Invisible Value: How to build a Healthy Work Space (opinion)

Effective communication is foundational to an inclusive social environment, particularly in the workspace social structure. There are two critical communication skill sets essential to building sustainable, thriving, healthy workspaces. The important ingredients to socially enriched and healthy working environments are the awareness and practice of love languages and social-emotional intelligence. The workspace climate culture and outside societal influences will dictate how to employ love language and social-emotional awareness in your workspace settings.

For starters, according to Dr. Gary Chapman, revered author of the must-read book series: The Five Love Languages,  our "love language" describes how we receive love from others. How does relationship building in the workspace, regarding love languages and emotional intelligence, materialize for those who work remotely from home or are self-employed? 

Workspace Climate and Culture It is important to exercise social-emotional awareness when encountering varying discourse primed for arguments and heated disagreements. If the discussions become less manageable, leading to fractured relationships, then employing social-emotional and love language awareness will prove invaluable in managing disagreeing viewpoints in the workspace climate. Amy Gallo of Harvard Business Review contends that both arguments and disagreements are healthy for the climate culture workspaces when sufficiently managed. The suggested approach could lend itself as a toolkit to acquire necessary skills to sustain or abandon that did not previously support relationship building? 

External Dialogue. Conversely, national responses to the recent social unrest aimed at dismantling once heavily favored oppressive procedures and constructs in society are progressing towards social justice and renewing fractured social contracts and relationships. Kwame Christiansen of the American Negotiation Institute provides a succinct framework in LinkedIn learning, on becoming conversant when encountering difficult conversations about race and other social issues often considered taboo in the workspace, resulting in healthier relationships in the workspace and navigating through racial/social issues. 

Lastly, as the national workforce ushers in much-needed changes to society's social structure and simultaneously battle the COVID health crisis, the socially enriched work space will thrive despite society's uncertainty. A deep understanding of emotional intelligence and love language awareness, and well-orchestrated implementation of these two critical skill sets, will prove to be an invisible value and benefit to managers, employees, self-employed persons in fostering a sustainable foundation for a thriving, healthy work environment.