Creating connections that matter, one conversation at a time

Last week as the Founder of Share-A-Table, I joined the Kraft Heinz's team at their Amsterdam office to Share-A-Table so to speak and open up the conversation around the value of putting effort into conversations with people (and colleagues) you don’t yet know well.

Hybrid work models mean you often miss the consistent in-person connection with colleagues - as schedules and office days can change week to week. This also means we now need to go the extra mile to make those in person connections happen and build a deeper (less transactional) connection with our colleagues. 

Yet all effort - always - pays off. 

What many people don’t realise is that we have lost over 2hrs each per week in face-to-face social interactions since 2012 which neatly coincides with the introduction of smart phones. Collectively that's a lot of social currency... and we're all slightly poorer from it. I would also guess this average weekly number is now much higher! Why? 

We’ve now added hybrid or full remote work to the mix.

And the result?

We’re quickly losing the social ‘currency' that makes us all feel wealthier from the shared sense of social connection which in turn gives our lives (and work world) more purpose and meaning. We're also still recovering 'socially' from the global pandemic - where university students (now graduates and in their first role) missed out on building the social muscle used to build a broad social network with a diverse range of people. Whereas seasoned professionals now truly value the flexibility and freedom hybrid and remote-work models offer, we also need to be mindful of the associated ‘costs'... 

What this means now is that building up our collective social muscle is really important. On a personal level, our social skills always need nurturing and sometimes a bit of hard training to make them super fit. 

For those professionals that are focused on Work Wellness and Employee Engagement programs, a strong indicator to get a great return on effort or investment, are organic, smaller group social activities. It’s important that you don’t ONLY host large networking events (as individuals can only speak to a few people at once and we naturally stick to what we know in large networking events).

A tip is to create smaller and organic and natural ways to connect. The investment and effort will pay off and create an invaluable social currency in organisations that operate with a hybrid-work model, and will of course support 100% office-based work policies to help build connections across disciplines.

A note to members, you can also create your OWN social groups and vibes (by city/ theme) on Share-A-Table.com.

Just submit your request here.