What can you learn from tasting coffee/tea with others?
You may want to reflect on your teamâs experience and the discussion that took place. Here are a few of the ideas that may have come up during your teamâs experience:
Establish Common Ground To Connect with Your Team
Teams can begin to bond through a shared experience such as a coffee or tea break together. You learned more about your team members by sharing tasting notes and establishing something that you personally enjoy.
Begin With Simple Questions to Build Trust
Creating an environment where team members feel safe opening up doesnât have to be complicated. Begin meetings and bonding experiences with simple questions to build trust. Teams whose members trust each other perform better and find more enjoyment in their work.
People Are More Receptive Than You Think To Inquiry
When questions are relevant to a conversation people are more willing to open up and share personal insight. When we share our knowledge and experience we discover more together and become more innovative.
You may want to begin a future meeting with a dedicated team âcoffee breakâ to reflect on and extend the learnings from your experience. Here are some guidelines and discussion ideas we developed for your team:
Planning StepsÂ
Set aside 10-30 minutes at the start of the meeting or as its own event
Stress to your team that this time is not a âmeetingâ but a dedicated space to have a break together.
Encourage coffee and tea consumption (perhaps additional samplings from your Teamraderie kits)
Have a clear plan to involve all team members present for the meeting.
Ideas For Discussion and Reflection
Begin Simply. Reflect Through Personal Anecdote. Ask team members about their favorite beverage from your Teamraderie kits. Or recall the process used for tasting coffee. What was surprising about the tasting process? Do you feel prepared to test your skills with a new coffee or tea?
Discuss Learning Origin Stories. We learned about our coffeeâs journey from farm to your doorstep. How did this knowledge â learning the origin story of your coffee or tea â influence your overall sampling experience?
Reflect On Tasting Objectively. What was it like to taste âobjectivelyâ? Were there challenges?
Discuss Applying a Beginnerâs Mind. The tasting experience in many ways requires a âbeginnerâs mindâ or a willingness to discover new and different flavors. What can we gain from applying âobjective tastingâ or a âbeginnerâs mindâ to aspects of our work?
Reflect On The Vibe. Did coffee/tea change the group vibe compared to meetings without a similar element?
Discuss Ways to Create A Safe, Enriching Meeting Space. âCoffee momentsâ like the experience we shared this week help to build trust, understanding, and psychological safety for our team. What are some actions we can take as individuals to ensure all team members feel comfortable expressing new ideas and opinions in both formal and informal settings?
You may want to send an email to your team to expand on the experience. Hereâs a draft email that you can personalize to fit your style as a leader:
Team,
Thank you for joining our âJumpstartâ experience this week.
Beyond a shared experience, I wanted our team to have the opportunity to learn more about each other and to learn something together. I enjoyed hearing everyoneâs âtasting notesâ and seeing firsthand how our unique perspectives can form even while describing similar flavors. Many of us (if not all of us) were new to true coffee tasting and by learning together, I know we can share in our respect for objective tasting and for learning the origins of common items such as coffee or tea. Each sampling had a unique history from its geographic origins to the processing method and finally to the preparation technique we used to brew our beverages. I look forward to discussing this further as a team and finding ways to acknowledge our own individual experiences and the unique gifts we each bring to the team.
I look forward to sharing more âcoffee momentsâ as a team and building on the connections made during our Coffee and Tea Jumpstart experience.
Sincerely,
Manager
Teamraderie experiences are designed in collaboration with management professors at Stanford University and Harvard Business School. Here are the principles incorporated into your experience:
Increase Collaboration and Trust through Shared Food
A University of Chicago (2016) study found people who consumed the same food or beverage would subsequently collaborate better and reach agreements faster. This Teamraderie experience gives your team the opportunity to consume the same (or similar) drink at the same time.
The Importance of Asking Simple Questions
A Harvard Business School (2018) study quantified the effect of asking simple questions to promote the exchange of ideas, fuel innovation, and build rapport and trust. This Teamraderie experience emphasizes posing simple questions to uncover the origins of âflavorâ in the coffee.
Shared and Simultaneous Learning
An Ohio State University (2017) study found those who learn something at the same time report feeling more connected to the people whom they learned with and rate those people as more trustworthy. This Teamraderie experience seeks to create a shared epiphany around the origins of coffee and tea flavor.
Includes Kit
Vegan Option
Non-Alcoholic Option
Includes Kit
International-Ready
Teamraderie recommends the documents and publications below for additional perspective:
Author:Â Mark PendergrastÂ
Highlight: âAs coffee was adopted from Abyssinia to Egypt to the salons of Europe, there was a transition in the nature of ideas that unleashed human progress at every wave.â
Author: Alice Walton, Chicago Booth School of Business
Highlight: “When exposed to deep vs. shallow conversations, participants felt happier and more connected, regardless of whether they generated the topics themselves or discussed assigned topics.â