Hiding Behind the Screen
We have made it pretty easy to hide behind the screen at work.
E-mail, text, instant message and social media. We have dashboards. Metrics. Our reporting produces more ROI analysis to validate our value. We automated it and measured it. We can prove it improved and somebody at some conference said this was the language the C suite understood.
Really?
You can’t automate relationships. Not real relationships. Not the kind that really matter. Not the kind the future of your business is depending on. Deeper, more meaningful relationships. Relationships with people who care. Relationships with people who know you care. Employees. Customers. Stakeholders. Ambassadors. Contributors. Evangelists.
I blog, tweet, facebook, comment, connect and care about my online community. I also recognize the tools and technology are merely the access points. Acceleration vehicles. Of course they matter. Of course they expand reach and extend influence. Of course they help me listen and learn.
They aren’t replacements. Not for real, meaningful, authentic, genuine relationships. Those take work.
It is exactly the kind of work that is worth it.
If you are in Sales or Recruiting pick up the phone today. Set an appointment for the coffee shop. Grab a beer. Send a handwritten note. Drop a line. Thank a customer or candidate. Have a connected, compelling conversation.
Care.
I think you’ll quickly recognize an outrageous opportunity for competitive advantage.
This entry was posted on Monday, March 14th, 2011 at 6:51 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Agree. Relationships are taken for granted because they can’t be quantified. As is the little things people know and carry around with them that can’t be put down or given a true value. And when that person and those relationships are let go and broken, then the company pips squeak. One thing you might like. There was a study a while back into human capital density. The idea being that concentrations of super bright people made a place or city more innovative and wealth creating. All true to an extent – a limited one – but the key finding was that the main value of concentrating your best people together was to deliberately create serendipitous encounters (and with them relationships) between them. In other words, the more chance encounters (lifts, seminars, coffee shops) you can engender, the more likely random geniuses will hook up and spark the next Apple. In designing cities – but more importantly – in designing businesses, the opportunity is clear: want innovation, new ideas, better ways of competing – concentrate your people, encourage them to meet and talk and spark off one another. Put them in a box and good as they are they will never be great on their own. I can dig up the study if you like.