Relationships As A Productivity Tool In Organisations : A Conversation

This is the second conversation I am carrying on my blog; the first one was with Mr Amitabh D Sinha, then the Director-Finance at the SME Chamber of India. That one was around the topic of Development models in Economics; which is a current and relevant topic. The topic for today is another relevant and vital topic – Relationships in the professional sphere. The continuing Economic Distress is throwing a series of areas under the microscope, trying to figure out what went wrong, and how. But it occurred to me that this was obvious to quite a few of us, and yet, this concern was not translated into action.

REASONS FOR THE ORGANISATIONAL COLLAPSE

This points to several areas of active intervention for individuals, as well as organisations – especially the HR Fraternity. Chief among these are Pure Knowledge, Trend Analysis, Predictive Analytical Capability, Demand Forecasting, Function-Specific Skill Sets, Industry Trends & Technology Developments, Decision Making Capabilities, Market Analyses. It is the confluence of these factors that lead to or contributed to the economic collapse. However, it also occurred to me that in some cases where specific actionable intelligence and analyses were present, this was ignored and the industry or company collapsed. Thus, apart from all these, there has to be another factor in operation in our companies that is as much a contributory factor to the collapse.

THE RELATIONSHIP ANGLE

Why were these signs and information ignored, leading to organizational collapse? This points to a gap in two places : the vertical as well as horizontal relationships in the said organization; and systemic power structures which have become entrenched. {I am speaking from specific experience} – and at both systemic and individual levels. The inability  of both companies as well as individual managers to communicate the urgency of the situation, despite their being acutely aware of certain disaster in terms of widespread product line failure can have no other reason, as in some cases there was an attempt made to sensitise the Top Management.

This works at both levels, and in both directions. A working professional Relationship requires a basic understanding of mutual capabilities and respect for each other, as well as trust in each other. Now this is not so simple an aspect of management; if your team does not trust about you, or care about you – it can hinder information flow upwards – which is a recipe for certain disaster, as many organisations have found out to their chagrin. The employee has to care enough about the larger context of his insights as well as be knowledgeable enough to derive those insights.

In a fast moving marketplace, this can be vital. The timely intelligence, analyses, if acted upon can lead to protection of marketshare, productivity improvements, top and bottomline benefits. But for them to take place, the organization needs to tap into all its resources; and the people who are in the company must feel comfortable enough to air their understanding openly. Most of the time they will be wrong; this is where experience of the Top Management comes in – the ability to judge the real insight from the multitude of insights that will inadvertently flow into their systems. This will of course require robust systems, data crunching, market knowledge and Trend awareness of a high caliber. But if successfully bridged, the pot at the end of the rainbow is there for all : Top and Bottomline benefits.

TAPPING INTO RELATIONSHIPS

In my attempt to go deeper into the Organisational working, and the characteristics of high-calibre organisations, it thus becomes clear that a fundamental requirement is employee comfort that enables him or her to be open about these things, and that the team is receptive to these, at times, outlandish ideas. It is clear that this cannot happen without the core skills identified in the second paragraph; it is also clear that tapping this resource base needs a robust relationship network within an organization. Accordingly, I asked two people who are experts in building relationships what the aspect of relationships in an Organisation is all about : Mr Milind Kher and Mrs Riddhima Dua. The conversation is given below, in its entirety.

Mr Milind Kher is a person with over 30 years experience in Sales and Management, with wide exposure to FMCG sales as well as Training and Development; He is now into the wellness and relationship sphere in this mentor phase of his long and illustrious career, and also runs a training organization in the hospitality industry, a place which thrives on relationships. Mrs Riddhima Dua is a former MNC Bank Manager, and now into the Training Industry and a certified NLP Trainer as well as Coach.

THE CONVERSATION:

Q1 : How do you define a relationship in a professional context? How is it actually perceived on the ground? How do you think it should be?

A1 : In a professional context, a relationship is a function of the relevance people have for each other, either in terms of a reporting relationship, or then as colleagues. On the ground it is often perceived as a necessary evil. Team AOR believes that it should be a fulfilling one that evokes a positive reaction

Q2 : What are the basic requirements, norms, ethics and ettiquettes in a professional relationship?

A2 : Trust, Transparency and Teamwork are the 3 “T” s of a sound professional relationship. These are the factors that need to drive the relationship

Q3 : Is a transactional relationship by necessity bad? Or can it be good under some circumstances?

A3 : Where it is highly technical or process driven, it is ok to have transactional relationships. Where trust and motivation are involved, the relationship needs to move beyond that

Q4 : How can we build a healthy transactional relationship in the professional sphere?

A4 : Delivering on time, in full is important in ensuring a good professional relationship

Q5 : Is the lack of fruitful relations in the professional context as bad an issue as I perceive?

A5 : When the professional relationship is not good, people do not give their best. Often, through passive aggression, they may even sabotage the working of the organization. On the contrary, when the relationship is good, people go the extra mile

Q6 : How does the lack of such relationships impact the bottom line, top line and overall competitiveness: is there is a link - and if so, how does it link, how does it impact?

A6 : Look at companies like Zappos, Facebook, Google. All of them offer a very good quality of life to their employees. And the results speak for themselves. Definitely, good relationships help significantly in making people go the extra mile.

Q7 : Is there a link between healthy workplace relationhips and stress?

A7 : There is a very strong correlation. People spend more waking hours at the workplace than at home. Stress at the workplace is not only dysfunctional there, it spills over to home as well

Q8 : Can we differentiate between vertical and horizontal relationships? What is your take on both of these in terms of building healthy relationships?

A8 : Vertical relationships work on authority while horizontal relationships work on power. That is why this is often called lateral power as well

Q9 : How can we build a link between healthy workplace relationships, job satisfaction and Productivity?

A9 : It is important to document the actual output after such inputs are provided. That will endorse the efficacy of the inputs

Q10 : What are some practical guidelines, methods, processes that can be adopted to build healthy relationships? Do they require organisational policy intervention and changes? Or is it just a training & development issue, requiring sensitsation? Do you think other areas need to be looked, like PMS, Recruitment, Inter- and Intra Departmental control and communication etc

A10 : It is difficult during the course of a single interview to describe in detail. Of course, during our “Alchemy of Relationships” {AOR} workshop, we will be extensively discussing the impact of relationships in the personal and professional sphere. Yes, Team AOR believes that workplace relationships are something that are way beyond being just a T&D issue. Nevertheless, it is T&D that will have to drive the whole process

As can be seen from the above small snippet, relationships are a matter that is quite vital even in the professional context. It needs to be understood what a healthy professional relationship is, and how it is different from what we normally perceive it to be. This will be covered in future articles on this mini-series; for now, let me just conclude by saying or rather re-iterating that a healthy, working relationship is vital; and even more vital is the need for non-transactional relationships within an organization. Sad part is, this is the least understood aspect of Management in organisations today.