Last week, the Hoffman Lab organised their second lab retreat, hosted in the middle of the serene Teutoburg Forest. We spent two beautiful summer days team-bonding, discussing science and fieldwork, and organising lab improvements.

On the first day, we started by getting to know each other a little bit better by playing a game of “two truths and a lie”. In this game, each group member made three statements about their lives and the others had to guess which one was the lie. Next, we provided feedback to Anneke’s PhD defence which is coming up shortly, followed by a fruitful discussion of equity, diversity and inclusivity in the lab. After a relaxing walk-and-talk in the forest and a lovely dinner at the Brand’s Busch restaurant, we enjoyed the inspiring pictures and stories from Juan about the many field sites he has set up and/or regularly travels to.

On the second day, we played another round of “two truths and a lie”, discussed how to communicate our research findings with the wider public, and drafted a statement about the lab’s values and work culture that will soon be published on our website. We ended the day by openly discussing the supervision experienced by PhD students and postdocs in the lab, highlighting both strengths and points of improvement.

And of course, the retreat provided us with an excellent opportunity to take our annual group picture!