[DavidMcLaughlin]

Cause/effect.

I'm sure anyone who has ever worked in a team where things weren't going so well has tried the whole "let's go to lunch together!" thing but it's never a solution.

Good teams tend to eat lunch together = true. Good teams are good because they eat lunch together = false.

A good team evolves from a consistent and careful approach to hiring and organisation and when a manager groups people together based on common principals, approaches and motivating factors. Or they form themselves when people who realise they see eye to eye decide to team up and build stuff.

If people who don't agree on the basics or just plain don't get along get together and try to be productive, there will always be that loss of focus and resentment when compromises have to made. Getting together for one hour a day to make small talk doesn't change that.

[rubergly]

A bad team isn't going to be made good because of lunch. But I think the point of the article is that it can make a good team (full of very skilled people who are unenthused about their work experience) into a great time (full of very skilled people who enjoy spending time with each other much more). And sure, a group that constantly bickers isn't going to instantly transform because of spending time together, but it could build enough of a community to bring together groups that get along fine but aren't that friendly.

[roc]

Or you could turn functional professional relationships sour when people inevitably discuss the non-work hot-button topics.

All it takes is one off-color joke.

And good luck with your 'one big happy lunch' when there's a rift.