Do Food

Our small team had to prepare weekly status reports. We hated this job and the wasted meeting time it took each week. Someone told me that the next meeting was our team lead’s birthday, so I bought chocolate chip cookies. As we gathered for the meeting I said, “I heard it’s Tim’s birthday today, so I brought cookies!” It was as though we’d been living in a cave and someone had turned on the lights. People smiled and began telling stories from their childhood. The meeting was fun. We joked about the report and the task we all hated. We finished early. All this from a few cookies.

Make an ordinary gathering a special event by including food.

You are an Evangelist(144) or Dedicated Champion(129) who has called a meeting to introduce a new idea. Members of the user community are free to attend or not. You have resources, your own personal contribution or those of a Local Sponsor(186) or Corporate Angel(123).

Usually a meeting is just another ordinary, impersonal event.

Research shows that we become fonder of people and things we experience while we are eating. Even in ancient times, you can find that people understood the importance of breaking bread together. In Christopher Alexander’s pattern Communal Eating, sharing food plays a vital role in almost all human societies to bind people together and increase the feeling of group membership. Food turns a meeting into an event. “The mere act of eating together…is by its very nature a sign of friendship….”^[*]

Therefore:

Make food available at the meeting.

Mention the availability of food when you advertise the event. Ask for help from your Local Sponsor or Corporate Angel to furnish the food. This is an important sign to attendees that the organization supports the effort. If organizational funding is not available, you could buy some inexpensive snacks. Both your colleagues and management will be impressed that you believe in the idea enough to put your money where your mouth is.

Be sure you understand the role of food in the culture. In some settings, food and work don’t mix and the idea of eating during a business-related meeting would not be accepted. Each company treats food in certain ways during the workday.

Try to be sensitive to health issues. People who struggle with weight problems may find that cookies on the table are too much of a temptation. Someone with an allergy to the one food you offer will feel left out. Think about offering a bit of variety and some healthier choices.

There is no need to be extravagant; the forces are resolved in this pattern even if the food is simple.

Food is also important in small meetings, even between two people.

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This pattern turns an ordinary meeting into a special event and contributes to a feeling of community among the participants. Because everyone likes free food, it can draw people in. It will turn a mundane meeting, presentation, or other gathering into a more special event. If food is offered in the beginning, it starts the meeting on a positive note. If the topic gets controversial, it can put people in a more relaxed mood—they can stand up and get a cup of tea or grab a cookie. Food holds people’s attention if the meeting gets slow.

When you begin to regularly have food at events, people will expect it and be irritated when it doesn’t appear. If the food budget is depleted, have a Brown Bag(113). There are other ways to make a meeting special, such as holding a meeting outside on a nice day, using a different meeting management technique that people are not used to, cutting the agenda in half and letting people go early, or holding the event in a special executive conference room arranged by your Corporate Angel.

When the company started cutting back on everything, the food budget was eliminated for meetings. So Sue started bringing some inexpensive sweets. Sometimes “scouts” went out before the meeting and reported back to the rest of the group if there was food. It made Sue realize how important food was for the success of the event. When a manager came to her and asked for a retrospective, she would say, “I think it’s important to have food at the meeting, so I will personally pay for cookies for the team.” The manager would always reply, “Okay, since you obviously think this is important, I’ll personally pay for the Pepsi.” It never failed. Yes, Sue had to spend a bit of her money every time, but the manager would always ante up his contribution and the team knew it. It actually was better than when the company’s budget paid for everything.

When Rachel prepares for leading project retrospective sessions, she always reminds the organizers that they need to supply snacks and drinks during the day. She has noticed that participants often gather around the food for a friendly chat during breaktime and wander to the snack table when they need a break but can’t leave the room. This is important, because it helps to relieve the strain and exhaustion that often develops during the intense retrospective work.