Three years ago, we met a woman named Denise when we visited her organization to offer a workshop. Denise shared her passion for learning about organizational culture and culture change. We had a brief, energizing conversation about how she was transferring what she was learning about culture change at work to her volunteer role at her daughter’s school.
Fast forward to earlier this month, when we were back at the same organization and bumped right into Denise! We greeted her enthusiastically and shared how wonderful it was to see her again. We asked about her daughter, and what was new in the culture change space. Later, as we said goodbye, Denise admitted something important: “I’m surprised you remembered me and even knew my name,” she confessed. “It is touching that you remembered what I care about, as so few people seem to do that. Thank you.”
Our experience with Denise might seem very ordinary, yet it also illuminates what we call in our research “high-quality connections.” Denise’s comments emphasize the scarcity of these connections in many work environments. Time and performance pressures, inattention, distraction, and overload can easily undermine our ability to connect.
While easy to overlook, these momentary interactions are highly consequential. As researchers, we’ve collected evidence about four important pathways that can help you foster high-quality connections—and be healthier, happier, and more productive at work and beyond.
Not all connections are alike
Some forms of human connection nourish and sustain us more than others. It may help to think of our momentary interactions with other people along a continuum that spans from low-quality connection to neutral to high-quality.
We know the quality of connection by how we feel while we are in it. Higher-quality connections “light us up” with energy and a sense of vitality as we mutually respond to one another. They also involve what psychologist Carl Rogers called unconditional positive regard, seeing one another in a favorable and accepting manner.
A mountain of evidence demonstrates the importance of human connections marked by these three characteristics. They increase our overall health, well-being, and sense of belonging, bolster our psychological safety, make us and our teams more resilient, and even contribute to our longevity. In fact, it is probably not overstating the case to say that we are on this earth to connect with one another.
Connections are different from relationships. Think about them as the micro-bits that link us to strangers, but also color and shape the moments in longer-term, more enduring relationships. If we want to shift the quality of our relationships, we must shift the quality of the moments of interaction that comprise those relationships. When we experience more vitality, greater mutual responsiveness, and higher levels of positive regard together, our relationships grow stronger.
While changing patterns of relating can seem difficult or even impossible, watching for moments of high-quality connection gives us places to start. We can actively engage in actions that pave the way for these connections to emerge. We have articulated four pathways to high-quality connection by examining and synthesizing many years of diverse, multidisciplinary research, creating a map to the conditions that are most supportive for them.
1. Respectful engagement
A required condition for high-quality human connection is to see another person as worthy or valuable. Respect is like a gift of social worth, a gift that is given by how we treat each other.
We communicate respect, or fail to communicate it, in many kinds of small moments. Consider the many ways we signal our presence to another person—giving them our full attention, tuning in to them, removing distractions, making eye contact, and listening actively. When we aren’t fully present with another person, they feel it.
In work contexts, we bestow respect when we convey that we’ve genuinely heard someone, using bodily gestures such as nodding or smiling. We can ask questions to engage with genuine interest and curiosity. And, finally, we convey respect when we affirm others. When we see and value the good in another person, reflected in how we introduce them or recognize them, they are much more likely to feel respected.
If you look closely at our brief interaction with Denise, you can see a great deal of respectful engagement. Small but crucial moves include conveying our full presence as we actively greeted each other, expressing interest through our memories of a prior interaction, and showing curiosity reflected in questions about Denise’s daughter and her passions and interests. Though our interaction was momentary, Denise’s feedback to us about the connection reveals the power of a few moments of respectful engagement.
We created this high-quality connection in just seconds—but don’t let that fool you. It wasn’t accidental. We can’t overstate the importance of moves that can seem insignificant if you are in a hurry or under strain, such as a respectful smile, a nod, remembering a name, asking a question, or conveying an expression of delight. People have a basic need to belong, and being affirmed by others helps them know they are included. When this type of connection is a rarity in our work, low-quality connections and disrespectful interactions pave the way toward burnout, disengagement, and a sense that our work doesn’t matter and we don’t belong in our workplace.
2. Task enabling
In our research, we use the term task enabling to refer to different ways we help another person succeed in what they are trying to do. There are as many ways of task enabling as there are people who need help, but we can learn a few small moves that are particularly potent for building higher-quality connections along this pathway.
First, we can consider and provide resources. Resources can be money or material goods, but more often they are non-material support, such as providing attention, encouragement, information, or mentorship. We might provide an introduction or help identify new sources of support. All of these moves not only aid in doing the task, but also convey that we care about the other’s success.
Similarly, we can task-enable by considering ways to remove obstacles that hinder someone in accomplishing what they set out to do. Making things easier fosters a higher-quality connection, not just by lending a hand but also by conveying our understanding of their situation.
In workplaces, this kind of helping creates conditions for high-quality connections to blossom. You can easily imagine that in our conversations with Denise, as we learned of her passion for organization culture change, we could enable her work by introducing her to a community of practitioners who meet regularly to discuss the trials and triumphs of culture change. Further, we could make a few phone calls to remove constraints blocking her participation as a relatively junior member, making her journey easier. Denise felt grateful and delighted by our efforts to help her grow, and our connection was elevated to a new level.
3. Trusting
Most of us intuitively understand the importance of trust, by which we convey our belief that another person is reliable, capable, and caring. Actively trusting builds the quality of our connections, because when trust is present in a connection, people feel safer. Many of us value being trusted by others, but we may not know how to communicate that we are trusting of others. Learning a few new small moves that signal trusting can give your connections a substantial boost in quality.
We communicate that we are trusting when we give others control over resources or decisions. In the workplace, this is often reflected in a lack of “micromanagement,” allowing people to do work in ways that make sense to them. As colleagues, peers, or managers and leaders we can say—in both words and deeds—that we believe in someone’s intentions and integrity and that we stand behind their capacity to do what is needed.
Workplaces also create many opportunities for trusting and communicating trusting in the sharing of information. We communicate trusting when we are transparent or open with others about our intentions and about our circumstances. For example, when a principal shares with her full teaching staff that there will be a need for budget tightening this year and gives each teacher control over how they execute the cuts in their classroom, there is an uptick in the amount of trust in the connection. By giving another person more control, we are inherently making ourselves more vulnerable. Our willingness to be vulnerable conveys a type of faith in the other person and also signals our belief in their benevolence and capability.
4. Playing
The fourth pathway to higher-quality connections involves playfulness. All humans play to learn and grow. We often stop regarding play as legitimate when we join the workforce. But playing matters for connection!
By playing, we simply mean creating fun or enjoying pleasant experiences in an appropriate manner that fits with what we are doing in a momentary interaction. In our interaction with Denise, playing took the form of smiles, humorous stories, and some shared laughter. For other work teams, playfulness might take the form of getting out of the office into a different setting together, playing online games, or going on a shared adventure. We studied one work team that established a norm allowing anyone who sensed the team was overly stressed to call for an immediate, short, fun dance break. Another team, who worked in an area with frequent cold weather, took “sunshine breaks” as a form of playing together any time the sun broke through the cold clouds.
Small moments of playfulness or fun might seem insignificant at work, but like the other moves described in these four pathways, what is small is also mighty.
Experiment, seek feedback, and grow your connection capacity
While we are born to connect, we don’t always know how to engage in high-quality connections in the midst of uncertainty. Deliberate attention to these small moves is harder when we’re busy or under pressure. We may avoid interacting with people in spaces that are unfamiliar or uncomfortable, losing the opportunity for moments of high-quality connection.
Luckily, we can learn to more intentionally practice all of the small moves along these four pathways. We invite you to try something new in your connections today and to use whatever happens as feedback to learn and grow. As you seek to connect in higher-quality ways, you can become ever more skillfully human.
Once you start practicing new ways to show respectful engagement, communicate trust, play together, and enable others to succeed, you’ll quickly find that learning how to connect can be a lifelong quest that makes our working lives more fulfilling, healthy, and meaningful.
The essay was created by the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley and originally published on Greater Good. The Greater Good Science Center studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being, and teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society.
The Center for Positive Organizations is pleased to announce that Monica C. Worline, PhD, will begin her tenure as Faculty Director, replacing Wayne Baker who recently retired.
In this role, Monica will set the strategic direction of the Center and oversee its operations and growth, working closely with stakeholders and the Center’s Managing Director, Michelle Hunt Bruner. Monica will provide guidance for research programs, activities, and events and oversee current programs and new initiatives. Monica will also oversee stewardship and marketing and communication strategies. She will continue to foster positive and collaborative relationships throughout Michigan Ross and across the University of Michigan campus.
“It is an honor to serve The Center for Positive Organizations in this position,” Monica commented, “and I am eager to explore new opportunities to realize the Center’s mission in the changing landscape of work and in the midst of such global need for forms of organizational excellence that uplift humanity.”
About Monica Worline
Monica is a faculty member in the Organizations and Management group at Michigan Ross and has been a member of the Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) community for over two decades. Monica has dedicated her research, writing, and teaching to understanding how we can cultivate more courageous thinking, compassionate leadership, and forms of organizing that bring people’s best work to life. Monica is a leading voice in advancing integrative models that synthesize work across POS, supporting leaders and changemakers to build organizations that–from the ground up and the top down–are designed to thrive. Her current research focuses on a powerful social architecture framework for designing flexible structures and architecting the capability for human and social thriving into organizations so they can reliably and strategically produce excellence grounded in extraordinary human well-being.
