Last Thursday afternoon Brad sent out this Basecamp Message to the team:

For those wanting to make the trek to the office tomorrow (4/3/09) we will be doing lunch together and for those that make it in, it’s on me!

Wouldn't you know it, a large chunk of our remote-scattered-across-the-dallas-metroplex team made it in, even if it was for just a few hours and a trip to the local pizza place.

Maybe I'm a little naive

Now, I'm young and, yes maybe a little naive. I know bosses have been this kind of "trick" for years to keep people working late or on Saturdays or as a small motivator for their whip-cracking schemes. However, I tend to think things are a little different here. The fact is (and I think Brad knows this) that most of us actually get LESS "check things off the list" work done when we do come into the office. So why feed us to get less done?

Maintaining a Collaborative Environment

I mentioned earlier that many of us are scattered throughout the metroplex, but beyond that we have parts of our team in New Mexico, Minnesota, and one gearing up to move to Seattle. We use all kinds of tools to collaborate and work together. To be a functioning member of The Garland Group, you quickly must become well versed in Basecamp, Campfire, Highrise, IM, Skype, our HD video e-Review system, and more. (Maybe we should even consider building our own. Hmmm...stay tuned.)

Collaboration, and the tools we use to collaborate, are at the heart of what makes The Garland Group not only a rockin' place to work, but an efficient and industry leading organization. Maintaining that collaborative environment is all about knowing what tool to use at any given time. Face to Face collaboration (even if that face to face is via video) is an important tool in the collaboration tool belt. On top of that, the opportunity to do a lot of face to face communication at once is a very powerful and can be extremely effective when used appropriately.

Pizza is good. Work is better.

So let's take another look at Free Lunch Friday. Did anyone really come for free lunch? Probably not. We came because we recognized the opportunity of spending a few hours with each other.

If Brad did free lunch every Friday, would the turn out be the same? Probably not. Face to face is just one of the many collaboration methods and it may not need to happen weekly on that scale.

What if you offered free lunch to your team? If you see each other everyday, maybe it's not such a big deal. But what if you setup Thursday night dinner? Or Saturday breakfast? Is your collaborative environment good enough to sustain these kind of "off hours" interactions? Is your face to face collaboration being used appropriately so that these would actually be beneficial?

I like me some Pizza*, but great Collaboration is something worth the drive across the metroplex.

* Brad, if you're reading this, you don't necessarily have to take away the free lunch. It is a nice perk.