Skip to content

It started at lunch.

At Jem, a South African workforce company, the whole team sits down for lunch together every day and someone asks a check-in question. Everyone answers. The best questions end with the whole table crying with laughter, and you walk away knowing something about a colleague you'd never have guessed.

We've loved it so much we want the whole world to have it.

House rules

  1. 1Phones face down, except this one.
  2. 2Everyone answers. Keep it to about 30 seconds.
  3. 3Ask one "why?" or "how?" before moving on.
  4. 4Start light. Go deeper once everyone's laughing.
  5. 5End on a high.

Why this works

  • Novel questions break autopilot.

    “How was your weekend?” gets “fine”. A strange question gets a story.

  • Positive and forward-looking questions get better answers.

    People light up talking about good things and what's coming next.

  • Depth should be built gradually.

    Start silly, go deeper once everyone's laughing, and end on a high.

For teams

Run check-ins with your team every day.

Spin one at lunch, open a stand-up with it, or use it in onboarding so new starters know more than just names by Friday. Five minutes, zero prep, and a team that actually knows each other.

See what Jem does for teams →