Coffee Shop Talks

When I used to work at Dunkin Donuts there were many customers that would come in everyday as regulars. Most of them would sit in the dining area for hours and talk and catch up with others. There was one group in particular that came at the same time everyday without fail. They were all construction workers who worked at different sites. On their breaks they would all come to Dunkin Donuts to grab a coffee and to meet up and talk. This is when I realized the importance of coffee houses.

It is hard to run a business when all of the workers are at different places during the day and not communicating. There would be very little information flow if anything were to go wrong. Also, it would be hard for the workers to share ideas and strategies that would help for better and more efficient work. Since these workers don't have much of a break from their work day it is important that they use the little time they have to the best of their advantage. Meeting up all together is the best way to do this.

By planning to meet in one location, all ideas can be shared at once and there is no gap in information flow. This would be the best way to utilize the little time they have. One day in particular, I noticed that one guy was having a lot of trouble getting his job done by himself. He was easily able to communicate this to all his co-workers because they were all in the same place for break. One other worker was able to leave his job for the day and help out the other guy becuase another worker who was working close to his job was able to go finish up with that job when he was done with his own. If all of the workers did not meet up together they would not have been able to arrange the job placements for the day to ensure that all of the work would get done.

I was reminded of this situation after listening to Steve Johnson's talk "Where good ideas comes from". In this case, the combination of everyone's ideas helped the group to get all of the work done. If only one person had been working alone, the work would be unfinished. A good idea came out of the collaboration of many workers. So many people use coffee shops, even still today to meet up with each other and create new ideas. When many people are contributing to new ideas, the outcome is greater than if a single person was doing it by themselves.