Earlier last week I was at the Dynamo North East office for one of our regular weekly meetings. To be honest, they are regular but I am not. Due to, in the main self-imposed time restraints and diary clashes I have only been able to attend sporadically, so infrequently in fact that I don’t yet have a key to the office.
They are good meetings as it allows us to share what we are working on and bring fresh perspectives and ideas to the table. It also helps the team to gel and to grow. It is in this vein that the story continues.
Apart from me, each of us arrived with a cake tin under our arm. My colleagues had been baking away furiously as they had planned an event after the meeting. Their aim was to get to know the other occupants of the building we are in and the way they had decided to do this was to use cake. The lure of sweetness could be used to spark new and useful relationships.
I have described before how lunch can be used as a powerful weapon. All of us are different and a great way to get the most out of a relationship is to have a relationship by getting to know each other better. Sharing lunch is a great way to start the process. Having cake is another, especially when they were as nice as the ones that the rest of the team had made.
I had another meeting to go and so missed what happened when they all got together yet there were a few heads poked through the door to say hello and everyone seemed happy when they got back. I must ask them how it went when we meet up again.
It is a well know saying that a family that eats together stays together and perhaps businesses that eat together can become a community of interest, with an improved and shared understanding. Who knows where this will lead yet it seems you can eat your cake and have it.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 