connection lost
When we start a new role, we know what we want to achieve, what the organisation wants to achieve and how the two are connected. Over time, that sense of connection often weakens. In some cases, people gradually become disconnected to the point that the work they want to achieve becomes ‘just a job they have to do’.
Does that matter?
As an individual if you want the energy you put into your work to contribute to something bigger than your pay packet, then it matters.
And for those organisations able to connect people to a shared purpose, they will flourish.
Underlying this loss of connection are three disconnects.
Disconnect #1 the purpose of the organisation vs. the daily work people actually do
The first disconnect is between the organisation’s mission – the higher purpose that attracts everyone to join the organisation – and what everyone actually does each day. How much time is spent in activities that are peripheral to the organisation’s mission rather than contributing directly to the mission?
The emotions we feel with this disconnect are frustration, a sense we are wasting our time and a lack of fulfilment.
Disconnect #2 using our strengths at work vs. doing things we are not good at
Organisations hire people based on their strengths and capabilities. People flourish when they spend a good proportion of each day working to those strengths. It energises and motivates.
Of course, we all need to be flexible; organisations change and it is reasonable to expect people to develop their capabilities.
However, when people continuously spend a large proportion of each day working outside their capabilities, this erodes confidence and satisfaction. It reduces both our contribution to the organisation and our sense of purpose. Work becomes drudgery and we feel tired and bored.
Disconnect #3 the organisation’s collective effort vs. individual freestyling
Organisations are groups of people joined together in a shared endeavour. A key factor in an organisation’s ability to flourish is harnessing that combined effort, connecting everyone’s strengths and energy to the overall mission where the sum of the whole becomes far greater than the individual parts. It’s extraordinarily energising and motivating to work under these conditions. Great work gets done and everyone is part of that.
However, in many organisations it is common to find that people turn to freestyling, working to a set of individual goals that barely connect to the organisation’s purpose. People are using their strengths, but it is irrelevant to the overall collective effort. In fact, it diminishes the organisation’s overall result.
While there can be pleasure in freestyling, over time it leads to frustration for the individual, because being out of sync with the wider organisation creates tension, places their work in the margins and puts their role at risk.
Many of us will have experienced these 3 disconnects in different organisations. You might want to take a minute to reflect on these 3 questions:
How much time have I spent this week on activities that directly contribute to the organisation’s mission?
How much time have I spent this week working to my strengths?
How much of my work is contributing to the collective effort of the organisation?
Exploring these questions with a gentle curiosity, rather than a harsh judgement is likely to yield more insight.
These 3 disconnects tend to arise quite frequently in organisations and may even become an established part of the culture. It’s not really anyone’s fault, more a product of the overall system.
However, each of us has the power to build more connection through simple ‘practices’.
In the next blog I’ll explore how we move from connection lost to connection found. After all people have a great need to connect and to contribute to something bigger than themselves.
We can do it!
