80+ days around the world

or personally traveling all continents by staying at home in COVID-19

The Context

When the COVID-19 situation started to become my personal experience in late February, I returned to Germany from a business trip to Italy. Between Milan and Bergamo I’ve at that time coached a team of colleagues who wanted to learn about ways of collaboration in agile ways.

The Beginning

Luckily, some people I knew from the city whereabouts I lived before decided to go online with their regular MeetUp, trying out what could be discussed and created together. Using some new tools and seeing where this helped us. I haven‘t been with them for a while as it would‘ve involved a 5-hour drive but now, as we stayed connected anyhow … two ‘clicks’ and we‘re there. We‘ve had a joyful experience, a little banter here, some learning there and many familiar faces around. I really loved this company and the family-like feeling this evening provided.

Second step

There it was, my ‘second click‘ – going where some experts might be found. And from there, I found more and more groups in Britain and Ireland, doing awesome things online. I‘ve joined them in London and Leeds, Nottingham, Cambridge, Bristol, and Dublin, in Edinburgh, in their ‘Pubs‘, ‘Concert Halls’, ‘Living’ and ‘Meeting Rooms‘. I joined some Scrum Masters I admire and follow on LinkedIn, Twitter, and the like to hear them speaking. We talked about collaboration and what might be helpful to improve it. About truly listening with the least possible amount of prejudice and own beliefs about the world and how it should be. About giving respect. About helping without asking something back. Things like this. People who‘s articles and books I‘ve studied were suddenly in reach. Reserve a seat – be there. As simple as that.

Growing again

I learned about – third ‘click’ – many interesting fields like the pirates in the Caribbean between 1690 and 1730, their ways of not allowing things to get in their way, creating their own society at the borders of what was known to mankind as ‘territory’. I really didn’t know before about the advanced thinking of balancing power between the Captain and the Quartermaster on a Pirate ship (checks and balances as the Captain was not allowed to hand out booty or punishments), the ‘one man, one vote system’ or the health insurance system for injured Pirates.

My Learnings

  • reach out, it‘s open,
  • we profit all from coming together with respect for each other,
  • we can have a lot of fun, regardless of gender or culture,
  • it‘s easy,
  • I don‘t want to stop this connecting between ordinary people around the globe ever again,
  • let‘s continue at least with some ‘hybrid‘ forms of collaboration and sharing!

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I’m working as an freelancing Agile Coach, have done priorly some consulting in Health Care and worked long years in Banking. Following my interests mainly.

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A Wittler

I’m working as an freelancing Agile Coach, have done priorly some consulting in Health Care and worked long years in Banking. Following my interests mainly.