Why Create Community At Work? [Episode #479]

People are designed and created to thrive in community with others. As social beings, we face challenges in isolation, whether during the pandemic or in solitary confinement.

Did you know your office or workplace is an ideal space to foster a vibrant work community?

What are the benefits of belonging to and building community at work? As an executive leader, what priorities should you set, and how can community-building enhance your company’s engagement and productivity? In this episode, Dr. Karen shares valuable insights to elevate workplaces to new levels of collaboration and success.

Subscribe to Dr. Karen’s YouTube channel.

The post Why Create Community at Work? (Episode #479) first appeared on TRANSLEADERSHIP, INC®.

—

Listen to the podcast here

Why Create Community At Work?

People Were Designed For Community

In this episode, we are talking about creating community at work. Before we get into the workplace directly, let me talk about people in general. People were designed and created to live in a community. We are social beings, not those who are meant to live solitary and apart from other people. When you think about it, when God created Adam, he was in communion and fellowship with God. God was the one most like Adam because he had been created in God’s image.

When Eve came on the scene, Adam had someone very much like him that he could fellowship with. The two of them together still communed with God in the Garden of Eden. All along, there was this sense of community with others. Even as our children are born and when babies come into the world, they are helpless alone. If they don’t have parents to raise them, they will suffer and die, most likely because they’re not able to fend for themselves.

We’ve been placed into families, which are our first community. From there, we have extended family. Often, in some cultures, multiple generations live together in the same house or even on the same compound. We have villages, tribes, neighborhoods, cities, states, and countries. The whole world collaborates across different communities. That’s part of who we are.

Without community, we have a tendency to wither and die. That is physical and mental death. What I mean by that is we become unhealthy from a physical point of view in terms of our cognitive abilities and our other abilities that are God-given, as well as our mental health. Physically, cognitively, and mentally, we are challenged when we are in isolation.

Probably the most recent example is what happened during the COVID crisis. People were significantly isolated at that time. It was particularly hard on the elderly, many of whom were living alone or in facilities where they could not have visits from family members or friends, and single people living alone as well. Sometimes, if people lived in their houses with their spouses or family members, those family bonds were often strengthened during that time of isolation because they had a chance to get to know each other better.

However, for those living alone or in more facilities and commercial settings, it was a very tough time. We are in the aftermath of that, seeing a lot of mental health issues and concerns, particularly depression. We know a lot of people died partly because of physical illnesses and also the impact of isolation. It was difficult to be as resilient as they normally would be because of being in that situation. We know that even in a prison sense when people are in solitary confinement, it’s difficult for most people.

Even when workers in prison go to that prisoner to bring food or whatever they’re doing. Sometimes, there’s an increase in antisocial behavior and lashing out that is experienced by the person who is in solitary confinement. We also know that if we look back at earlier times in the history of the nuclear family, there were often multiple children. You could have ten children or even more. The older children were tasked with chores in support of the family, including child-given responsibilities to sustain the family. Many times, the children were involved in the family business, whatever it was.

The family business could be farming. Maybe they would help with milking cows or gathering eggs from the chickens. Perhaps the family business was in dry cleaning, a corner store, a grocery store, a five-and-dime, or a restaurant. I’ve often seen little children ages 7 or 8 years old, learning how to greet guests, ring up purchases, and do other tasks of the family business. We also find in Acts 2, when the early church was beginning and getting started in Jerusalem, they gathered together in community. I want to read a few of those verses about how they gathered in the community so we can extract some of the pieces from it.

We are challenged physically, cognitively, and mentally when we are in isolation. Click To Tweet

In Acts 2, starting with verse 41, it says, “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayers. Fear came upon every soul. Many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need.”

“So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” I want you to notice that in this early community of the early church, they were praising God, fellowshipping together, and practicing the tenets of the doctrine they had been taught. They were in prayer. They were performing signs and wonders to see the power of God and what God would do to benefit them.

They sold their possessions and shared in the increase in the produce. They were in gladness. They were happy and with a simple heart. There was no significant stress or worry at that time. They were doing things together, going from house to house, eating together, and being together. That was an example of community. They had favor with all men as they were a community together.

Creating Genuine Connections With Colleagues

They weren’t isolated. They weren’t just operating as individuals. Community life was also important. They were doing life together. When I think about the office, business, company, or where you may work, that is an opportunity for community also. We spend more time at work than almost any other place. I want to identify several ways that we can be in the community at work.

Number one would be what I’ll call creativity and innovation. When we’re in a community together, it helps elevate the ideas we think about and sharpens what we are creating. If you create alone, you might miss some things but when others are in the mix, we spark food for thought in each other. We inspire one another and build on each other’s ideas so that creativity and innovation go to the next level.

Why is that important? In businesses, in the landscape of the business environment, you have to figure out new ways to accelerate your creative advantage in the marketplace. That means you want to be creative about what you’re already doing and how you could do it better. You also want to be innovative, extending what you’re doing even into some new areas and places.

