Breaking Bread as a Team

For the first six years at my company we’d recognize birthdays, or a big customer win, by taking the whole office out to lunch to celebrate as a team. After a while, this became such a frequent occurrence that I decided to have catered lunches delivered to our office every Friday, 52 weeks a year. We’ve been doing it for over three years now and it is one of the best things we do. Here are a few reasons why it is so beneficial:

• We do it on Fridays, giving everyone a chance to end the week on a good note and talk about what’s going on in their lives
• Breaking bread with team members is a great way to get to know each other on a more personal level, leading to stronger relationships and more trust
• We encourage team members to bring in their spouses or kids, creating a family atmosphere
• People love free food and to debate which places are best to order from (we usually rotate between a few different places, and change up those places every quarter)

I didn’t know how successful it would be when we started, but having “Free Food Fridays” has been great and I highly recommend doing something similar. You won’t regret it.