We are all suffering from the restrictions and conditions that the Corona crisis has brought us for weeks. In the nerd.vision Scrum team we are used to working with direct communication, so to speak "hand in hand", and the permanent isolation in the home office represents a bitter break in our working life and far beyond. Here, in the heart of Baden-Württemberg, we are experiencing these times with great concern but also with a feeling of relative security, as the German health care system has so far been able to cope well with the challenges of the pandemic and the population is behaving prudently and understandingly.

Even though the use of Google Meet, Slack, Discord and similar tools allows us to continue to work closely together - at least virtually - this cooperation feels different. Some of us struggle with the challenges of encouraging school-age children to teach from home in addition to work, while other, single colleagues struggle with the loneliness and monotony of the everyday home office. All in all, a climate that does not exactly have a positive effect on the creativity, inspiration and effectiveness of a team.

So in order to strengthen our team spirit and counteract the "Groundhog Day" effect, we have arranged to meet for a real meeting, but without ignoring the rules of social distancing. For our team, this meant a joint tour with the eMTBs through the nearby Schönbuch Nature Park, where we were together, but not as a group and with the necessary distance. At Intergral, we benefit from the opportunity to enjoy a bicycle of our own choice for a manageable monthly amount of money - an offer (bike leasing) that has become increasingly popular in Germany in recent years, not only for tax reasons, but also because a growing number of employees like to take advantage of it.

When we decided to go on a tour together, we were aware that there are currently very different opinions regarding the risk of doing outdoor sports. After the initial statements that the risk of infection is extremely low when cycling, a recent study by the universities of Leuven and Eindhoven now suggests that droplets may be able to fly much further than the one or two metres often mentioned, and that the risk is therefore much higher than expected.

On our tour we decided to keep too much distance rather than too little. And after the tour we had no question that it was an absolute hit in terms of team building and cohesion.

In that sense:

Stay healthy - as a team and as a person!