Creativity, duct tape and raw eggs: a workshop at VAIVA
18 straws, 1 meter of duct tape and foil sound like a pretty crazy shopping list – especially when a lot of eggs are added. And no, these are not ingredients for a protein shake, but part of a successful team workshop at VAIVA.
Our head of department, Conrad, did not need any persuasion skills at all so the employees of his department met up on site in Gaimersheim for a workshop: “For us, it is a great opportunity for the colleagues of the two locations to finally get to know each other personally. Part of the department for “Safety verification and Business development” is located in Heimsheim, part in Gaimersheim,” explains Conrad. Getting to know each other personally also helps to improve cooperation in everyday working life. The participants of the workshop got to know personal similarities and learned fun facts about themselves: For example, that…
- for good food you even drive more than 3 hours to the restaurant
- the first name Christian is not a unique selling point
- we are all born on earth
- and some also screw on cars.
However, the focus was not only on getting to know each other personally and across teams within the department, but also on understanding the strategic development of the department as an opportunity for each individual: “The world does not stand still, but continues to turn – and we have to adapt to the changed requirements or even be one step ahead so that we as a company create the best basis, to be successful. It is therefore important to me that my employees are supported according to their talents and have the opportunity to work on strategically important future fields of our company. You have to see change as an opportunity!” explains Conrad. In addition to grey theory about the BV-Bench with live demo, some VAIVA experts held cross-departmental short presentations to inform the employees of this department about other exciting career fields at VAIVA. For example, a presentation on software development inspired: “After the talk, I would now like to develop software myself,” says Conrad laughing. Also there were interesting insights into the fields of “tooling” and “function development”.
It was also exciting when the colleagues had to use their creativity: The challenge was to make constructions of 18 straws and 1 meter of duct tape within 20 minutes to create more safety for raw eggs. After all, if a gravitational collision due to free fall from the parking deck can no longer be prevented, the eggs should be safely protected from possible damage by the creative constructions. But even more important than the creative egg protection constructions was the clearly recognizable team spirit. This should become even stronger with our VAIVA team workshop and form a basis for the future challenges.
And what is the lasting impression of such a successful workshop? It is not only very nice to get to know the colleagues from the neighboring department personally, but our head of department and the team managers also like to create a relaxed atmosphere with funny tasks, games and sayings.