“Wait – You were a professional speed skater?!”

I wish I were a professional speed skater. But I did meet one yesterday. He’s one of my classmates. We’ve worked on teams a couple of times and have a friendly relationship. But this epic fact had not yet come up in conversation.

As we wrapped up a team meeting, I was planning to stay on campus to finish some work. Two of my teammates were walking back to their apartments, and I made the split-second decision to join them. I wanted to get to know them better outside of a purely Kellogg context, and our schedules are already getting busy.

As expected, the conversation started on common ground (the project), advanced to the Kellogg community (the annual ski trip), and then we got to the really interesting stuff, like the fact that my teammate was a professional speed skater in Russia! From there, we talked about our past sports lives and made plans to go to the Chicago ice skating ribbon when it opens this winter.

I think the real strides in team relationships happen outside of the team meetings. In the casual conversations, the invitation to get coffee, the introduction to someone else. While the project may provide a shared sense of purpose, the project will end. If we want the relationships to continue, they have to be built on more than just the project.