What happens with creativity and innovation is our community will ask us questions or make the statements that are consistent with possibility thinking. It’s the what-ifs, nurturing, and shepherding the new. That’s what happens in the community. Our creativity and innovation are taken to the next level. That benefits the company, the clients you serve, and your purpose and mission in the world.

Number two is challenge. Even as we come to creativity and innovation, we sometimes have to hear alternative perspectives on what we are already thinking and questions from our community, from those we’re working with to think in different ways. That challenge is also what sparked us to consider possibilities we hadn’t thought about. Challenge is important because you want just the right amount. If you have too many challenges, it feels as though things are impossible.

People tend to give up with too much challenge. They don’t have the sense that anyone is for them. If there’s too little challenge, it can be boring. You want just enough to keep the creative juices flowing and keep people thinking, and not so much that they feel as though there’s no way forward or there’s no hope. You have creativity and innovation and then challenge. You’re thinking outside the box and around the edges, including perspectives that you on your own wouldn’t think of. You need the community to come up with the different perspectives.

The workplace is our community too. We spend more time at work than almost any other place. Click To Tweet

Number three, I would say, is support. This is support for those new ideas. Support in the form of being a champion for something that you’ve thought of but someone else may have more opportunities to showcase what you’re talking about or bring those new opportunities to visibility or a new audience out there. We want to have champions, people who can bring statistics that back up what we’re talking about. People are wired in different ways so you can provide support to an idea that you didn’t dream of and come up with. However, you may have some information or data that can support it or give a voice in important rooms and places about an idea that someone else has surfaced. Support is important along the way.

In community, number four is important, which is care and compassion for other people. This is especially important for personal lives. People experience deaths, illnesses of family members, and all kinds of challenges every day. In the workplace, it’s comforting and helpful if your community can provide services that might be useful to you, such as if there’s a death in your family, bringing food over, or you’re going through a time of extended illness in the family, checking in on you, sending resources that might be useful and valuable, or a word or card of encouragement, or flowers to cheer you up. Whatever shows care and compassion, speaking your language.

The same is true for disasters that might happen. There may be fires or floods. People offering acts of kindness and works of service, visiting you when you might be sick, shut in, or disabled for a period of time. Show care and compassion from those who we are in community with because we spend eight hours or more a day with those people in our workplace. That’s one of the places where we can receive a sense of caring and compassion.

Our actual deep, long-term friends may be miles away. They may not even be in the same city where we are. Our family members may also be geographically dispersed because we are in a very mobile society and world. Even at work, if you have a remote workplace and even a global one, there are ways to reach out to one another in that context to show that you care and have compassion for what your colleague may be going through.

The number five is fun and playing together. Some people don’t think that this is important. They’re not interested in fun and games. They’re there for work as they see it. Often, if given the opportunity, they will opt out of the fun and games. Here’s what I would say about that. Children know that play is their work. They’re always learning as they’re playing. If we keep that playful spirit, even as adults, we can continue to learn as we play together as well.

Our adult play does facilitate our work experience. For one thing, as we’re playing together and doing team building together, we are gaining a deeper knowledge of one another. I know that some of the exercises I do with clients facilitate them getting to know each other at a level that they might not choose to do if they’re just focused on the work itself.

Yet when you take the time to find out what this colleague is all about, what they prefer to do, what they like, what their history is, what their background is, and what they’ve experienced in their lives. You’ll find points of connection and a deeper appreciation for who people are. You’ll find more common ground. It increases our trust in each other as we spend this profound time together. I would say that fun and play are important to taking work to a higher level, doing it better than you would do if you didn’t know your colleagues as much and if you weren’t playing together.

Building Community Through Shared Experiences

That can lead to number six, which I would say is service. This is when many companies and organizations do service projects together. You might be building homes for people through habitat for humanity. You might be down at the homeless shelter or the soup kitchen serving people food. You may be raking leaves and pulling weeds in public places or on the highway.

There are things you can do in service to the community. As a workplace, you could do that service together, including taking trips overseas to places where there is greater challenge and difficulty. You’re helping children in an impoverished area have food, school supplies, or whatever it may be. Service together is another way of working. It shows a different side of each person who’s in your workplace and can forge deeper connections with each other that you bring back to your own everyday work. It facilitates more effective work when you get back to the office, plant, manufacturing floor, or wherever you may be.

Care and compassion in the workplace create a supportive environment where everyone feels valued. Click To Tweet

That brings me to seven, which is celebration. As you have business successes, you want to celebrate them along the way. You want to celebrate the times when you have collectively given to charitable organizations, volunteered your time, hit your targets and goals, or helped people achieve a target or goal they never thought was possible, such as having a home of their own or whatever it may be.

