I participated in a multi-day, long-range planning session with a group of people who did not know each other. The facilitators designed the program to allow ample time for small talk and relationship building — so much, in fact, that at first, it was maddening to some. We had work to do — why dedicate the entire opening dinner simply to conversations instead of getting down to business?
The theme continued with each day’s session beginning with sharing and chatting — dedicating extensive, precious moments to non-work items.
But then, once the “work” began, there was exponential progress as the interactions were being conducted on a foundation of trust and relationships. Looking back, the time spent building connections paid off handsomely. It was one of the key takeaways from the gathering and something that has stayed with me.
I’m a task-oriented person — wanting to jump in and “do” rather than chit chat — but this experience caused me to value slowing down and spending more time on building that initial rapport.
Make a relationship-building component your purpose instead of a distraction. Some ways you can do this include intentionally committing to fostering relationships in meetings when new teams are formed — and honoring the value of spending much (or even all) of the first meeting or class on introductions and learning about each other instead of starting right in on the business agenda. If you adopt this mindset, you may become less antsy on video calls that begin with an icebreaker or check-in, even with people who know each other and actually embrace the exercise. You can build time into all your appointments to have a few moments of conversation before addressing tasks.
It has been said that “work moves at the speed of trust.” Enhancing your trust-building efforts may seem to slow the process at first, but in the end, they accelerate what you are able to accomplish.
