Last week, Mike came to the team with an idea: take a group of 3 people, go to lunch, and come back to him with one idea from that lunch. If you did that, lunch was sponsored by Caxy. The idea is to get the team talking to team members they don’t typically talk to on a day to day basis, and it gets some energy flowing around the office toward new ideas.
Meeting New Friends
I ventured out to lunch with Dave and Adam from our development team. Dave and Adam are two people I don’t typically get to talk with often, so it was nice to take some time to talk with people I don’t get to talk to often. Going to lunch with someone you don’t typically work with teaches you about what they do for the company, and also their perspective on the work that you are both contributing to.
What We Learned
After we came up with a list of ideas for things to improve our office, work, and culture at Caxy, we realized that a lot of the big ideas we had were very similar to one another. For us, big things that stood out were more hackathons, making a comfortable work space in the office (couches and comfy chairs were a big trend), and the option for standing/treadmill desks. Not only did the lunch give us the option to talk about these ideas, but it also showed us that we all have very similar ideas on things that can improve our everyday, and this process helped us bring those to the table.
How to Implement for Your Team
If you want to try this out at your company, it’s important to keep the rules simple. Having people come back with one idea versus a ton takes the stress off of the team, and they are more likely to come back with more than one anyway. Also, be sure to implement some of the ideas the team has! This will encourage others to give it a try as well.
Looking for more ways to generate new ideas around the workplace? Here are some other great resources:
