Sharing a cup and conversation (across 24 cities)

As a virtual company with 24 markets across the country, 6AM City has to create intentional practices to stay connected. Here’s one way we’re doing it.

Team members set up their meetings. The coffee (or tea) was on us.

We held a company retreat this March in Nashville, Tennessee, that brought together our full team — that’s over 100 people — many of them for the first time. The purpose of the retreat? Team-building. It was a success, but we knew if we didn’t keep conversations going, we would lose out on opportunities for continued connection.

So we created something special — the Share-A-Cup Initiative — specifically to keep people talking. We asked team members to share a virtual cup of coffee or tea with one another once they were home as a way to continue strengthening relationships even after we were all back from the retreat. Bonus: The idea originated with a team member and was built by our company’s CLTR Committee, a planning team made up of a diverse cross-section of our staff.

The reception was overwhelmingly positive, so much so that we’re planning to repeat the initiative. Here’s how we engineered it for success.

Modeling the 6AM City-branded mug all team members received for the initiative.

The mug and the drinks were on us.

We offer reimbursements up to a certain dollar amount for culture-building activities like this, but we didn’t want anyone to have to worry about submitting receipts and expense reports after the fact. By taking care of the drinks — and the drinking vessel — we made it seamless. We also distributed everything at the retreat, which is where we introduced the challenge specifics.

Our eCommerce team designed the Yeti mugs, which were branded with our logo. Native Root, a coffee company that one of our staff members has a personal connection to, supplied sampler-sized bags of ground coffee that made between two and three cups. Asheville Tea Company gifted two bags of tea — one caffeinated and one herbal — for the tea drinkers. In exchange, both companies got a shout-out in our newsletters (all 24 of them).

Share A Cup participants took to social media to talk about the experience.

We built matches intentionally.

Just as we did with the retreat, we paired people up who didn’t often have a chance to work together. The goal was to forge intentional cross-company connections that would create opportunities for synergy and get people out of their usual routines.

The strategy was simple. We built a spreadsheet and listed half of the employees in Column 1. The other half went into Column 2. Whenever possible, we made sure that people we matched were in different divisions within the company, and we also did our best to group people who had differences in tenure and geographic location. Because we had a few people join the company after the retreat — but still within the window in which the initiative was scheduled — we were able to factor some into the spreadsheet as we built it, and we added a few others in and paired them together as they joined the company.

Along with intentional matches, we provided a list of optional discussion questions, designed to get people talking deeply. Sharing this resource meant teams weren’t stuck if conversation stalled. We included questions like: “If you could have any superpower, what would it be?” and “What’s the meaning of life?”

We required it.

Everyone in the company, including our founders and management team, was a part of the initiative, and we gave staff one month to schedule and hold their video chat. The meeting was expected to last approximately one hour, a length of time we hoped would force people beyond small talk and into real get-to-know-you territory.

The matches also served as built-in accountability buddies, creating even more incentive for teams to meet the deadline.

KCtoday City Editor Travis shows off his 6AM-branded Yeti mug after his Share A Cup conversation.

We followed up.

Listening with intentional curiosity is one our company values, and we see feedback as a gift. We sent out a survey so that staff members could share their experiences with the program. (It also helped track completion.)

The results were clear. People loved the chance to get to know one another. And while some people said the hour was a bit too long, and others said it was too short, the vast majority thought one hour was a sweet spot.

We got some great suggestions about the structure moving forward, as well. People wanted to repeat the program, so we’re planning to do new rounds once a year. We also heard from team members who thought that having small groups instead of pairs could maximize the experience. As our company grows, all ideas are on the table.

Have you created a similar initiative at your company? What did you love about it?