“I see you at the coffee machine a lot. Not enough work?” Many of us have heard a comment like that. Yet research shows the opposite: the five minutes your team spends chatting over a coffee may be among the most productive minutes of the day.

At Nexus, we see it in every team we work with. The teams that perform best are rarely the ones with the most meetings. They are the ones where people simply talk to each other, about work and about life. In this article, we share what the science says about informal communication at work, and five simple ways to bring the “coffee break effect” into your team, including in hybrid settings.

What the research says: communication patterns beat talent

At MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory, Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland and his team equipped teams totalling 2,500 people with wearable sensors. For weeks, the sensors recorded who talked to whom, how often and with how much energy. (Harvard Business Review, 2012)

The result surprised many leaders. The strongest predictor of a team’s success was its communication patterns. They mattered as much as intelligence, personality and talent combined. The researchers could even predict which teams would outperform just by looking at how their members interacted.

One experiment made this very concrete. In a Bank of America call centre, staff took their coffee breaks one at a time, so the phones were always covered. The data showed that employees who talked with more colleagues handled calls faster and felt less stressed. The bank then scheduled breaks so team members could take them together. The productivity gains were estimated at around USD 15 million a year. (MIT Sloan Management Review)

The lesson is obviosuly not about caffeine. It is about giving people time to share tips, solve problems informally and feel part of the same group.

Why hybrid teams lose the coffee break effect

In a hybrid team, the coffee machine is often replaced by a calendar invite. Every exchange has an agenda, a start time and an end time. The spontaneous “by the way, how did you solve that?” disappears, and so does part of the trust and knowledge that kept the team running smoothly.

The good news: informal connection can be designed.
Here are five ideas we love to share with the teams we accompany.

1. Synchronise breaks on office days. Agree on a shared coffee time when most of the team is on site. Ten minutes, no agenda, everyone welcome.
2. Open the first five minutes of meetings. Start with a short check-in question such as “What made you smile this week?” before getting to the agenda.
3. Create a virtual coffee corner. A standing 15-minute video slot, once or twice a week, where anyone can drop in. Cameras on, work topics optional.
4. Pair people across the team. Every month, randomly pair two colleagues for a 20-minute walk or call. It builds bridges between people who rarely work together.
5. Protect the lunch. On team days, eat together rather than at the desk. Some of the best ideas are born between the main course and the dessert.

The Nexus way: we create the moments, you keep them alive

We will be honest with you: this is our favourite topic. At Nexus, we believe a team is not built in meetings. It is built in the moments between them, the shared laugh, the spontaneous help, the coffee that turns into a great idea.

That is exactly what our team building days in Switzerland and abroad are designed for. We give your team time away from emails and deadlines to reconnect, have fun together and agree on simple rituals to keep the connection alive back at the office and at home. Nothing makes us happier than hearing, a few weeks later, that the team still meets for its Thursday coffee.

Curious where your team stands?
Start with our Team check-up, or contact us to plan a team day or retreat that brings your people closer together.