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Our First K15t Team Week: Make Great Better
K15t's Team Week is our new, colorful and innovative way of working together that we embarked on as a team just in time for the end of summer. In this blog post, we look back on the highlights and challenges.
Team Week – What Is That?
After a long time working in home office due to Covid, the K15t team started thinking about new ways we could all collaborate. Once the idea of having a quarterly Team Week was in our minds, we ran with it and started making plans! The idea was to create a week-long hybrid event to:
Focus on personal interaction between all K15t employees as a whole, and within each separate team.
Host our big, end-of-quarter meetings together – e.g. quarterly demos and quarterly kickoff meetings – to celebrate our wins and prepare for the quarter ahead.
The local Covid regulations were something we had to pay close attention to whilst planning our first-ever Team Week. This was to ensure that minimum distances, disinfection options and mandatory masks could be respected in our shared areas like the much-used team kitchens and the quieter meeting rooms. Some long-awaited team-building events were quickly relocated to nearby cafés and restaurants so that we could all be in the same room together.
A popular perk of working at K15t, our 'work from abroad' concept enables all employees to do their jobs in their preferred working environment. Even our dear teammates from the US and Spain were happy to make the journey to Stuttgart to be part of Team Week.
Presentations, Chit Chat and Party – How the Week Went Down
We kicked off Team Week with a long brunch accompanied by lots of hellos and catch up time which was followed by an opening keynote presentation from our CEO Stefan. He spoke about how K15t's has evolved over the years and shared his vision for Team Week. We also got to crown our latest Hacketse winners (our in-house hackathon) on stage. As well as receiving a shiny trophy, they were also recipients of a big round of applause from all their teammates!
The next few days were filled with a colorful program of presentations, creative workshops and many networking opportunities. In addition to the official agenda, all teams had enough time for workshops and brainstorming meetings to make the most out of being together in person instead of having those same meetings via Zoom. At our first in-house Barcamp we exchanged ideas on topics that affect our daily business. We shared our individual knowledge about them, which led to lively discussions and unique insights to take away.
In the evenings, we had plenty of time for team events to strengthen relationships and share lovely moments with each other. Whether it was delicious tapas in the pub around the corner, playing some Nintendo Switch games or having a cozy dinner in a more intimate group: we certainly caught up on lost time. We were also able to get to know new colleagues who had recently joined the team. It's safe to say we made some wonderful memories that we'll remember for a long time.
Friday was used to finish off some brainstorming meetings, to reflect on the week we'd had and to provide feedback on how Team Week went. Because only with constructive criticism do we have the opportunity to improve for future Team Weeks. This need of ours to always do better is wonderfully reflected in one of our corporate values: Make Great Better. What is considered excellent today may be average tomorrow. That's why we – as a company, a team, and as individuals – are constantly questioning the status quo and asking ourselves what could be improved.
Result: Team Week Is Just Getting Started
Despite some Covid constraints, we all agreed: this week has connected us all more than ever, and we have taken an important step of the K15t journey together. These five days have made us realize how much value a face-to-face meeting has compared to a virtual one and why it is crucial to have fun doing things together besides work.
The K15t spirit was in the air. It energized us all and created connections that encourage us to achieve our goals as a team. At the same time, we learned a lot about what we want to do better at the next Team Week in December and how we can successfully shape and live our new 'new normal' at K15t.