Monica co-authored the book Awakening Compassion at Work: The Quiet Power that Elevates People and Organizations with Jane Dutton and she leads the CompassionLab, a global research collaboratory focused on compassion in organizations. Her research has been published in academic journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, and Strategic Organization. An award-winning teacher, Monica has written about innovations in management education in Academy of Management Learning and Education and Management Learning, and she regularly features in media, podcasts, and events where she is passionate about inviting people to learn more about this transformational field and become architects of their own thriving organizations.
Monica has previously served as associate director and research scientist at Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, where she continues to teach as a visiting faculty member in the Applied Compassion Training Program. Monica has also served on the faculties of Goizueta Business School at Emory University, the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California Irvine, and the UC Irvine School of Social Ecology. Monica completed her doctoral work in organizational psychology at the University of Michigan and earned her BA with distinction and honors at Stanford University.
Laura Morgan Roberts
Associate Professor of Business Administration, University of Virginia
About the talk
Join us in conversation with one of the world’s most renowned voices bringing a positive organizational scholarship lens to topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion at work. Dr. Laura Morgan Roberts will discuss the headwinds slowing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives amid an uncertain economy and efforts to dismantle diversity programs through court rulings and legislation. Laura emphasizes that leaders will benefit from a focus on an overarching goal, that of creating four freedoms that are central to creating conditions necessary for all workers to flourish. Laura will share how to foster these four freedoms at work – the freedom to be, the freedom to become, the freedom to fade, and the freedom to fail – and how doing so can make organizations more welcoming and safer for everyone. Laura will share practical and powerful approaches, including encouraging individual allyship, implementing strengths-based development programs, and enabling flexible work, and how these approaches can more evenly distribute these four freedoms, reducing rates of disengagement and burnout, especially for those in marginalized groups.
Student Watch Party: Watch this streamed session together with other students for an in-person community experience followed by a structured discussion about how to put insights from Positive Links into practice. Registration for the Student Watch Party is included as an option when registering for this session of Positive Links.
To jump-start learning for this Positive Links session, read the Harvard Business Review article “Where Does DEI go from Here?” authored by Laura Morgan Roberts.
About Roberts
Laura Morgan Roberts, PhD, is the founder of The Alignment Quest Enterprise LLC and Frank M. Sands Sr. Associate Professor of Business Administration (with tenure) at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. With family roots in Gary, Indiana and Washington, DC, Laura earned a BA in Psychology (highest distinction & Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of Virginia, and an MA and PhD in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan. She has served on the faculties of Harvard Business School, Antioch University, and Georgetown University. She has also taught courses in organizational behavior, psychology, negotiations, group dynamics, diversity, leadership, and career development as a faculty affiliate of the University of Michigan, the Wharton School of Finance, Tuck, Georgia State University, UCLA Anderson, Simmons School of Management, and AVT (Copenhagen).
Laura Morgan Roberts researches the science of maximizing human potential in diverse organizations and communities. Her work on diversity, authenticity, and leadership development has been recognized by Thinkers50 (Talent Management Top 10 Thought Leader); LinkedIn (Top 10 Voice in Equity); ThinkList #Amplify; and the Academy of Management Organizational Behavior Award for Societal Impact. Laura has published research articles, teaching cases, and practitioner-oriented tools for strengths-based development, workplace equity, and inclusion. Her co-authored article, Toward a Racially Just Workplace, was featured among the top 12 articles in Harvard Business Review’s 100-year history. She has also co-edited three books: Race, Work and Leadership (2019 Axiom Business Book Award winner); Positive Organizing in a Global Society; and Exploring Positive Identities and Organizations. A frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and the Academy of Management Review, she is regularly quoted in global media outlets. Laura serves on the Boards of The Partnership, Inc., and the Descendants of Enslaved Communities at the University of Virginia.
While navigating our digitally distributed attention, we often become trapped in a reified or limited sense of self and others, hindering our ability to engage meaningfully with the demands of a diverse workplace. Join us for a workshop that aims to offer a solution – a holistic, Mindful Mindset approach that fosters personal, social, and ecological connectivity, expanding the horizons of our possible selves and our vision of others. If you are working toward an organization that offers deep respect and grants people dignity, this workshop will reinforce, expand, and strengthen your approaches to productive, mindful, dignified engagement.
