Hardwired to Connect
We are hardwired to connect. When our lives crowd out time connecting with others, we don’t function. As the neuroscientist Matthew Lieberman said in his TED Talk, connection is a superpower that makes people more productive, healthier, and happier. To reverse these ominous trends, we need to dial back our achieve-aholic tendencies to obsessively pursue wealth, power, and fame and, in place of it, spend more time and energy connecting with others in supportive relationships.
Interestingly, Millennials are trying to do just that in response to seeing their Boomer parents struggle. When global marketing firm McCann Worldgroup surveyed 1,000 individuals in the U.S. between the ages of 16-30 years old in 2011, it found more than 90% of those surveyed rated “connection and community” as their greatest need. As the researchers put it, “To truly grasp the power of connection for this generation, we can look at how they wish to be remembered. It is not for their beauty, their power, or their influence, but simply for the quality of their human relationships and their ability to look after those around them.” Although Millennials long to connect, they are becoming increasingly frustrated in meeting that desire, in part because of addictions to smartphones and other media.
Connection in the Workplace
Employers can make a difference by recognizing that people are coming to work with a connection deficit. Organizations that have relationally toxic or indifferent cultures exacerbate the situation. In many workplaces, anyone who takes lunch away from his desk is labeled as a slacker. Companies that are hell-bent on growth at any cost are harming their employees and their own organization’s performance.
Wise leaders not only value task excellence, they value relationship excellence. Both are necessary for an organization to thrive. Employees who experience sufficient connection perform better cognitively and physically, give greater discretionary effort, are more aligned with organizational goals, communicate more so that decision-makers have better information, which then improves the quality of decision-making, and engage in creative conversations that fuel innovation. These benefits add up to a powerful competitive advantage that comes from having a culture of connection in the workplace.
Leaders can create cultures of connection by communicating an inspiring vision that unites, valuing people as human beings rather than as a means to an end, and giving people a voice in decisions that affect them. In my latest book, Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy and Understanding at Work, I recommend leaders focus on shaping the culture – the attitudes, uses of language, and behaviors of the people – to be one that promotes and enhances healthy and collaborative relationships.
Today, more than two-thirds of workers in America report they do not feel connected at work. Changing workplace cultures in ways that boost connection will not only improve America’s productivity, it will also provide psychological resources to cope with the rising stress of modern life, thereby improving the employee’s health, happiness, and longevity.
