Creating Connection – at (and to) work

I think my last two posts about social isolation, mental health and the new Corporate Connect concept have received the most responses to my newsletter in the last year!

Clearly, it is resonating with people that we need to create more connection at work, especially when everybody is working remotely half the time. I even had somebody reach out and say, I just want to do this with my girlfriend’s and my response was, “Do it, absolutely!”

If you want to create a connect group with your friends, you can make it happen. It only takes a little structure and a bit of organization. I can give you a few tips on how to create one, just reach out.

Most of the responses were about how to do this in a far more political environment. Great question and it is one we asked ourselves as we developed the Corporate Connect format.

We made some adjustments. There was always a promise of confidentiality. They shift was an angle that balances the personal and professional content shared. We still want to know who you are and what makes you tick; how you think and what motivates you in and out of work. We also provide a framework to enable people to advance whatever it is they’re working on, including developing specific skills, getting on certain projects, or working towards a promotion.

The Connect Conversations can also help you explore questions for yourself such as…

• What is your relationship to and with your work?
• What types of relationships do you want to have with the people you work with?

Understanding how we think about our life and the work that we do to make a living are connected will make you feel more connected to your work. Alan Mulally, known as one of the greatest CEO’s (and a member of the MG100) talks about it not being work life balance, but work life purpose, or work life mission. I love that!

As for the relationship I want to have with those I work with, for me, my best clients are the ones that have a very blurred line between work colleague and friend. Sometimes they started as friends but often, they evolved from professional to personal connections while still being clients or contractors.

Those are the kinds of relationships I want to have at work. As far as the relationship I have with work, why I do what I do is because my work is my purpose. Feeling that keeps me working a little longer and a little harder at what I do.

Think about that for yourself, whether you do it in a Connect Group or do it on your own. How do create that for yourself.