Mark Zuckerberg once invited Jack Dorsey for a home-cooked meal. It's a dinner the Twitter and Square CEO will probably never forget.
Zuckerberg, who'd once set a personal challenge to only eat meat he'd killed himself, offered to cook Dorsey dinner, according to a new interview with Rolling Stone. The Facebook founder served a goat he'd raised, killed and sent to the butcher.
Zuckerberg had entered into the challenge in an effort to be more thankful for the food he has to eat, as he explained in an email to Fortune in 2011. He felt it was "irresponsible" not to remember that the animals he ate used to be alive.
The goat was likely killed with a stun gun and knife, Dorsey said in the interview.
Dorsey said he and Zuckerberg waited around 30 minutes for the goat to cook in the oven. Afterward, Zuckerberg believed the meal was ready and the two sat together to eat.
"We go in the dining room. He puts the goat down. It was cold," said Dorsey in Rolling Stone. "That was memorable. I don't know if it went back in the oven. I just ate my salad."
While this meal went awry, top leaders have found that the right kind of meal can be a powerful team building tool. Daniel Coyle, in his book "The Culture Code" described how San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich uses special team dinners to connect with players. In fact, reservations at top restaurants for potential victory meals have been kept even when the team has lost.
For Popovich, food isn't just food. It's a "vehicle to make and sustain a connection," explained team general manager R.C. Buford in a Time magazine article about the practice.
As Coyle explained in "The Culture Code," Popovich has even passed out scrapbooks of the meals the team has enjoyed at the end of the season, signalling to teammates that they'd shared something special.
Other studies have shown that meals can create a sort of social glue that strengthens work relationships. In fact, Sociometric Solutions, a company that analyzes workplace patterns, has found that workers who eat together find it easier to talk to one another, boosting productivity and collaboration across departments.
It's an important reminder of how meals can bring workers together. The right meals — ones that build trust and connections — will always be remembered for the right reasons.
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