Today’s Morning Buzz is brought to you by Jennifer Teal, Senior Manager at Raftelis. Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn.
- What I’m reading: “The Measure”
- What I’m watching: “Severance”
At the end of February, the local government and utility consulting firm that I work with, Raftelis, held our annual retreat. Nearly 200 of my colleagues met up for three days of connection building and shared learning. While we’re headquartered in Charlotte, we have offices all around the country, and nearly a third of our company works remotely, including me. This arrangement is great for the communities and organizations we serve because we have a wide range of experience and understanding of each region’s unique challenges and norms. But it can make it difficult to make meaningful connections with colleagues and feel connected to the organization. That’s why the company retreat is so valuable.
In addition to knowing each other as 1×1 boxes in Teams, meeting in person, with a structured but permissive schedule, gave us the chance to get to know one another better as colleagues and as people. Spending time together “in human form” versus digitally creates opportunities for organic interactions and spontaneous connections. These are the heart of building a feeling of cohesion and are critical to supporting a positive organizational culture where people feel connected to each other and our work.
Reflecting on the recent retreat has me thinking about all of our organizations and how unstructured opportunities for connection are important. My team works with local governments and utilities across the country on a variety of engagements, including organizational assessments, training, and facilitation. In these engagements, we often learn that remote work and Teams meetings have created situations where people are rarely spending time together in person. Even when they are all in the same building, rather than coming together in meeting rooms, they’re meeting at their individual desks via Teams. The gains in perceived productivity can actually be detrimental. To have good culture and connection, we actually have to connect.
Structured opportunities, like weekly department or division meetings and all-hands events, are good. But less structured opportunities are critical as well — informal “water cooler” talk, chatting in the lunchroom, the elevator, etc. For example, we worked with an organization recently who had just built a lovely new HQ. Through the LEED certification process, they invested in the type of elevators where you enter the floor you’re heading to in the lobby, and you get assigned an express to just that floor. In focus groups with staff from across the organization, we heard several times that this has had a negative impact on their culture. Folks no longer run into friends or colleagues in the elevator unless they work on their specific floor. This has them feeling less connected to the organization as a whole and reinforces their siloes.
What does this mean for our local government and utility organizations? If you want people to feel connected, they have to connect! Reinforce the value of in-person meetings — not all just Teams. If your team does have remote work options, consider options to require the entire team to be together a couple of days a week. Be intentional about scheduling opportunities for fun and connection — team lunches, outings, and learning sessions.
And talk about it. One thing Raftelis does really well is talk about what matters to us. We talk about our strategic plan and our values often. If connectedness is something you want your team to have, you have to talk about it — be intentional about your messaging around team meetings and in-person expectations. Reinforce the importance of connection to one another and your work. And have fun!