You don’t need to look far to see the need to deepen relationships. We are surrounded by urgent offers of transactional relationships. We watch as streamlined digital experiences and bots take over many interactions, often failing to handle the complexity of real human circumstances. We can easily feel isolated in work and social contexts with a strong focus on individual performance and individual achievement.  Without new action, these forces will continue to reinforce isolation.

We work for others. Our work benefits others. We work with others. Our work is supported by others. We work in webs of relationships, but we care for few of these.

We work intensively on our relationship with our boss and the direct stakeholders in our work – customers, suppliers and partners. If we are proactively managing our careers we might have mentors and sponsors. Friends may get an occasional email, lunch or coffee. Many other relationships are neglected as we explore the demands of this work.

Digital transformation is a platform for deeper relationships. However a platform is just that, to realise its potential we have to use it in ways that achieve our goals. Digital technology enables us to connect more freely, to know more about others and to collaborate to reduce the bounds of time, distance and resources. However, we can’t connect with those we don’t consider,  we don’t know unless others share and collaboration is founded on aligned purpose, shared context, trust and generosity.

We need to deepen relationships to shape where the platform of digital transformation will take us. We need to put ourselves back in control of our work and our careers by deepening our relationships.

This week we will explore how the sharing our work with relevant networks in a purposeful way will help us to deepen relationships and create a legacy. Working out loud is a critical practice for digital organisations to build network awareness, to foster learning and collaboration and to build an effective digital culture. Tomorrow we will dive into how Working about Loud does this work.

Questions:

• Who haven’t you considered recently in andaround your work?
• How strong are your work relationships?
• How do you understand their circumstances, work and needs as well as your own?
• Where might you need to learn more, collaborate more or build trust and understanding?