Speaker:
Ram Mahalingam is a cultural psychologist and scholar who has won numerous awards for his research, teaching, and filmmaking (www.mindfuldignity.com). Ram is passionate about promoting social justice and mindfulness, and he has developed a framework called Mindful Mindset that prioritizes treating individuals with dignity. He is working to create compassionate and caring workplaces prioritizing their employees’ well-being and dignity. His research explores dignity in three organizational settings: janitorial work, healthcare, and gender and technology. Recently, Ram received the Harold R. Johnson Award from the University of Michigan for his leadership and contributions to the university’s DEI mission and an award from the American Psychological Association (Division 5, Methods) for his outstanding contributions to teaching and mentoring. Ram is the Director of the Barger Leadership Institute (BLI) and a professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. At BLI, he has developed a Mindful Leadership program for undergraduates and a Global Mindful Peace Leadership program that encourages students to envision a world of peace by listening to the stories of Hibakushas and peace activists from Hiroshima. Ram is also learning Sumie-a and is a key collaborator on a multimedia art installation called “Being Brown in Michigan: Narratives of South Asians“ at the University of Michigan.
Host:
Monica Worline is Faculty Director of Engaged Learning and Innovation at the Center for Positive Organizations
Robert E. Quinn
Co-Founder and Faculty Advisory Board, Center for Positive Organizations; Margaret Elliott Tracy Collegiate Emeritus Professor in Business Administration; Emeritus Professor of Management and Organizations, University of Michigan
About the talk
Fear is an emotion. So is loneliness. The dread of social isolation is ever with us. It can influence imagination and logic, producing strategies that result in increased loneliness and spiraling patterns of social decay. In organizations, people at every level live in fear. Apprehensive authority figures use rational persuasion to call distrusting employees to optimal performance. The result is increased anxiety, inauthenticity, silos of self-interest, and spiraling patterns of corporate decay. In 2019 Anjan Thakor and I published a book called The Economics of Higher Purpose. Since that time, we have participated in many conversations with people trying to create organizations of optimal performance. In this presentation, I will draw from science, and from the most sacred moments in these conversations regarding higher purpose. I will share a set of micro-messages designed to infuse you with increased positivity, increased consciousness, and increased courage. My hope is to improve how you live and how you die.
Student Watch Party: Watch this streamed session together with other students for an in-person community experience followed by a structured discussion about how to put insights from Positive Links into practice. Registration for the Student Watch Party is included as an option when registering for this session of Positive Links.
About Quinn
Robert E. Quinn is the Margaret Elliot Tracy Collegiate Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business. His work focuses on purpose, leadership, culture, and change. He is one of the co-founders of the field of Positive Organizational Scholarship and of the Center for Positive Organizations. He has published extensively and loves teaching. He has 45 years of experience in helping organizations to change.
Jane Dutton and Monica Worline share their expertise on positive connections, meaning, and emotions within the workplace in an interview with The Happiness Squad podcast.
Jane and Monica discuss the flourishing triangle, the Reflected Best Self Exercise™, awakening compassion at work, and science-backed tips to elevate thriving in organizations. Listen to their episodes to unlock the true potential of flourishing within yourself and your organization.
Jane Dutton is the Robert L. Kahn Distinguished University Emerita Professor of Business Administration and Psychology at the University of Michigan.
Monica Worline is the Faculty Director of Engaged Learning and Innovation at the Center for Positive Organizations and the CEO of EnlivenWork.
Center for Positive Organizations’ faculty members Gretchen M. Spreitzer, Monica Worline, and Lindy Greer came together to provide the Michigan Ross Business and Society podcast listeners a deeper dive into the practice of thriving.
In this episode, How Can We Thrive at Work This Year?, they explain how loneliness, drained energy, and a lack of patience are side effects of low-quality connections, but also how to combat this to create interactions that energize people. Taking steps to improve the quality of your connections is a vital part of engagement and creating connections in the workplace. They discuss what we mean by thriving at work, trends and changes facing the workplace in 2023, actionable tips for managers and individuals to encourage thriving, and potential pitfalls that can get in the way of thriving.
Spreitzer is the Keith E. and Valerie J. Alessi Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan.
Worline is the Faculty Director of Engaged Learning and Innovation at the Center for Positive Organizations and CEO at Enliven Work.
Greer is a Faculty Associate at the Center for Positive Organizations, Sanger Leadership Center Faculty Director, and a Professor for Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan.
