A Doberman Pinscher chased me at my dad's company picnic

Social connection has always been meaningful at work. Before open floor office plans, most people worked in separate spaces with high partitions and dividers. I remember them. My father worked as a facilities manager at Hewlett-Packard in Naperville, Illinois. Steelcase , a contract furniture manufacturer, was a major vendor. To Steelcase, my dad was king. I'd get a Steelcase truck yearly, courtesy of the Steelcase account representative. In those days, account representatives would travel to see facilities managers—no better place to see what your company needed than the office.

I also remember my dad's company picnic. Every year we would go. Parents would mingle while the kids ran wild. One year, my dad's company picnic was near a wooded area where we decided to play. I don't recall exactly how old I was, but I must have been a tween.

I ran into the woods hard and fast for the game, leaving my competitors in the dust. Before too long, I no longer heard any other kids or the sounds of the picnic. I looked around, wondering how to get back. Panic must have been kicking in because it seemed to me I'd been gone a long time.

I found a trail and began to follow it. As I walked, a large Doberman Pinscher came running around a bend. We both stopped in our tracks. I immediately began calculating what I would do. Could I outrun him? Could I climb a tree? If I had a chance to escape, I'd only have seconds. In an instant, he turned, running in the opposite direction. This was my chance. I took off running. I ran along the path. My heart was beating out of my chest. I looked back only for an instant. It seemed to happen in slow motion. In my mind's eye, I can still see that Doberman chasing. It didn't seem like his paws were touching the ground.

In this article from Fast Company, the author says the best way to improve relationships at work isn't working harder -- it's working closer. That's a curious statement. Why would people work to strengthen relationships? We've gotten very confused somewhere along the line. We're looking to the office for innovation, thinking it's the office that makes the innovation happen. We're working harder to improve our relationships with co-workers and focusing more on the work than on the relationship. For some reason, executives don't think that investing in helping people be better at relationships in and of itself is valuable. Isn't the most significant part of employee experience the people you work with daily?

Relationships are challenging, whether it's your partner, family, or friends. We must invest in our relationships for our relationships to improve. That's time and money. If you're any good at relationships, you know you'll be waiting a long time if you're waiting for other people to change. My relationships started improving when I started working on the common denominator - me.

To improve relationships at work, we need to invest in social connections. I don't mean social events, although creating more intentional moments for people to practice their social skills will help. Relationships require personal development and leadership development. Personal development is about me. Leadership development is about how I am with others. We'll see our social connections improve at work when we start helping people be better humans.