Building Stronger Bonds: Leadership Teams Unite Over Personal Stories and Challenges at Facilitated Dinners

Through facilitating story-telling sessions all over the world in many cultures over dinner (and sometimes wine), I’ve seen the exponential impact this can have on building deep trust and true collaboration between colleagues across functions.

Research supports the idea that sharing events from our lives outside of work with colleagues can lead to increased trust and cooperation, as well as improved job satisfaction and performance.

By providing a safe and inclusive environment for sharing personal stories, colleagues are able to connect on a deeper level and understand each other’s values, perspectives and hence how they make choices and why they behave the way they do.

Having a structured session albeit casual, will encourage the quieter ones to contribute and the “usual suspects” to practice listening and holding silence for just a few extra moments.

It’s one of the simplest yet most profound interventions I’ve used in my years as a facilitator.

I sometimes design a menu card they can choose from as there is absolutely no need to force people to talk about their deepest darkest moments, at the same time we encourage people to share something outside of work, something others probably wouldn’t have known.

A big component of trust-building is openness and intimacy – often we don’t understand why we don’t fully trust a work colleague but later realise that we just needed to get to know them better. Human beings have a need for connection and belonging, when we make the effort to be vulnerable we show others it is psychologically safe to do so too in our “company” – literally.

Reach out to me to explore further…it can be deep yet fun, without tears.