Board Games As Relationship Building Tools

The modern board game scene has exploded in popularity in recent years. Many games are released every year and have a wide range of size and rules complexity. I have found that having a small supply of these modern games has been an invaluable relationship building tool. As an IT consultant for a mid-sized department I have a open policy to play games over lunch with anyone who requests a game. I keep a curated supply of games that take 15-45 minutes in my office. These games have led to many sessions playing and chatting with the professors and grad students in my department. As a new employee these sessions helped me establish peoples names and responsibilities, but they also have allowed me to form friendships and a welcome decompression time in the middle of the day. My talk will be focused on the above with more specifics of how I make it work in practice.