Science-backed ways to Build Connection and Gratitude in 8 Minutes
Can eight minutes of intentional conversation turn strangers into friends?
According to Kevin Monroe, gratitude consultant and recognized authority on cultivating hope and gratitude in the workplace, the answer is a resounding yes.
Kevin partners with organizations facing disengagement, burnout, and retention challenges, helping them build resilient, purpose-driven teams through innovative gratitude practices. His work blends neuroscience, emotional intelligence, and community-building to unlock deeper human connection, with powerful results that are surprisingsly easy to replicate.
One of Kevin’s most surprising discoveries is how quickly gratitude can dissolve barriers between people.
The Power of an 8-Minute Gratitude Exchange
In October of 2020, looking back on a period of chaos and overall human division, Kevin began hosting virtual gratitude encounters as structured, facilitated sessions where people gathered to explore and express gratitude together. Each session included small breakout groups, guided prompts, and just 8–9 minutes of conversation at a time.
Early on, one participant captured the experience perfectly: “We arrived as strangers and left as friends.”
That feedback became a defining moment.
Kevin noticed that when people are invited to share gratitude in a focused, intentional way, conversations quickly move past surface-level exchanges. People lower their guard. They speak openly. And trust forms faster than you might expect. Some groups found deeper openness, psychological safety, and vulnerability could form in under ten minutes, which is a huge win in a world where employees are progressively losing trust in their workplaces.
In one session, a group of executives spent just eight minutes together in a gratitude breakout. When a new participant joined their group later, they assumed the others had known each other for years. They hadn’t. They had simply shared gratitude.
“It creates a deep sense of connection almost immediately,” Kevin explains. “When people open their hearts and talk about what they’re grateful for, the relationship accelerates.”
Why Gratitude Creates Connection So Quickly
Gratitude works because it shifts attention away from pressure and performance and toward meaning and appreciation. When people share gratitude, they reveal what matters to them, acknowledge support, and recognize others in ways that feel genuine and human.
That exchange builds psychological safety, which is the foundation of healthy relationships and high-performing teams. In workplace cultures where stress and disengagement are common, this kind of connection isn’t just nice to have. It’s essential.
“Gratitude isn’t soft,” Kevin says. “It’s one of the fastest ways to build trust.”
A 3-Minute Gratitude Practice Anyone Can Try
Kevin’s favorite micro-practice is called The Cheerleader Challenge, and it takes less than five minutes.
Here’s how it works:
Think of someone who consistently supports or encourages you — personally or professionally.
Reflect on the impact they’ve had on your life.
Send them a short message expressing your gratitude and why they matter to you.
That’s it.
Most people receive a response like: “Thank you — you just made my day.” And often, the person receiving the message feels inspired to pass that gratitude forward. The data is clear: people who practice gratitude tend to feel better overall. What might change if you share yours?
Gratitude as a Leadership Advantage
Through his work with teams and leaders, Kevin has seen one truth consistently emerge: people disengage when they feel unseen. Gratitude directly addresses that. It reinforces belonging, strengthens morale, and creates cultures where people feel valued — not just for what they do, but for who they are. Small moments of gratitude, practiced consistently, compound into stronger relationships and more resilient teams.
“If eight minutes of gratitude can turn strangers into friends,” Kevin says, “imagine what it could do if we made it a habit.”
When Kevin shared that he’d been practicing gratitude for things he’d never consciously appreciated before—small, ordinary things like salt—it unexpectedly opened a door for Rebecca. What started as a simple gratitude practice turned into a reflection on just how essential salt has been, not only in our daily lives, but throughout human history.
For centuries, salt wasn’t a pantry staple and common food ingredient, it was a lifeline. It preserved food and shaped trade routes. In ancient Rome, salt was so valuable that it became entwined with compensation itself. The Latin word salarium referred to a salt allowance or money given to buy salt, particularly for Roman soldiers. Over time, that idea evolved. What once meant “money associated with salt” gradually broadened into the concept of regular pay, and eventually became the word salary as we use it today.
That same historical importance echoes through phrases we still use, like “worth your salt,” a reminder that value was once measured in something as fundamental as a mineral that kept people alive.
Even today, salt quietly protects us in ways we rarely notice. The iodization of salt in modern society has played a crucial role in preventing iodine-deficiency diseases—an invisible public health intervention hiding in plain sight on our kitchen tables.
What Kevin’s gratitude practice revealed is something easy to forget: the most ordinary things often carry extraordinary weight. Salt isn’t just seasoning. It’s history, health, language, and survival, compressed into something we reach for without thinking. And that’s precisely why it’s worth pausing to notice.
It’s easy to underestimate how much impact a small expression of gratitude can have, or assume it needs the right timing, the right words, or the right setting to matter.
These moments may seem small, but they can make an entire day feel different by building trust, strengthening relationships, and reminding people they belong.
Sometimes the smallest moments carry the greatest impact.
Listen to the Full Episode
🎧 Time Billionaires, “Can Strangers Become Friends in 8 Minutes? Kevin Monroe on Gratitude”
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