Ever spend so much time with a colleague that you felt like you knew everything about them? After an intense sprint together, you can name their entire family tree–including their childhood pets. And then, all of a sudden, the scope ends, you both move on, and you only ever see your one-time work partner in their little Zoom box during all-hands meetings.
I know this heartbreak firsthand. And I also know the solution. It’s a Slack plugin.
You may already know about the sweetly named Donut, a digital matchmaker that sets up friendly meetings and creates a venue for non-work conversations. We recently implemented it at LOCAL to mix up our project teams and give our remote team members a chance to engage in some small talk.
Once Donut is added to your company’s Slack, it does the rest of the work for you. Employees can opt into fun conversations that are automatically started by Donut, like “what’s your favorite form of potato?” or “what’s the prettiest place you’ve ever traveled to?” Think of it as a digital watercooler.
Then, at regular intervals, Donut encourages team members to meet up for lunch, donuts (hence the name), or a virtual coffee over video chat. Pairing up folks who don’t already interact regularly helps foster new relationships and stronger culture overall.
While we’re in the early stages of our Donut journey, we jumped in enthusiastically, launching the program with Real Life Treats from local favorite Sublime Donuts. So far, we’ve already learned about the beautiful places our team has traveled to and learned a lot about our potato preferences. Someday soon, maybe we’ll be recommending our clients partake in their own Donut run.
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