By Olga Moshinsky Woltman
We are isolated and disconnected. This societal trend began emerging long before the pandemic and there is evidence that loneliness translates to poorer workplace performance. Nonprofit leaders can set the right tone to support their staff and encourage connections, which will lead to a more positive culture and ultimately benefit all.
Your Employees Are Lonely
Truth bomb: Lack of connection can increase your risk of premature death to the same levels as puffing 15 cigarettes a day. But don’t take my word for it, ask the U.S. Surgeon General. The loneliness epidemic is literally killing us, putting both our mental and physical wellbeing in jeopardy and increasing risks of a sundry of conditions including heart disease and dementia.
The issue is being recognized as a serious public health concern. Several countries are tackling it aggressively and both Great Britain and Japan have established the post of minister for loneliness who oversee community building efforts.
In the workplace, isolation is felt keenly by remote and onsite staff alike. Feeling disconnected impacts our health and happiness and it also correlates to worse performance. Employees who feel alienated are less committed to their organization and are unmotivated. Their work outcomes reflect that.
Committed and fulfilled employees are a powerful force that will propel the work of nonprofit organizations forward. It is important for leadership to put intentional strategies in place to counter isolation and create a more connected workplace and a happier, more productive workforce.
Shifting organizational culture and encouraging positive interactions are complex topics that are built patiently and gently over time. There is no one-size-fits-all playbook or a management framework to create the right vibe. These strategies will help you increase your own awareness and begin course correcting.
Facilitating Effective Work Interactions
The issue of isolation is serious, but the fixes are straightforward. It begins with leaders who possess emotional intelligence and awareness to proactively foster connections among employees. Look for ways to make interactions a built-in feature of how your organization gets the work done.
Every team interaction is a chance to build connections, but this requires a new definition of what a productive meeting means. You are not only sharing information and accomplishing specific objectives, but setting conditions for collaboration after staff disperses. When planning agenda, allow time for small talk and unstructured conversations.
For larger meetings, consider using breakout rooms assigning smaller groups of staff, either at random or in a pre-assigned way. This setting allows more opportunities for deeper interactions and those who may be reticent in a large group will be more likely to speak up.
Embrace the culture of short “quickie” meetings to replace long email threads. These are the Zoom equivalent of knocking on a colleague’s door to ask a question or to clarify a particular issue, while also offering a chance for a few minutes to connect one on one. Similarly, tools like Slack and Teams can be a great way to infuse interaction into work life and accelerate problem solving.
Some employees are more prone to feel isolated because of their job functions or geography. Proactively placing those individuals into cross-functional workgroups will expose them to a broader range of colleagues.
Maximize In Person Time
Many organizations have brought staff back to offices or shifted to hybrid work, but physical presence is not a guarantee for interactions. Designate specific collaboration days to make sure that employees are in the office at the same time. Collaboration days are not meant to be keep your head down and get the deliverables done. This is the time to plan activities that bring staff together to interact and focus on team projects and planning.
Turn On That Camera
There are studies about Zoom fatigue and some employees are concerned about being judged on their living space and having to be presentable at all times. But there are significant benefits of having video cameras on that offset concerns. From the earliest baby days, our brains are wired to respond and engage with faces. Face-to-face interactions improve communication, build trust, improve engagement, reduce distractions and multitasking.
While in some circumstances taking cameras off might not be a hindrance, in many contexts not seeing colleagues stymies what could become more meaningful moments of connection. Align expectations with unambiguous guidelines and encourage staff to keep their cameras. These small daily visual connections build trust and over time stronger bonds.
Teambuilding Through Activities
Does “teambuilding” invoke memories of trust falls and scenes from the Dunder Mifflin? No one enjoys forced fun, but participating in activities together is an effective way to build bonds, trust, and feelings of safety around colleagues. These group activities help to align teams and set the stage for collaboration.
You will likely want to consider a combination of structured opportunities and informal approaches and traditions. To create memorable and genuine moments, invite input from your staff to shape activities and elevate ideas and traditions that bubble up organically. Involving the team in shaping activities and traditions will help make building connections feel more organic and less like a top-down directive. Don’t limit yourself to team retreats, take the opportunity to incorporate micro teambuilding moments into regular staff interactions through prompts and conversations.
It is possible to design effective and fun virtual team building activities. There is a galore of handy and accessible tools to facilitate everything from virtual escape rooms to quizzes. But it is not about the fancy bells and whistles, the way humans connect has not changed, the tools are merely there to facilitate.
Even for staff at nonprofits that exist to serve a mission, participating in a community service project can be a great way to create connections among the teammates. Volunteering provides a meaningful activity that has a purpose and is not manufactured. This type of engagement puts organizational values into action and creates goodwill towards the organization itself.
Storytime: I still recall an organization where the head of fundraising department facilitated an annual giving tree ‘adopting’ a family in need and purchasing holiday gifts for them, which we wrapped together in the conference room. This was coupled with a cookie exchange. Employees signed up for their day to bring in a treat to share with colleagues. These activities created a festive and joyous atmosphere during a time that is traditionally stressful for fundraisers.
Build Culture That Values Community, Friendships
Beyond collaboration with colleagues, workplace friendships matter. Interpersonal relationships with our colleagues create bonds and build trust. Employees who have a work bestie have a support system and are much happier. They innovate, share ideas, and get things done.
Genuine relationships and friendships cannot be forced, but leadership can create conditions to help colleagues get to know one another as humans, discover commonalities, and initiate relationships. When natural proximity to facilitate budding of friendships is not possible, it is important to signal that informal interactions are not only permitted but encouraged. Building small talk into the structure of your meetings, intelligent icebreakers, and gatherings with the discreet purpose of building interactions help employees get to know each other and connect.
Creating affinity groups, buddy match ups, lunch bunches are all effective ways to bring people together, build communities, support inclusion, and integrate new employees so that they can find their footing.
How You Show Up: Lead by Example
How do you create conditions and encourage staff to form bonds, interpersonal relationships at work? Posing this question to practitioners and leaders in the nonprofit sector did not yield breakthrough ideas, but two key themes that emerged centered on making quality relationships a core value within the organization and leading by example with leaders modeling this engagement at every opportunity for exchange.
Leaders set the tone. Being the first one to share, initiate and show vulnerability can be challenging, but this brave step signals psychological safety to the team. At an individual level, help your colleagues feel seen and valued by taking a genuine interest in getting to know them and listening. In a group setting, you are not the star of the show, but more akin to an event host who ensures everyone’s comfort, poses prompts, sets the stage, and steps back to allow guests to mingle.
When it comes to something as delicate and nuanced as interpersonal relationships, a policy or a memo won’t do. In our busy work lives and complex professional environment, good leaders possess emotional intelligence, empathy, and people instincts. Effective leaders pay attention, they gently nudge and lead by example setting the norms. Be that leader.
Resources
https://elifesciences.org/articles/08232
https://www.newsweek.com/work-culture-camera-off-rude-remote-working-etiquette-1792191
America has a loneliness epidemic. Here are 6 steps to address it : NPR
Social Connection — Current Priorities of the U.S. Surgeon General (hhs.gov)
https://ideas.wharton.upenn.edu/research/how-loneliness-affects-job-performance/
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Olga Moshinsky Woltman is founder of the marketing firm LemonSkies in Vienna, Virginia. She has worked with the American Heart Association, the ALS Association, American Diabetes Association, and Special Olympics. Her email is [email protected]
