When Remote Teams Unite — The Cluj Connection

Get More Brain, the future of onboard­ing, upskilling, and devel­op­ing empow­ered teams, is designed around com­mu­ni­ca­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion to make learn­ing fun and engag­ing. As a 100% remote com­pa­ny with teams in Zurich, Switzer­land, and Cluj, Roma­nia, we under­stand the pow­er of tech­nol­o­gy to con­nect and engage employ­ees. That is what Get More Brain is all about!

Yet, we rec­og­nize that face-to-face inter­ac­tions are essen­tial for build­ing a strong com­pa­ny cul­ture and fos­ter­ing deep­er con­nec­tions. It’s like hav­ing a meal — tech­nol­o­gy can pro­vide the ingre­di­ents, but it’s the phys­i­cal act of com­ing togeth­er to pre­pare the dish and share a meal that brings peo­ple togeth­er in mean­ing­ful ways, and don’t wor­ry, we had plen­ty of meals, but I will get to that short­ly.

Our recent four-day retreat in Cluj, Roma­nia, offered the per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty for the Get More Brain team to expe­ri­ence first­hand the ben­e­fits of com­bin­ing our AI-dri­ven learn­ing plat­form with in-per­son col­lab­o­ra­tion. For many of us, it was the first time we had met our col­leagues in per­son, despite hav­ing worked togeth­er remote­ly for some time.

Depart­ing from Basel-Mul­house air­port on a Tues­day after­noon to Cluj-Napoca, Roma­nia with Wizz, we embarked on our adven­ture, eager to spend time with our team mem­bers in per­son. We returned on the same air­line Sat­ur­day morn­ing, hav­ing spent four days and four nights col­lab­o­rat­ing, brain­storm­ing, cod­ing, and indulging in Roman­ian cul­ture.

🔨🤝 Work and Bond: Strengthening Connections and Enhancing Team Synergy

Dur­ing our retreat, we par­tic­i­pat­ed in var­i­ous col­lab­o­ra­tive projects, brain­stormed ideas, and wrote code, all while appre­ci­at­ing the unique atmos­phere of Cluj. These face-to-face inter­ac­tions allowed us to deep­en our under­stand­ing of each other’s work styles, ideas, and per­son­al­i­ties, fos­ter­ing a more cohe­sive and aligned team.

Though Get More Brain is pri­mar­i­ly focused on lever­ag­ing tech­nol­o­gy to cre­ate effec­tive remote work­places, we under­stand the impor­tance of invest­ing in per­son­al con­nec­tions. Build­ing rela­tion­ships in per­son, both in pro­fes­sion­al set­tings and out­side the work­place, plays a cru­cial role in cul­ti­vat­ing a strong cul­ture, work eth­ic, and con­nec­tion to the com­pa­ny.

🍽️🍷 Work Hard, Play Hard: Embracing the Culture of Cluj

Our team retreat wasn’t all work and no play. After our day­time col­lab­o­ra­tion ses­sions, we gath­ered for din­ner and drinks to get to know each oth­er bet­ter in a more per­son­al set­ting. We indulged in Roman­ian culi­nary delights, such as mici (grilled meat rolls), var­i­ous cheeses, sal­ads, and exquis­ite local red wines and fin­ished up with the famous Roman­ian dessert papanași. These shared expe­ri­ences fur­ther strength­ened our bonds as a team.

In con­clu­sion, our Cluj team retreat was an invalu­able expe­ri­ence for all of us at Get More Brain. It demon­strat­ed the impor­tance of bal­anc­ing tech­nol­o­gy-dri­ven remote work with the irre­place­able ener­gy and cama­raderie that come from in-per­son inter­ac­tions. As our AI-dri­ven learn­ing plat­form is now in use, we remain com­mit­ted to fos­ter­ing per­son­al con­nec­tions and con­tin­u­ous­ly enhanc­ing the learn­ing expe­ri­ence. This well-round­ed approach ben­e­fits both our employ­ees and our clients, as we strive to meet their ever-evolv­ing needs.

For those work­ing remote­ly or in hybrid envi­ron­ments, it’s essen­tial to pri­or­i­tize per­son­al con­nec­tions and make an effort to meet in per­son, as it tru­ly enhances team dynam­ics and over­all com­pa­ny suc­cess.

Imple­ment­ing tech­nol­o­gy like Get More Brain to onboard, train, and con­nect remote/hybrid employ­ees is impor­tant, but so is fos­ter­ing in-per­son con­nec­tions. While we con­tin­ue to embrace the pow­er of tech­nol­o­gy, let’s not for­get to occa­sion­al­ly step out from behind the screen and con­nect with our col­leagues face-to-face.

The results might just sur­prise you.

If you’re inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about how Get More Brain can help your orga­ni­za­tion, I invite you to fol­low me on Medi­um or Linkedin, leave a com­ment below, or reach out to me direct­ly. Let’s con­nect and explore how we can work togeth­er to dri­ve per­for­mance, engage­ment and reten­tion in your work­place.

This post was first pub­lished on Medi­um.