Organisational development | Leadership

Back to the roots: Real encounters remain a basic need even in digital worlds.

We humans are and remain social beings - even in a digital world. As social beings, belonging is one of our elementary basic needs. The Gallup Engagement Index 2018 for Germany shows that this emotional attachment to companies is present in just 15% of employees. The quality of the relationship with colleagues and superiors has a major influence on this bond. But new forms of work and the use of digital communication tools mean that we spend less and less time in the office. That is why it is all the more important that we use the time we spend together in the office for real encounters with our colleagues. Creating the framework for this is also the task of the managers.

Team culture in digitalisation

Real encounters are the prerequisite for emotional bonding

In view of the advancing digitalisation in companies, it is elementarily important that we consciously reconsider Making time for real encounters and Creating space for real encounters. Without these genuine encounters, the emotional bond with companies will continue to decline. As a result, their innovative power and performance will decline.

What are real encounters?

Real encounters is a honest and sincere meeting of people. Genuine encounters are characterised by the fact that People are willing to show themselves as they are - with all its facets; also the imperfect ones. They are moments, in which those who show themselves are acceptedas they are - value-free and benevolent. In genuine encounters we are open to the other, we appreciate the other without judging him.

Why are real encounters in companies so important?

Only real encounters create a genuine cooperation and enable Trust
Only real encounters create the emotional connection in teams, independent of mobile working and digital communication the We-feeling wears
Only real encounters give the Chance for emotional depth, which the Developing a team vision that everyone is connected tomakes possible
Promote real encounters creative exchange and the Discourse on different points of view away
Only real encounters offer the possibility, Clarify conflicts in a sustainable way and to make use of the opportunities that lie therein

Why are real encounters so difficult for us?

The need to belong is accompanied by a fear of rejection. The brain researcher Gerald Hüther explains it in the book "Lernlust. What really matters in life" as follows: "Fear, is indeed triggered in us humans by threatening social experiences. ... I am no longer accepted. I am no longer respected, I am no longer valued. ..."

So if I am not one hundred percent sure that I am accepted by those around me in a non-judgemental way, I do not show myself as I am. Many people even go one step further, they create a "shell" or "mask" of themselves that they believe will meet with approval and recognition. In this way they distance themselves from themselves. Genuine encounters thus become impossible.

How can leaders create space for real encounters?

Leaders should Be authentic yourself and show yourself. If they themselves are afraid of real encounters, they will not establish a culture of encounter in the team. Furthermore, they should:

Regularly schedule team time that goes well beyond the jour fixe.
actively strengthen trust in the team.
Focus conversations on questions, inviting staff to take space for themselves.
Create mobile phone and laptop-free communication spaces.
Promote informal exchange within the team.
Establish a culture of "letting people off the hook".
Perceive and sincerely value the strengths and talents of their employees.
strengthen the self-confidence of their employees.

More I for more We

In my daily work, I experience More and more leaders who are willing to look behind their own masks and take themselves and their needs seriously.. They get to know and trust themselves anew - with our help. They free themselves from their fears and increasingly develop an inner independence from the opinion of others. They stand by themselves and are ready to show themselves - with all their imperfect personality, their talents, their authenticity and warmth.

In such developments lies the opportunity for teams to return to a culture of encounter and to establish a basis of trust from the abundance of different personalities, their interaction and their exchange, which enables creative, innovative and entrepreneurial thinking and action in such depth and sustainability that economic success is guaranteed - even in a digital world.