“ARGO is, for me and the leadership team at LIWEST, inseparably linked with Traunkirchen and not in the sense of ‘nice hotel, pleasant workshop room,’ but because of that outdoor exercises where, after five minutes, every participant realizes: Ah! Okay… so this is how we really work together when things get uncomfortable! 😄

We showed up with the entire leadership team and our process managers, motivated, well-prepared, and firmly convinced: ‘It’ll be fine, we have processes.’ And then came the challenges – solve them together, under time pressure, with limited resources, with coordination that suddenly no longer felt “strategic” but more like: ‘Does anyone actually know who’s making the decisions right now?’

And ARGO – above all Bernhard Gattermeyer – didn’t theorize for long but laid the system mercilessly at our feet: our pain points in process management were no longer “theory,” they were standing there next to us, sweating, wanting to be dealt with. Interfaces became real tripping hazards; responsibilities suddenly loud, visible, and sometimes a bit chaotic.

But, and this is what lasts, it didn’t stop at ‘Aha, we have issues.’ It also showed quite quickly what’s good about us when we truly commit. Honest learning in the open air.

Best example: the ball track. This seemingly simple thing symbolized everything: planning, coordinating, testing, adjusting – or just doing, learning, getting better. And we didn’t just “function,” we immediately broke the record. Not because we suddenly had perfect processes, but because as a team we caught that one moment when focus, speed, and collaboration just clicked. One of those ‘Okay, now it’s working’ moments you rarely forget.

And then of course: the raft. According to the plan, it was supposed to be orderly, straight, and “process-compliant.” It wasn’t. We built it – differently than intended, with pragmatic shortcuts, creative decisions, and that typical mix of ‘This will work out’ and ‘Why are we even doing it this way?’ And that’s exactly the point: it floated. It didn’t sink. And honestly – maybe it floated precisely because of that.

When I think of ARGO today, I don’t think of methods or models. I think of Traunkirchen, of this very honest learning in the open air – and of ARGO, who didn’t explain how things should be, but let us experience how they actually are. With a smile, but with real impact.

And that says quite a lot about ARGO for me: they hold up a mirror to you but in a way that leaves you not only wiser afterward, but somehow more of a team as well. 😉”

ARGO means learning together through experience – team building included!