: The raft in the middle of the third picture capsized after some time in the water. This raft was very innovative, but the technology was probably not yet ready for release. It needs some additional developments to make it operationally work, but that is normal for innovations. At least the team fixed the raft while swimming - a hotfix in the warm water.
