The Importance of Making the Connection

“The world as we see it is only the world as we see it. Others may see it differently.”
– Albert Einstein

Does anyone remember the “Reach Out and Touch Someone” advertising campaign? I do, so vividly, and for some reason couldn’t shake it from my thoughts when asked to introduce the guiding principle on connecting with others.

Guiding Principle: We: Connect with others outside our immediate workgroup to share relevant information and leverage different viewpoints.

N.W. Ayers was hired to help AT&T soften its image in during a time when AT&T was being criticized for its perceived monopoly on the telecommunications industry. Tony Galli came up with the idea and built out the concept focused on communications as the beginning of understanding. For many of us, the campaign is ingrained in our memories as is the reality that connecting with others is an essential element in American life.

Understanding the essentials of connecting, but admittedly being one who often gets swept away in the fast paced nature of my own life, I started to outline why connecting with others is important which led me to a Zig Ziglar story about the importance of connections.

The story goes that the Ziglar goes out to dinner after one of his motivational conferences and has a good experience with the waiter. The waiter provides excellent service, and at the end of the evening, in addition to leaving a tip, Ziglar and some associates leave a nice note of thanks and praise with the tip. The story goes the waiter chased out onto the street after the party, near tears, to tell them that no one had ever done anything so kind for him. The connection that Ziglar and his associates made was so small, but made a significant impact.

Tying the story to our highly competitive and ever changing professional world, connecting with individuals outside of our immediate workgroup is absolutely essential for sharing information. Ensuring information is shared with the right people at the right time in order to make the right decisions is critical to a department's success as well as the holding companies collective success. Information sharing to recognize and reward team members is equally important as one way to demonstrate People as our Competitive Advantage.

In planning, connecting with others to leverage a broader point of view on topics both small and large just makes plain business sense while promoting diversity of thought. We don’t want team members that don’t question one another, and who don’t look at each opportunity/challenge uniquely. Instead, we want to motivate a work environment that thrives because of everyone’s contributions.

Finally, connecting in order to network and build enduring, mutually beneficial, relationships is fundamental to personal success as well as building trust throughout the greater company.

We can all work to support this guiding principle by:

• Remembering the significance of small gestures as a mean to connect with others.
• Ensuring project teams have the appropriate mix of team members with role based assignments to leverage diversity of thought.
• Reaching across the organization to someone not at your location or not in your workgroup to find out what they are working on and, if the opportunity presents itself, how your role might assist.
• Proactively having a communication plan for key initiatives that addresses who needs the information and what vehicle it will be delivered in.
• And yes..... even stopping, turning, and listening to a neighbor or when they ask “how are you?” authentically responding versus saying “fine”.

Let’s use our understanding of the indispensible need for humans to communicate with others as a method of understanding so that at every interaction we are consciously thinking about “reaching out” and making a connection.

Thanks for letting me share,
~Stacy