3 Practical Ideas for Creating a Culture of Connection in your Organisation

There’s a crisis of disconnection in many of our workplaces. Since the pandemic, despite the proclaimed benefits of remote and hybrid working, 65% of workers now feel less connected to their co-workers. Sadly, just 4 in 10 US employees strongly agree that someone at work cares about them as a person, so it’s not surprising that approximately half of Americans report feeling lonely and that their relationships with others aren’t meaningful.

The human and business impact of these alarming statistics has been widely commented on: increased burnout and mental health challenges; ‘quiet quitting’; increased turnover, sickness and absenteeism; and reduced productivity, collaboration and creativity. If you’re reading this, perhaps you recognise your own situation in these statistics. Maybe you’ve observed some of these challenges in your own team or organization.

I see many leaders launching well-intended initiatives to tackle these issues - gym memberships, mental health apps, duvet days and lavish corporate events. But they and their teams remain frustrated that these investments aren’t making a big difference. I sit firmly in the camp of US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, who concludes in his Framework for Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace that, ‘social connection stands out as a largely unrecognised and underappreciated force for addressing many of the critical problems we’re dealing with.’ Indeed, there is a huge amount of evidence that fostering meaningful connections between colleagues leads to improved wellbeing, increased feelings of belonging, and increased productivity.

As Chief People Officer of a 400-person marketing services agency, I often felt overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge, not sure of where to start. Maybe you do too. Perhaps you’re a leader or manager wishing your team felt more cohesive. Perhaps you’re leading a group of people who work together but aren’t all based in the same place and that’s proving challenging. Or maybe you’ve just noticed that the people you work with don’t seem to relate to each other the way they once did and you’d like to play a role in changing that.

I don’t have a silver bullet (I wish I did!), but below, I offer a few practical ideas to spark your thinking around how you might contribute to fostering connection and strengthening relationships across your team, department or organisation.

1. Prioritise relationship-building when people join your team or organisation

Many company induction programmes focus on ensuring new joiners understand the technical elements of their role, how the IT systems work, company history, etc. Of course, these things matter, but under pressure to get new people productive as soon as possible, many companies neglect to make time to ensure they are also helping them build relationships with their new colleagues. Those that do this well will be providing new joiners with a support network they can lean on as they learn the ropes, increasing their sense of belonging and accelerating their productivity. A few ideas to think about:

Give new starters the names of five people outside of their core team to reach out to in their first month to invite for a coffee, people whom they’ll need to have strong relationships with to be successful in their role, but also those who might become part of their informal support network.
Make space in group onboarding sessions for new joiners to talk about their experience, hopes and fears about joining. They’ll quickly see there are others in the same boat. Create space for them to talk about who they are and what they do when they’re not working, not just their professional experience.
If you’re heading up a team, don’t just add people’s names to the org chart. Consider creating a simple digital or paper document that introduces everyone on the team (not just their functional roles, but who they are as people, and what they do outside of work). Have the new joiner add their details too. One of the teams at my previous company did this. It wasn’t the sole reason they had the highest engagement scores, lowest turnover and best financial performance in the company, but it was symptomatic of the intentional approach they took to strengthening relationships on their team.

2. Bake connection into existing meetings and company structures

Relationship-building takes time, but this doesn’t mean you need to take up more time in people’s diaries. Consider how you can adapt what you’re already doing. For example:

Repurpose a recurring company or team meeting. Pair people with someone they don’t know well (online or in the room) and have them go for coffee or a walk together. Give them some question prompts to get the conversation going.
Make space at the start of a team meeting to check on how people are doing before you jump to the agenda. We found that simply asking ‘How are you feeling today on a scale of 1-10 and why?’ increased people’s empathy for what was happening in each other’s lives.
If it’s in your remit, consider how you can bake ‘relationship-building’ into systems and processes that impact company culture. We re-wrote our competency framework to reframe ‘Communication Skills’ as ‘Relationship-building’. We included similar language in job descriptions, interview questions and regular engagement surveys.

3. Model the importance of showing up as a human, not just a job title

As a manager or leader, people will look to you to set the tone for ‘how we do things around here’. Many of us hide elements of who we really are (our identities, the pressures we’re facing at home, our weaknesses, or personal struggles) to fit in at work. It’s easier to connect in a meaningful way with others when we can show up authentically, when we feel safe enough to remove the ‘social mask’ we often wear to fit in or avoid judgement. To create permission for others to do this, you can model this yourself. A few things can really make a difference when leaders and managers start doing them:

If you’re in a senior position (and particularly if you’re a man), don’t hide it when you’re leaving at the end of the day to be able to spend time with your children, attending your kids’ sports event or school play, or putting boundaries around when you’re available to answer emails.
Create safe spaces where people can talk openly and be well listened to by others. In my previous company, we trained cohorts of people in empathic listening. This increased their ability to connect meaningfully with colleagues, and fostered an incredible sense of connection between participants by sharing stories about what was going on in their lives, in and outside of work. It also led to significant positive shifts in wellbeing and engagement.
Be open about when you’re struggling and how you’re looking after yourself. I conspicuously post on social media about my own mental health and why I need to sometimes switch off my Zoom calls and get outside. Other leaders I know openly talk about therapy, or the challenges they’ve faced being neurodivergent.

Some of these ideas might push you outside of your comfort zone. Some might not be quite right for your organization, or might not be possible given your position in your company. You don’t need to do them all. But each of us can make a difference to ourselves and those we work with by choosing to prioritize building relationships with the people around us.

So if you’ve read this far, before you get back to work, why not drop a note to someone you’d like to get to know better, or who you think might enjoy going for a coffee with you. You never know what difference that simple intentional act might make for you both…

By Phil Burgess

Phil is the Co-Founder of WITHIN. He works with leaders to drive results by building cultures of connection and is passionate about building more human organizations where people can thrive. He was previously Chief People Officer for C Space where his team won 'Learning Team of the Year' at the Learning Performance Institute's Global Learning Awards. As Joint Managing Director of C Space London, his people-centric approach to leadership and culture-building led to a number of ‘Best Place to Work’ and 'Best Agency' awards and a listing on Management Today’s ‘Agents of Change’ Power List for men championing gender equity in business. After 4 years in Boston, he now lives with his wife and children in Hertfordshire.