One hour can make a World of Difference
I took this picture last night at our program’s quarterly happy hour and it made me think…so often our budgeting doesn’t include room for team building or social activities. Honestly for years of my career I was a “get down to business” leader and didn’t put much value in those activities but that changed a few years ago working with a team in the UK that had been together on a program for over a year but never actually been in the same room together. One of the locals suggested after our first big room planning we fund a post work pub visit. I grudgingly agreed and went to be polite. I was absolutely amazed at the difference that company paid for happy hour made in the interactions the following day. People were much more open with each other and more willing to work together and negotiate solutions to resolve problems that had been going on for months. Since then I have kicked off big room planning events and always do my best to include a happy hour or other after work unstructured social time. In every situation the interactions the following day have been spectacular and the value of those interactions has far exceeded the cost of the event. That group in the UK planted a seed that changed me. If you haven’t had some non work related social time with your coworkers in a while give it a try and see if you agree!
Fully agree, you are describing an age-old secret Marine Corps philosophy… a platoon that drinks together will fight much harder together (against the enemy)! We had regularly scheduled drinking events, and they were mandatory (attendance, not drinking), and critical to unit cohesion.