This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz
by Laurent Bossavit.
Original Post: The team-building lunch
Feed Title: Incipient(thoughts)
Feed URL: http://bossavit.com/thoughts/index.rdf
Feed Description: You're in a maze of twisty little decisions, all alike. You're in a maze of twisty little decisions, all different.
When I listed my criteria for good teammates, I included "will have lunch with me on a regular basis". That seems to have surprised some of my readers, to say nothing of those that were apparently angered.
There must be food - I first came across that bit of advice on Ward's Wiki, and it has helped me in many different situations. Whenever I run a half-day training session, I buy snacks for the trainees. At conferences, I've noticed that the best place to strike up a conversation is often the food queue. And it's over lunch that I learned the most useful things about teams I've worked with or consulted to.
For me, what happens at lunch has always been an index into the health of a team, and its relation to the rest of the business. Primarily, I find that if I'm excluded from lunch most times, that's a good clue that I'm not fitting in very well with the team; but there are other cluse. Do the developers always stick together, never to be found at the same table as the people in sales ? Is everyone having lunch by him or herself, in particular buying cheap sandwiches and eating at their desks ? Is there a huge contrast between the manager's lunch and the rest of the employees ? Are people very set in their ways, always eating in the same places and with the same tablefellows, or do they value variety ?
Moreover, people need a time and place where they can discuss things other than work, if that's what they like. Lunch is good for that. And for those people who are usually hard to shut up, it ensures there is a time when their mouth is otherwise engaged; that can be priceless. How else are you going to turn a talker into a listener ?
Previous Topic
