Strong Relationships and Must-Have Technology - Can They Work Together?

We’ve had such a great reception to our new website and focus on Getting to Know Yourself…and Others™ – thank you all so much! The Self-Study Program on Building Stronger Relationships is generating a lot of conversation!

I have to tell you an interesting thing that happened: in my family, when one of us does something new we usually share it with everyone just as way of staying connected – like so many families, we’re spread across the country and don’t sit over Sunday dinner bringing each other up to date – I’m sure that’s the same for many of you. So I sent the recent announcements about my business updates to family and friends.

My mother’s insight  - trust Mom! - was profound and succinct: “You’re emphasizing relationships yet you’re using technology to do it”. She actually stopped me cold because it’s technology that is chilling a lot of relationships – personally and professionally.

I thought back to leadership classes of times past, when clients had the budget and invited professionals in to conduct leadership training and education; then the development and state of relationships was always a huge block of learning. Time was spent on lessons and practice in:

• Get to know your team members

• Learn their motivators

• Develop goals together

• Have regular and frequent one-on-ones to coach, discuss, discover

• Encourage, solicit their ideas

• Understand what kinds of recognition matter to the individual

• And so much more….

All of those interactions propelled team leader and team member to become better acquainted, to build a stronger relationship that made it more likely for both to succeed, to deal with problems calmly and promptly, to innovate, to appreciate other talents…maybe even ENJOY coming to work!

Now, in organizations that rely heavily on e-learning, many of those extended lessons and skill practice opportunities are severely minimized. There’s a mountain of work and it has to be completed FAST, FAST, FASTER. Relationships? Who’s got time?

Remember the comment in this blog from the other day: “I absolutely agree on the personal relationships, but I feel very old school when I try to maintain them. In my little world, the biggest killer is technology…losing the personal relationships that have worked so well for me over the years…I could get people to cooperate because they knew...me.”

There’s concern in many corners about relationships and our ability to connect with other people. In an interview with Brian Williams of NBC last night (June 5, 2012), President Clinton was asked about social media and commented that teens today average 80 text messages per day. He believes they “will have trouble being PRESENT where they are” in the future. What will relationships look like?

Today I can only conclude this:

Relationships: they add such richness to our lives as people as well as a multitude of positives and negatives.

Technology: it adds such richness to our lives as people as well as a multitude of positives and negatives.

I guess we better find a way to make them compatible – we need them both!

So, it turns out that I’m advocating building stronger relationships through technology.

I look at the design of my four part program – it DOES include a live, one-on-one consult – I just can’t seem to leave it all up to online learning – I’ve got to have a connection and KNOW something good has happened for my learner!

Question for you: Do you NEED the live connections?