More connection, not just more collaboration - why we need to invest in team bonding and relationship building in modern work

With the dramatic increase in the number of organisations embracing more distributed teams, our time spent together is in decline.

The jury is still out on whether remote work improves or decreases productivity - whilst there are no shortage of studies which show increased productivity, connected to more autonomy and control over how and when and where you work, there are also studies which show working in isolation can lead to poor quality of ideas, less feedback, and feelings of disconnect.

Many organisations will turn to regular 'onsite' days, either encouraging people to come together in the same workspace on regular days, or larger activities like team days or planning sessions where the whole team spend time face to face - but often that time is spent 'working', rather than building connections with each other.

Do we need to spend more time connecting rather than collaborating?

Building connections within teams requires a different set of objectives. Collaboration is often focused on solving a specific challenge or co-designing a solution. Connection is less about getting stuff done, and more explorative, more open to might happen, to create space and time for people to discover more about each other, without perhaps the pressure of a deadline or problem to tackle.

Research shows clearly that social interaction and interpersonal engagement has tangible benefits.

Previously, this connection would happen across multiple moments - microinteractions during the day, around the water cooler or kettle, catching up on what you did on the weekend, going for lunch or drinks after work. Most of the connection time was organic and accidental - it would happen quite naturally because of your presence around others.

Today, this time for connection needs to be actively designed into the day and week, it needs to be scheduled, and when looking at the jobs to be done for the limited time we have physically together, "spending time chatting" doesn't often rank highly against decision making, training or collaborating. It can seem like a luxury, or have limited tangible benefits.

Yet, research shows clearly that social interaction and interpersonal engagement has tangible benefits. Creating the time and space for your people to connect does drive the bottom line in terms of productivity, trust, quality of work, profitability and employee engagement.

Creating time for social and interpersonal bonding improves employee engagement - both a sense of belonging and trust within the team reduces staff churn and absenteeism (Gallup, 2015). It leads to upskilling and motivating the entire team - especially when people are buddied up with or know who to turn to for input from more experienced coworkers (Mas and Moretti 2009). Employee satisfaction increases when workplace relationships are stronger, and informal and formal social interactions drive this satisfaction (Sias, 2005).

Regular and repeated social interactions lead to increased trust in relationships within teams, and people are more likely to engage in positive and constructive behaviours (Oh, Chung, & Labianca, 2004) and are more likely to be proactive in offering support and altruistic behaviours (Hamilton, 2007). Employees show increased motivation when work relationships are positive (Basford and Offermann, 2012).

And lack of social interaction at work leads to poorer employee health, poorer mental health, reduced lifespan) and ultimately increased cost to a business from absenteeism and employees less able to work.

Despite of the volumes of research which show the benefits of investing strong internal relationships and social bonds at work, the amount of time we invest and opportunities we create for teams to come together and get to know each other more holistically is minimal - and with remote work on the increase, we need to find more ways to encourage and commit to creating these connections between our people.

Manual of Me is just one framework and approach to helping people discover insightful connections between themselves and others at work. Because it focuses on how we work, rather than what we need to get done - it surfaces hidden insights and observations about ourselves and others, so we have more points of conversation and connection between people.

Repeated social interactions lead to increased trust in relationships within teams, and people are more likely to engage in positive and constructive behaviours.

Whilst the core concept of a document which contains reflective questions and insightful answers is one part of the Manual of Me, for me, the really powerful part of the process is committing to the time and space to come together as a team to explore and share these insights, to say to your people "hey, we believe that time to connect with your colleagues is and important part of your job, and not something you only do on your own time after work or in the pub, so we're going to create that time and space to create connections with you".

If you're interested in understanding how?Manual of Me?can help you and your team create stronger connections at work, consider?running one of our workshops?or inviting us in to discuss how the concept could support you and your teams.