Team of MPL Infrastructure at Kloster Banz

The president-elect of the Max Planck Society, Patrick Cramer, visited the MPL this month. In his speech at the institute, one point was particularly important to him: "We need the best people to get the best performance." For him, however, that applies not only to the scientific staff, but also to the infrastructure that surrounds them.
It was in precisely this spirit that, on the initiative of MPL infrastructure manager Dorothe Burggraf, the entire infrastructure team traveled to Kloster Banz for a two-day retreat. In the time-honored former Benedictine monastery, the employees were able to develop new perspectives for their work and for working together at a distance from their daily routine. At the Marketplace of Expectations, team members from the IT, Finance, Purchasing, Human Resources, Travel and Welcome Center, Front Office, Building Services and Communications departments had the opportunity to interact with the other departments in a lively exchange, to find solutions together and to discuss new ideas on how to further improve the wide range of services for researchers at MPL. In the values workshop, working groups engaged in elaborating which values the MPL Infra teams identify with and what they mean to them.
Especially important for the success of the retreat was the strengthening of the WE feeling. The employees were able to get to know their colleagues better over dinner or a hike in the most beautiful weather, and they were able to grow together over Mensch Ärgere Dich Nicht or an extremely emotional round of Uno and get to know completely new sides of their colleagues.
Dorothe Burggraf knows the potential of retreats, but the overwhelmingly positive feedback has also exceeded her expectations: "I've often heard as feedback that retreats like this help us improve ourselves and grow closer as a team. Some have also said they are already looking forward to the next retreat."