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Rule 12 - Sharing Builds Community
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 (Note: after reading this sample from Susan's book you may want to sign up for five more installments on our subscriptions page - click here!)
When Rick and I were first married we lived in old farmhouse that had been transformed into two large apartments. We shared a wonderful friendship with the upstairs couple from Maine spending many evenings together making meals, talking and watching films. Each year at Christmas, our friends would trek home to spend time with parents. Just before leaving, they would bring their Christmas tree downstairs to our apartment where we would enjoy it the rest of the season.
Working in the Human Service Industry at this point in our careers, money was a real challenge for us. But there was something beyond the frugality of this act that was really spectacular. It was the stewardship of sharing a resource that seemed to catch my breath each time the tree arrived. It somehow seemed more special then any other tree we might buy just because it had been shared. It was an act of community.
I watch people struggle alone in the workplace and wonder why we are so individualistic. It is so counter to a team approach and our inner desire to be connected. Look at the web 2.0 networking revolution: Facebook, Linkedin, and new communities that spring up each day with millions of members. But these are still “virtual” connections. Right outside your office are “real time” people that are hungry for connections that the workplace can fulfill. As their boss, your caring and community building is central to their experience in the workplace.
Regardless of whether you work for a big or small company, we all seem to be guilty. A colleague of mine joked with me that she was unaware of something significant in their work because her husband had failed to send her an email. Their company has just two people in it, her and her husband. In our own little office we use IM to send quick messages back and forth across the hallway, and while it is terribly efficient we must be sure we are not avoiding the opportunity to connect. We make it a point to have face-to-face conversations regularly to share critical information. Without a more personal connection we cannot share ideas, understand shifting priorities, or support each other, all essential ingredients for an engaged team.
How can you facilitate a greater sharing of resources on your team? Remember getting your team involved in such a discussion, is itself, an act of community. Does you team meet regularly now? How are best practices shared on your team? How can individual knowledge become collective knowledge?
Lets say you are reading this thinking: sharing, well our team doesn’t share much of anything. As one supervisor I worked with put it: “we keep our heads down and get our work done.” Well that is fine perhaps if you are on a production line, but fewer and fewer of us do work that depends solely on us (even on production lines). It seems to me that sharing was one of the items covered in Robert Fulghum’s classic book entitled “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” I guess a lot of us were absent during that lesson.
Action: If sharing is counter to your current culture, try easing in to it. You might lunch together and share family news. As your team warms up, let sharing progress. Your role is to facilitate, not dominate or dictate sharing: ask questions, listen, and appreciate contributions. Make it a goal to decrease the talking time you contribute at team gatherings. Keep adjusting your involvement downward. Ask someone to share for the ne
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