Need to Belong

No man is an island, and for everyone of us, the need to belong is indeed one that can be, for some, insatiable.

Today, I'll like to offer four areas for our consideration as we build teams at work, family bonds, and of course culture in an organization.

The first area is in the area growth. Since the dawn of time, man has always the need for growth. Whether conscious or otherwise, whether we do finally take action or not is another issue altogether. However, we all want to grow, to improve our well-being, and to better ourselves. Hence in any organization, unless one feels that they are growing; be it learning new skills, testing new grounds, or breaking new frontiers.

Therefore, when building our organizational culture, we must provide opportunities for growth. Besides, the intensity of our growth gets magnified through working in teams. You see, it sometimes doesn't matter what the outcomes are but more importantly its what we did together. If in doubt, just observe what people talk about what they get together for gatherings; its about re-living those experiences again.

Another critical area is that of contribution. Ever wonder why when you ask people if time nor money is an issue, what would you choose to do and their answers would almost always be about how they can help or contribute. Hence, being part of any organization, the very least is where people feel that they have or can contribute.

See it in another way, its about how people are being valued. If we value each other as individuals; then we will respect their views, recognize the differences, engage their talents in tasks. The last thing anyone needs is for you to show them their views are not needed, that the fact that they are different is not tolerated, or to have them dig a hole then fill it up.

You see, only when people feel that they are valued, the best you will get out of them is willing compliance. In other words, they will only complete the task because they are obliged to being part of the organization. Well, unless you are running a death camp, you would want your team to take initiatives, to seek creative solutions, and to go the extra mile. That way, you can not only delight the customer, you will also have a competitive edge that your competitors can't copy quickly.

Closely related to contribution; people also want to feel significant. Now, this is not just about rewards or recognition. Though they are important, these are not the sole motivational factors. You see, in one of our previous discussions, we spoke about internal and external motivation. And an added dimension of that is away-towards motivation.

In order for individuals to feel significant, the matrix of away-towards and internal-external motivation must be examined. As such, if we only have motivational factors that are skewed to one or the other, we are then able to look at first are these factors aligned to our corporate values and then re-examine how we can introduce new or refine existing factors to accentuate significance.

The last area is connection or network. You see, leveraging on the power of "network effects", the more nodes a network has, the value of the network increase exponentially. Hence, establishing a well-connected network is extremely critical. Everyone wants to be part of a network that is able to increase their worth. In other words, the above three areas are actually dependent on the last area.

Because in an organization with a well-connected network, individuals in that organization will be better able to grow, contribute, and enhance their level of significance as compared to being part of an organization that does not have such a network.

Therefore, in order for us to build an organization that people want to be part of; these four areas must be worked on. Having said that, in which order do we start off with will depends on the level of the organization and its leadership.
Your friend,
Melvyn
(Sent from my Blackberry Bold)