After all, what humans seek is connection. Connection with the world, with the people around us and in its context, the connection to ourselves.
A company is a place in which people come together to create something greater then what an individual could do. Although this may sometimes get lost in strategic thinking or capitalistic-driven decision making, what a company is at its core is, like it name describes, companionship. Companionship sharing a common target and a set of common interests and values that a group of people is working towards.
Many companys today have lost sight of this core essential element. They may talk about inclusion, learning opportunities and quality standards. While these are important factors, they are not relevant when not being put in a context of togetherness.
In many companys that I worked with, connection was often an underestimated asset between the acclomorate of team compositions, strategies, processes and targets.
I believe and experienced that connection can heal a lot of things. When a team gains connection, it scales the perception of deficites into a perception of potentials. It scales the perception of tasks into a perception of targets - and it scales the perception of failures to the perception of learnings. When a team starts to share thoughts, values and targets, it can overcome obstacles easily and increase standards sufficiently. When a company starts to connect, it can set greater visions by enabling the potentials of its individual contributors.
To build connection a team needs trust, points of exchange and transparent awareness for a shared objective. Tomorrow I’ll be writing about the relevance of trust and how trust can be established in teams.