Hi, my name is Stan.

We have a pilot program here at Horizon Media called “Dinner for 6.” A senior executive hosts a kind of “blind date dinner” for six randomly selected employees.

The six employees generally don’t work together day-to-day and everyone is able to get to know each another in a meaningful way.

Some of things I learned at my dinner for 6 was:

• Alex is learning copperplate and modern calligraphy

• Mark traveled to Dublin, Ireland solo to watch a Penn State football game

• Emily absolutely loves New Orleans and is a six-time New Orleans jazz fest attendee

• Jacqui is a 10-year competitive synchronized figure skater

• Marvin traveled so far north into Sweden, the sun never sets there

We had such a good time that we closed out the restaurant. But the real lesson for me was just how much we really don’t know about the people we work with. And how much we can really learn from one another if we just take a moment to reach out, introduce ourselves and get to know one another.

Horizon Life means… discovering (in the inimitable words of Chris Martin of Coldplay) “that we are diamonds taking shape.”