Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to have reunion conversations to reconnect with
Speaker 1: your family or your work team after time. A part
Speaker 1: Sonya Lubomirski suggests having a reunion conversation with your spouse
Speaker 1: in her book The How of Happiness, a Scientific Approach
Speaker 1: to Getting the Life You Want, which is the source
Speaker 1: of several other tips we talked about last week. When
Speaker 1: you meet again in the evening, she says, have a
Speaker 1: reunion conversation in a low stress setting and listen. She
Speaker 1: acknowledges that this is tricky for couples with young children,
Speaker 1: and suggests coming home fifteen minutes before the babysit our leaves,
Speaker 1: or just letting your kids watch a show or play
Speaker 1: a video game for a while. That way, you can
Speaker 1: carve out time for you and your spouse to connect.
Speaker 1: I love the idea of reunion conversations with our partners
Speaker 1: and with other people who are important to us. It
Speaker 1: pays to be intentional and reconnecting after time apart, rather
Speaker 1: than just assuming that nothing has happened in anybody's lives
Speaker 1: and that we can just pick up where we left
Speaker 1: off the last time we were together. Perhaps when your
Speaker 1: kids come home from school, you all gather at the
Speaker 1: kitchen island for a snack and ten minutes of conversation
Speaker 1: about the day. You might even ritualize this reunion conversation
Speaker 1: by having a special plate that the snack is always
Speaker 1: served on and a special name for the time, like
Speaker 1: chat and chew. Reunion conversations are important with coworkers too.
Speaker 1: When you meet up with a colleague, instead of launching
Speaker 1: into planning an upcoming event or solving an I t issue,
Speaker 1: take some time to reconnect, to listen to each other
Speaker 1: to find out what's going on for your colleague professionally
Speaker 1: and personally. You can do this at team meetings too,
Speaker 1: through organic conversation before the meeting and also through more
Speaker 1: structured sharing as part of the meeting agenda. Sometimes people
Speaker 1: hesitate to have this sort of conversation with coworkers because
Speaker 1: they want to respect their time by avoiding small talk,
Speaker 1: or respect their privacy by steering clear of personal questions.
Speaker 1: And we do want to respect each other's time and privacy.
Speaker 1: At the same time, relationships fuel our work together, so
Speaker 1: it's good to know our colleagues and engage with them
Speaker 1: as whole people. So take a risk and reconnect personally
Speaker 1: before you dive into work. Now, you may be thinking
Speaker 1: that this is not the time for reunion conversations because
Speaker 1: you're with your family and you're never actually physically with
Speaker 1: your colleagues anymore. I would counter that reunion conversations maybe
Speaker 1: even more important these days. It's easy to assume that
Speaker 1: nothing has happened in your partners or kids lives since
Speaker 1: breakfast because you've all been in the same house all day,
Speaker 1: But in fact, work in school are more varied and
Speaker 1: surprising and often more difficult. Now kids and adults alike
Speaker 1: maybe having more emotionally intense days. This calls for really
Speaker 1: listening to each other as we debrief. What's more, reunion
Speaker 1: conversations can mark the end of individual school and work
Speaker 1: time and the beginning of family time to gather. They
Speaker 1: can be a helpful transition between those separate parts of
Speaker 1: the day. While families are reuniting after having been in
Speaker 1: the same space all day. Work reunions these days are
Speaker 1: more likely by phone or video conference rather than in person.
Speaker 1: Now it's all the more valuable to check in with
Speaker 1: your colleagues. When you see a video conference screen with
Speaker 1: a Brady Bunch grid of smiley faces, look more deeply.
Speaker 1: We need to acknowledge people's lives beyond those squares. So
Speaker 1: what happened since the last time you saw them? Take
Speaker 1: a few minutes to find out and everyone will feel
Speaker 1: more connected in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod
Speaker 1: that's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
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