Let's look for opportunities to connect with others and tip the health and happiness scale in our favor, boosting engagement and outcomes along the way.
A meeting can be formal or informal, a chance or planned arrangement, face-to-face or remote, involve two or hundreds of thousands of people, and last for a few seconds or for hours (ugh!). The only real requirement is that it involve more than one person. When you think about it that way, most of us have several meetings a day. How often do you think on the great opportunity these meetings represent?
What we really want, is for all of our meetings, to be meetings, as in an intersection, or connection to another. A connection of eyes, smiles, people, minds, ideas, beliefs, purpose, mental models, behaviors...what is connected can change based upon the meeting, participants, and effort invested, but we should strive for a connection every time. In some ways this is easy because of the collective dynamics with each coming together--you would think it would be impossible not to connect something.
But the reality is that these dynamics also run interference with connection. We get too wrapped up in the urgency, repetition, history, predispositions, problems, stresses...you get the picture, because it could be a portrait of each of us. But we have to remember, connection impacts mental health and our ability to form relationships. This is a feature of our societal traits that sustain our existence. We cannot ignore this need, and when we neglect connection in ourselves and in others, we cause harm.
In a 2019 article on The Benefits of Mental Health According to Science, Dr. Jeremy Sutton, says, when looking at a person's level of happiness, medical professionals look for specific markers or indicators, since they confirm good mental health, including (Snyder, 2021):
A more positive attitude and outlook toward self and others.
Increased openness to new, different, and challenging experiences.
An increasingly optimistic outlook regarding the potential of individuals, groups, and society to grow positively.
A heightened sense of purpose.
A boosted capacity for managing complex environments and situations and shaping them in positive ways.
More engagement, curiosity, and interest in society, social life, and the needs of others.
Ability to resist unhelpful, unsavory influences to maintain goal and value-driven paths – ultimately a show of heightened autonomy.
Experiencing a sense of belonging to the community; deriving both comfort and support from their support and connections.
Engagement in warm and trusting relationships, showing intimacy and empathy.
This is the profile of an ideal employee, right? Well, the deeper and more frequent our connections, the better the relationships, which improve our mental health and happiness. What's more, we significantly boost performance at work and increase employee engagement and job satisfaction. This cannot be more important for us to understand.
Even those hallway chance meetings are micro-opportunities for connection and purpose--and happiness. If you went to public or private school, you have to remember with fondness those in-between-class hallway connections. Think of the noise level and the laughter. It was critical to our social development and happiness. Conversely, when it was unpleasant, it significantly impacted our mental state. Today's news and statistics for adolescents convey heartbreak and torment when these interactions are nonexistent, unpleasant, even violent. It is such a devastating existence when people don't feel accepted, and that life is good. People must feel a part of something.
In work life, although our sense of self grows with age and experience, and national laws and work cultures reduce significant aberrations in work behavior, we have to accept the human need for connection, even as adults. When we do, and respond accordingly, the opportunities for other benefits become apparent. Deeper connections in meetings reap closer employee relationships.
For more information regarding connection, meetings and engagement, reach out to me or visit our website at collaboration.
Lori G. Fisher
PLS Management Consulting
Purpose | Leap | Surge
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