“I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.”

Does it matter if you don’t like me?

In the work place to create harmony amongst our team it’s important to spend time with everyone. Yes, it is easier with some people more than others but consider the words of Abraham Lincoln – maybe we just need to give some people more of our time to really get to know them to discover that you have more in common than you think.

Communication and trust are key to unlocking the reality starting with your own self talk. Check in with yourself to see if you have any bias that is not serving you or others well and make a list of the negative results of this thinking and then create a positive list of the results you could bring about by changing your own thoughts which lead to more productive and harmonious outcomes for you and others.

Let’s take the today’s meaning of ‘collusion’ – to conspire –. a secret cooperation for fraud, treason or seeking an end for own gain at the expense of others wellbeing’. It started life as meaning ‘to breathe together’ and to be in harmony. How lovely if that was still the case today! We have lessons here once more when it comes to bias both conscious and unconscious. We all love being with people we like and who are like us – we are human and that’s the genetic programming so relax (unless you are a robot and not yet wired for emotional intelligence) its natural. What we do have to ponder on is are we aware of the feelings of others that we don’t breathe with so much?

Secondly, check in with your team and create opportunities to simply ‘breathe with them’, be playful and enjoy each other’s company. Vary your meeting format, go bowling, offer a prize for some light hearted competitive task, do something nice on their birthdays, share in their sadness when things are not so good for them in their personal lives. You know all this – I am just checking in with you to see if you have been too busy recently to keep up the play.

I believe in personal profiling as it keeps things simple and if adopted throughout an organisation as a method to help people learn how to communicate better; leveraging differences so as to truly feel the benefits of collaborating positively with others.

If you would like a conversation with me about C-Me Profiling, Belbin Team Roles profiling or how to develop your Diversity & Inclusion strategy I would be delighted to take some time out so that we can “breathe together”.