Experiential Exercise to Combat Burnout:
Tiffany Johnson, Georgia Institute of Technology
In Memoriam:
Olivia (Mandy) O’Neill, George Mason University
Exercises in the [not very] Plane Geometry of Translating Theory for [some] Practitioners:
Jean Bartunek, Boston College
Reigniting Joy in our Practice by Embracing a Design Mindset:
Monica Worline, University of Michigan and Betsy Erwin, University of Michigan
The Power and Possibilities in Creating a Landscape of Connection:
Jane Dutton, University of Michigan
Facilitator:
Brianna Caza, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
About the Session:
Our students, colleagues, and others that we encounter in our daily lives are longing for empathy, compassion, and space to be vulnerable. Ongoing crises in the world elevate the need for us to translate POS research into practice. It is possible for POS to inform how we show up in our teaching, service, and outreach work. To that end, we invited several scholar-practitioners to enlighten us on ways to bring POS to practice in our teaching, communities, and work. This experiential session will incorporate movement, exercises, and meditative spaces so that POS can carry us forward into our future.
Recognizing the prevalence of suffering among management teachers and students, we raise the importance of compassion as central to the practice of management teaching. To aid in understanding how suffering and compassion arise in management teaching, we call upon a theoretical view of their rhizomatic structure, which conveys the widespread, complex, and largely unspoken spreading of suffering and corresponding need for compassion in the work of management teaching. To meet this suffering with compassion, we propose two clusters of practices central to teaching that lend themselves to helping management teachers see possibilities for more skillfully intertwining suffering and compassion. The first focuses on how management teachers can design the context for teaching in ways that make compassion more likely, focusing specifically on roles and networks. The second draws upon Honneth’s recognitional infrastructure to focus on how teachers can approach the relational practice of teaching with emphasis on enriching human recognition of suffering. We conclude with a caution about overly simplistic approaches and overly individualized views of compassion in the work of management teaching. We call for systemic approaches to action that will enrich our imaginations as we approach management teaching and its role in our collective responsiveness to suffering.
Thriving Accelerator Series
Accelerate Your Career Success
About the Thriving Accelerator Series
The Thriving Accelerator Series, created from the research excellence of Michigan Ross’ Center for Positive Organizations, will help students build thriving lives, teams, and organizations. Students will engage with Ross thought leaders and with world-renowned tools, created by Ross faculty, to deepen their self-awareness and ability to resource others.
About this Accelerator
You may think you know your strengths, but research shows that most of us have a very limited view of the impact we actually make. Expanding your view of strengths enables you to tell more powerful stories about yourself and your contributions to organizations. This accelerator speeds up your ability to stand out by deepening and broadening your view of your strengths and how to use them in recruiting and interviewing. You will elevate your approach to your career search and discover new ways to stand out and utilize your unique strengths.
This workshop is co-hosted by Ross’ Career Development Office and the Center for Positive Organizations.
There are two opportunities to participate in the Accelerate Your Career Success workshop:
Thriving Accelerator Series
Accelerate Your Career Success
About the Thriving Accelerator Series
The Thriving Accelerator Series, created from the research excellence of Michigan Ross’ Center for Positive Organizations, will help students build thriving lives, teams, and organizations. Students will engage with Ross thought leaders and with world-renowned tools, created by Ross faculty, to deepen their self-awareness and ability to resource others.
About this Accelerator
You may think you know your strengths, but research shows that most of us have a very limited view of the impact we actually make. Expanding your view of strengths enables you to tell more powerful stories about yourself and your contributions to organizations. This accelerator speeds up your ability to stand out by deepening and broadening your view of your strengths and how to use them in recruiting and interviewing. You will elevate your approach to your career search and discover new ways to stand out and utilize your unique strengths.
This workshop is co-hosted by Ross’ Career Development Office and the Center for Positive Organizations.
There are two opportunities to participate in the Accelerate Your Career Success workshop:
The Thriving Accelerator Series, created from the research excellence of Michigan Ross’ Center for Positive Organizations, will help students build thriving lives, teams, and organizations. Students will engage with Ross thought leaders and with world-renowned tools, created by Ross faculty, to deepen their self-awareness and ability to resource others.
About the Strengths Accelerator
The two-part Strengths Accelerator will teach students how to deepen the self-awareness of their strengths. Participants will learn how to deploy a strengths-based approach in school, recruiting, and life.
The Strengths Accelerator is a two-part workshop series and students are expected to attend both sessions:
November 2, 2021
December 8, 2021 (new date)
Instructors:
Monica Worline, Faculty Director of Engaged Learning and Innovation and Core Faculty, Center for Positive Organizations
Betsy Erwin, Co-Director Engaged Learning and Innovation, Center for Positive Organizations
The essay was created by the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley and originally published on Greater Good. The Greater Good Science Center studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being, and teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society.