There’s a lot that you can celebrate in the community. You’ve been bringing creativity and innovation. You’ve been challenging each other to step it up to the next level. You’ve been providing support and championing new ideas. As people go through the vicissitudes of life, providing care and compassion for one another, having fun and playing together as you learn and grow in the business and serving. Serving the broader community also creates a tighter-knit community among yourselves, and then taking time to celebrate.

As we close, I want to think about some celebration that took place in the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah got word that things weren’t great back in Jerusalem. They had been taken into exile in Babylonian captivity. Most of them were still in captivity. When he got the report about what was going on in Jerusalem, the gates were burned, the fences were torn down, and things were in disrepair. He wanted to fix that and do something about it.

He spoke to the King. He got permission to go back to Jerusalem and handle the situation. He got resources, supplies, and the time to do it. When Nehemiah got back to Jerusalem and conducted an inspection after that, he brought the community together. He then told the community leaders at first, “We need to do something about this.” They all put their hands to work and did what was required and necessary. At the end of doing all that, they had a time of celebration, and so I want to talk about that.

Part of their celebration involved two Thanksgiving choirs. Imagine that in your organization, if you assemble singers and choirs to sing songs of Thanksgiving and praise what it is that you’ve accomplished and gone through. I want to read Nehemiah, the 12th chapter, starting with verse 40. It says, “The two Thanksgiving choirs stood in the house of God. Likewise, I and half of the rulers with me and the priest Eliakim, Masela, Menjamin, Micaiah, Ilionai, Zachariah, and Hananiah with trumpets, also Messiah, Shemaiah, Eliezer, Yehuzi, Johanan, Malkijah, Elam, and Iza.”

“The singers sang loudly with Jezrahiah, the director. Also, that day, they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy. The women and the children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.” Keep in mind that as they made these repairs, it was under great duress. They had a lot of opposition from the people around them, yet they were successful. Not only did the men celebrate in the community but the women and children celebrated, too.

The two choirs that surrounded the community also celebrated. Even though most of you are probably working in a secular company or corporation and environment, it’s the fact that you are there. You are a blessing to your workplace and you bring blessings to your workplace. As your workplace is blessed, you can stop and give glory to God for how your workplace is being blessed. You can encourage other people.

Cultivating Trust And Productivity In The Workplace

Though, they may not necessarily give glory to God or celebrate in that way. They can still celebrate the success of the company, the activities that you’re engaged in, and how you’re adding value to your clients, customers, and the marketplace. I hope you will consider the benefits and advantages of creating community in your workplace and getting to know one another at a much deeper level. I pray that you will be blessed as you do that and as you build trust and a greater platform from which to provide service.

‑‐‐

I want to let you know that I am running a special promotion. If you are a CEO or executive leader in a medium to large-size company and you care about how your people are treated, especially if you share our biblical values, and you may be facing difficult decisions where you want some additional perspective. You may be planning for succession in your company, developing people, and preparing the organization for that succession. Perhaps, you’re going through change and leading change. Maybe there’s a merger and acquisition, or whatever you’re facing in terms of leadership, including developing your executive team. Contact me. Give me a call so we can do a discovery meeting and see what’s going on.

Celebrate the successes of your company. It helps you add value to your clients and the entire marketplace. Click To Tweet

Here’s the special promotion. In addition to your discovery time, I will interview up to three additional people from your executive team so you have even greater context and feedback about where to go next. Reach out to me at Dr.Karen@TransLeadership.com or phone me at (719) 534-0949, extension 1. I look forward to hearing from you and coming alongside you to complete and continue your leadership journey with positivity and profitability in your organization.

‑‐‐

I wanted to let you know that we are doing a special promotion for consulting services. We always do discovery calls with prospective clients, and that will still be in place. However, the special promotion, which includes interviews with up to three executive team members, is ending. If you’d like to take advantage of that, please contact me at Dr.Karen@TransLeadership.com or call me at (719) 534-0949, extension 1. We can talk about starting that service for you.

‑‐‐

Mining Lessons From Life Experiences To Inspire Your Team

Did you know that you can mine the lessons from your life and work experiences to inspire your teams and people? In my book, Lead Yourself First!: The Senior Leader’s Guide to Engaging Your People for Greater Performance and Impact, I share snippets of my life experiences from childhood all the way up to adulthood. I also share what I learned from these experiences and how that learning informs how I lead. I share some examples of how I facilitate client success with these same principles. I invite you to apply the same methodology to your life with reflection questions at the end of each chapter. When you lead yourself first, you then have a foundation for leading others.

In Chapter 2, which is called Run Your Own Race, I share stories from my time as an active-duty Army officer when my approach to running the 2-mile physical training test and the 12-mile forced road march had to be different from what other people did. Dare to be different. Find your own success formula. Sometimes, what works for you is different from what works for others. Remember to run your own race. Get your copy of Lead Yourself First, and you’ll find resources on how to run your own race.