The Power of Connection: The Untapped Catalyst for Organizational Success

Organizations can be very lonely places. Over time, workplaces have tended to become more and more atomistic, with people increasingly working in environments geographically severed from their colleagues. Added to this sense of remoteness, employees are given individual KPIs, performance reviews, targets, and work plans; the prevailing yardstick for measuring success focuses on you, not us.

For individual workers this can often mean a sense of pressure and disappointment, and a feeling that success is an individual accomplishment with very little support.

Why does this matter?

Signs and effects of isolation

In my experience, the focus on individual, siloed performance often hampers effective cooperation and problem-solving, the very factors we know are important drivers for innovation and organizational adaptability. It is hard for organizations to thrive and grow when people feel under pressure, not supported, and underappreciated.

When we look a bit closer, we can observe some typical signs of a siloed setup:

Firstly, people who work in isolated environments often find it very hard to ask for help; they feel they are supposed to do their ‘own homework,’ and admitting they need help would be showing weakness, opening a window on failure. 

Secondly, many people also show resistance offering help and support to colleagues because doing so might compromise their own work plan achievements; the priority is to fulfill their individual targets. Naturally, we end up with selfish people in selfish organizations, with very little care for the overall, bigger picture.

Lastly, a relentless drive for efficiency and productivity means that workers never really complete their work, they perpetually move on to the next set of tasks after one is accomplished. The pressure never goes away. This, too, can have a direct effect on individuals’ physical and mental health. Work, from the perspective of the employee, becomes a combination of worry and anxiety and very little reward. If people succeed, permission to continue often comes with even more pressure and demands.

Organizations try to offer compensation; however, these often come in the form of external events, outside of the workflow. There may be the odd team bonding exercise, the night out, the pizza party, the offsite or the social event. These occasions tend to become opportunities for staff to let off steam, where they try to show their mastery, not vulnerability, and where they wear a mask of confidence and success towards coworkers because that is what is expected of them, and that's what everybody does. This masking often incorporates a fear of failure, a worry that they will be ‘found out’ as someone not quite as good as they try to convince people they are. 

In short, work in modern organizations is daunting, difficult, and a place where it is hard to survive alone, let alone thrive or grow. And yet, to learn, thrive and grow is exactly what these modern organizations need from their workers to be able to compete in ever more complex business environments and accelerating rates of change. In fact, the entities themselves need to become a learning organization to excel. 

So, what to do?

The great reset

Over the many years having worked in some of the world’s largest, complex organizations and offering consulting services to many more, I have learned that organizational learning per se cannot grow without structural and cultural ramifications. 

However, if one can build an organizational network of people who are empowered and willing to share their insights and support each other, in my experience you end up with a happier workplace, with resilient people delivering more, and adapting better to change because they feel supported and part of a bigger purpose than their individual KPI achievement.

Drawing from and inspired by these insights, I recently completed writing my book on organizational learning, I titled it The Great Reset: Unlocking the Power of Organizational Learning. The research for the book was based on interviews with many individuals, case studies of companies doing organizational learning well, alongside deep reading into the literature around organizational learning, some of which dated back to the 1980s. 

From this research, five core values crystallized, which, when collectively applied, enable engaged and intelligent workspaces that are supportive, creative and innovative. The development of intense organizational learning then leads to the creation of strong workplace communities and an end to atomization with its detrimental effects.

Five values to enable organizational learning

Value one was repeatedly mentioned to me: You must value relevant work systems and processes. The keyword here is relevant. 

Work systems and processes should not drive individuals; individuals should drive relevant work systems and processes that should be continuously under review. It means that they should be revised and made fit for purpose and capable of being challenged by those who work with that system or process to make it more efficient. 

This value alone could transform many organizations where staff have told me they can do their work despite, not because of, the work systems that they have to deal with.

Value two is valuing decency and human kindness. This value is the bedrock of a sharing, successful learning organization. 

If decency and human kindness are not consciously created, and lived by example, no one will share their learning, or their need to learn, in a harsh and judgmental climate. This value came up again, and again. People want to feel they are working in a tolerant, fair and generous working environment. It doesn’t mean there is no pressure to deliver, but pressure or incentives can be designed in a relevant and appropriate way.

The third value is prioritizing teams and small group working over individual performance. I realized that group work and team targets are ultimately more effective than focusing only on individuals. 

Inside empowered teams, workflows can be distributed based on competence and capacity with the aim to increase productivity. A welcome outcome of this ‘team over individual’ focus is the creation of strong collective responsibility.

The fourth value I’ve identified is to value your team's knowledge and expertise. People often know far more than their employers or even their colleagues realize. 

If you create an environment where knowledge and expertise can be freely shared, everyone benefits and the skills profile of the organization as a whole rises exponentially. Everyone learns, and everyone has an agenda to build their skills. Each challenge helps knowledge grow, and any insights are made available to the entire organization.

Valuing agility and flexibility in work and work practices is the final value. Organizations that allow an element of autonomy enable the ability to develop skills towards mastery, and if this happens as part of a community, intrinsic motivation emerges. This effect goes back to the concept of ‘self-determination theory,’ which has been around for 40 years, and a massive body of research supports it.

Conclusion

In conclusion, for organizations to succeed as a learning organization, I suggest that they value and consciously build strong internal communities and purposefully empower them. 

These communities can be cross-functional, and they will solve problems and develop collective knowledge faster than individuals. When you further underpin those communities and functional teams with your organizational lived culture, you strengthen the very bonds that keep people in organizations. People are more reluctant to leave if they feel a strong raft of support.

Technology is here to help. One of the great things about emerging new technologies that are coming into the workplace is that their focus is on groups and on community development through knowledge sharing. If you take something like virtual reality as a technology, it works best in a team context, and the most effective use of generative AI is to create fast access to internal and external knowledge. 

A new generation of apps focuses on community, sharing and building knowledge together, a powerful new way towards connection. They will deliver enormous value to organizations. I cannot wait.