Working remotely – connecting personally. A project to bridge isolation

Real talk – You know all about how 2020 went, and you read all about how it impacted people – even felt it on your skin yourself. Instead of repeating lines about pandemic impacts, I want to share a work project of 2 great colleagues and myself that resonated better than expected, and can help overcome at least some aspects of isolation. It is easy to replicate, so give it a shot if you see the opportunity for yourself!

Connect hundreds of people with minimal time investment, and contribute to their wellbeing and network building.

What is this foreshadowed project about?
In short – We are pairing colleagues from the Early in Career program randomly each month, and make them connect through an official program named – Blind Coffee. The pairs then set up 30 minutes chat, dedicated to build their network and make new friends from around the world – all built on the foundation that participants have at least one common point in their life: the Early in Career program.

We started small and simple. 3 people having a regular chat, without a pre-set agenda. We expanded, quickly reaching 40 enthusiastic people in a close community in Central Europe – but coffee, networking and friendships should be international, so after a simple LinkedIn post in a relevant group and a couple of chats within the company the program started to expand and is on track to soon exceed 200 participants. All mostly driven organically, just by showing people the 2 sentence value proposition: opt in to get a random pair, and make new friends each month.

Over the course of 6 months an initiative having 3 regulars, turned to a regional 40 participant program, then a worldwide initiative, with hundreds of people – growing day by day.

There is way more to go for us to color the participant map and diversify our attendee list, but if you are curious to get the essence of how to kick off such an approach, read further to see learnings and my advice!

Why does it work for us?

Someone else justifies for you to have time off and chat with someone unofficially – guilt of taking care of yourself is alleviated!
You get a pair automatically, no need to search, reach out – all is done out of the box, with like-minded people!
You don’t know the person? No worries, you are both in the same program – the discussion can evolve from there.

How to get started with it?

Create a brand for the initiative! Blind Coffee is just an option – which originates from a Blind Lunch initiative from our great HR team in Hungary – you can for sure find your own flavor!
Select a common topic that binds the group together – make it a meaningful connection, a topic that really ties people together and generates a sense of “wanting to belong”.
Invite people that are part of the group to register and “opt in” to the approach.
Make sure you pair people up on a regular basis. – You might start small, but if you are consistent people will look forward to the pairs and the connection.
No need to implement tracking (though you can) – people should own their own wellbeing and set up the discussions. I found that a good call to action in the pairing emails can do the trick!
The only caveat – will the pairing emails be read? Well – This is the level of involvement we expect to be driven by the pairs. As program organizers, we can’t force people to meet, rather give the best opportunity for it.

#2MinuteThoughts #peterkuna