Tuesday did not start out much better than the previous day. Still no email. Still too many spreadsheets. It was difficult to merely stay on task let alone bring some sort of change to office communication. Regardless, my determination rarely wanes.
As I was sitting there pouring over my lists of names and budgets and the likes, I just kept asking myself, "What can I do today that will make a difference?" As stated yesterday, small wins are big gains and I wanted even the tiniest win if at all possible.
Lunchtime was rolling around and, although I wasn't very hungry, I had barely talked with my coworkers all day so I thought perhaps it was time to go for a walk and get some food ... for everyone.
According to a study authored by Kevin Knifflin, professors at Cornell found that groups who ate meals together have better group job performance than teams who dine solo (Kelley, S., 2015).
Unfortunately, both of my coworkers were not interested in the offer of me picking up lunch, however, one was. So, once I returned with the food we dined together and chatted about work and life. I asked him how he was getting on with SLACK and he shared some struggles he was having. I offered my sympathies and suggestions on how those problems might be solved. He seemed open to my ideas. We also talked about our website and changes that needed to be made and a bunch more things we probably would not have discussed had I not sat down with him to have lunch.
I was saddened that my other colleague was disinterested in spending this time with us, as I felt like he really missed out on some important conversations. I offered for him to sit with us, but he stated he had work to do. That I can respect.
Perhaps I did not incite much change over the course of the day, but I still participated in keeping communication alive in the office. I will take that as my tiniest of wins.
References:
Kelley, Susan. (2015, Nov 19). Groups that eat together perform better together. Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved from: http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2015/11/groups-eat-together-perform-better-together
As I was sitting there pouring over my lists of names and budgets and the likes, I just kept asking myself, "What can I do today that will make a difference?" As stated yesterday, small wins are big gains and I wanted even the tiniest win if at all possible.
Lunchtime was rolling around and, although I wasn't very hungry, I had barely talked with my coworkers all day so I thought perhaps it was time to go for a walk and get some food ... for everyone.
According to a study authored by Kevin Knifflin, professors at Cornell found that groups who ate meals together have better group job performance than teams who dine solo (Kelley, S., 2015).
Unfortunately, both of my coworkers were not interested in the offer of me picking up lunch, however, one was. So, once I returned with the food we dined together and chatted about work and life. I asked him how he was getting on with SLACK and he shared some struggles he was having. I offered my sympathies and suggestions on how those problems might be solved. He seemed open to my ideas. We also talked about our website and changes that needed to be made and a bunch more things we probably would not have discussed had I not sat down with him to have lunch.
I was saddened that my other colleague was disinterested in spending this time with us, as I felt like he really missed out on some important conversations. I offered for him to sit with us, but he stated he had work to do. That I can respect.
Perhaps I did not incite much change over the course of the day, but I still participated in keeping communication alive in the office. I will take that as my tiniest of wins.
References:
Kelley, Susan. (2015, Nov 19). Groups that eat together perform better together. Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved from: http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2015/11/groups-eat-together-perform-better-together
Perhaps that "tiniest of wins" will turn out to be a huge success later on down the road. You never know, something said during your conversation, or the act of inviting everyone to join you for lunch, has had a greater impact than you think.
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