Virtual fika
Fika is a Swedish workplace ritual: a proper break, mid-morning or afternoon, for coffee and a chat with no agenda. Not a meeting. Not a check-in. Just people being people for 15 minutes. In remote and hybrid teams, that kind of unstructured contact has mostly disappeared, replaced by scheduled calls that always have a point. This experiment brings the ritual back, in whatever form works for your team. Try it when the team feels productive but a bit flat, or when most of your contact has an agenda attached.
How to run it
Set a recurring fika slot and show up. The lead goes first, every time, to signal it's genuinely optional. No agenda, no facilitation, no notes.
Pick a regular slot, mid-morning or mid-afternoon works best. 15 to 30 minutes.
Open the call (or the physical space) at the start time and be there yourself
Keep the invite open to the whole team, no pressure to attend
Let conversation go wherever it goes. If it's quiet at first, that's fine too.
Recommended time
4 weeks.
What to notice
Is attendance growing, shrinking, or staying the same over time?
Are people who rarely speak up in meetings talking more here?
Does the tone of other team interactions feel any different?
Is anyone visibly more relaxed or more themselves in these moments?
What this might move
Sign in to activate this experiment for your team.