The Importance of Lunch!
Let’s do lunch – what are the benefits to you in your business?
Lunch does not only provide sustenance for you through food and drink it can benefit you in a whole host of other ways
We often think we need to go out and get what we need from outside sources. Yet in many cases, the solution is right within our own walls or within our own network of contacts.
When was the last time your company had an internal networking meeting? If it’s been awhile, put one on the calendar.
As Tom Peters says in The Little Big Things
LUNCH
66. Across the Board: Cross-Functional Collaboration Is Issue #1—in a 6-person logistics sub-department, a 12-table restaurant, an auto dealership.
Therefore going after this issue daily is a Monster Opportunity. Want great cross-functional cooperation-opportunity maximization, or XFX/Cross-functional Excellence?
Answer: Make friends in other functions! (Purposefully.)
Answer: Go to lunch with people in other functions!! Frequently!!
Answer: Ask peers in other functions for some references so you can become conversant in their
world. (Big deal: You’ll find it interesting—and it’s a helluva sign of … GIVE-A-DAMN-ism.)
Answer: Invite counterparts in other functions to your meetings. Religiously. Ask them to present “cool stuff” from “their world” to your group. (B-I-G deal; useful and respectful.)
Answer: Present counterparts in other functions awards for service to your group—hold an “All-Star Supporters [from other groups] Banquet.”
Answer: When someone in another function asks for assistance, respond with even more alacrity than you would if it were the person in the cubicle next to yours—or more than you would for a key external customer.
Answer: Do not bad mouth … “the damned accountants,” “the damned HR guy.” Ever.
Answer: Twenty more things like this that boil down to establishing and maintaining and enhancing social-human bonds with “the ‘thems,'” as I label it.
67. Getting Along and Going to Lunch: Solving the Cross-Functional Cooperation Problem
There’s a lot more to say about cross-functional integration, but I want this one to stand by itself.
Do lunch!
Consider each workday lunch an “at bat.” Four workweeks at five days each adds up to about 20 “at bats” each month.
- 20 opportunities to start New Relationships;
- 20 opportunities to nurture or extend Old Relationships;
- 20 opportunities to patch up Frayed Relationships;
- 20 opportunities to “Take a Freak to Lunch”—and learn something new;
- 20 opportunities to test an idea with a potential Recruit-Alliance Partner;
- 20 opportunities to get to know someone in Another Function;
- 20 opportunities to … PURSUE or MAKE A SALE … to gain a Convert-Champion for your idea or project.
Each lunch gone is gone for good. 20 per month. 240 per year. To a Major League Baseball Player, EACH AT BAT is Precious.
To a “determined-to-build-a-matchless-network-and-collect cool- outsiders-and-useful-allies” … EACH LUNCH is Precious.
FULL ARTICLES HERE
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