Ross Gianfortune
This is GovExec Daily, where we bring you the federal stories that really matter.  It's March 23, 2021 . I’m Ross Gianfortune.

Of the things lost during the year-plus of remote work, the connections made in-office is among the largest. A year of videoconferencing, while better than just corresponding by email,  has led to less natural communication and, thus less-connected teams.

As our guest today has written, workplaces are environments where social connection is critical. Performance is better when employees are more connected to their fellow team members and mental health is better when the workplace encourages a culture of connection. While managers have gotten better at managing a remote workforce a year into the pandemic, everyone is still looking for better ways to foster connection.

In a post on our site, our guest today suggests a way to perhaps go back to elementary school to make connection easier for team members. Headlined “Managers: It's Time to Bring Back 'Show and Tell,'” the analysis suggests using the show and tell framework to start and encourage conversations that can strengthen relationships and communication in the now-remote workplace. 

Michael Lee Stallard is one of the authors of the aforementioned post on GovExec.com and a co-author of the book “Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work,” now in its second edition. After a short break, he’ll join me to talk about the show and tell strategies that organizations and managers can employ to foster greater connection.
 
Ross Gianfortune
Since the COVID 19 pandemic, state and local leaders have faced their greatest challenges to protect the health of residents while dealing with economic turmoil, what lies ahead for states, cities and counties in a post pandemic world. During the one year into the COVID crisis townhall viewers will explore how state and local governments plan to move forward in a way that makes them more resilient and equitable visit route fifty.com slash events for more information. That's our outfifty.com slash events,

Ross Gianfortune
The remote work environment has provided a series of challenges, with communication among team members being one that can cascade into greater problems. Keeping employees connected with one another is harder now, so how can managers better facility connection?

In a post on our site now headlined “Managers: It's Time to Bring Back 'Show and Tell',”  our guest today lays out one way to foster greater connection in the remote workplace. Michael Lee Stallard is one of the co-authors of  “Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work,” now in its second edition. He joins me now to discuss show and tell at work and how it can help connect employees. Welcome to the show.
 Welcome back to the program. 

Michael Lee Stallard
Hi Ross. 

Ross Gianfortune
So, what does the show and tell concept bring to the workplace?

Michael Lee Stallard
Well there's. Recent research by Ashley harden who is a professor at Washington University and what she found was that personal knowledge of colleagues at work, leads to more and more human perception of a colleague, which results in increased responsiveness so that we care and we, when, when people reach out for help, we respond more quickly. And secondly, decreased social undermining so there's less risk of backstabbing or other negative activity that people fear. And that makes sense, I believe, just common sense because when we see the humanity and others we're less likely to be indifferent to them. We're less likely to treat them as a means to win and and more likely to interact with them in ways that connect us and bring out the better angels of our nature and not backstab or blackmail them to just. Yeah, certainly I know that the distance creates a lot of dehumanization essentially if someone has just a name on a page, it's a lot different than actually knowing them, but so to that end, what does this look like you know what are some of the methods to opening up employees. In this way, well in the government executive article and in our book we cite several examples let me just mention two. One is from Dr Vivek Murthy, who is the former Surgeon General and currently the nominee for that role, and he calls it inside scoop and this is something that Dr. Murthy and staff came up with. It's part of their weekly all hands meeting where one individual would have five minutes to show a few photos related to their life and tell others about them. And over time, each participant, took a turn in sharing that information, and Dr. Murthy observed that Inside Scoop it helped connect and unite his team. People felt more valued and introverts felt safer speaking up. And when, especially when they had something to share with and holding back or being fearful, they just felt more known more comfortable speaking up, and he also believed that inside scoop, help people to feel less stressed, which makes sense because social connection is one of the best and most effective means to reduce stress and we see from research that stress levels are very high now. They were high going into pandemic three even higher now as a result of the pandemic. The second practice is from marine Bisignani it was the past CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement IHI, it's called. And he called it, one good thing. This note would start every Monday morning meeting with our senior executive team by asking each member to take one or two minutes just to share one good thing. And she explained to me that most people talked about things, you know, personal memories from the weekend, things they deal with family or friends, and she said the simple practice really helped IHI leadership team, get to know one one another, and it just helped build trust among the team I think among the team it's very consistent with Ashley Harden's research that that would happen. And then there are other things we can do just as individuals less show and tell, like with the group, but we call this just building a bridge of connection that's simply asking people, you know, to find out what we have in common. What are your interests outside of work. If you're both say Washington National fans are you like country music or upper musical theater just knowing that about one another helps you connect when you find those commonalities in your personal interests.

Ross Gianfortune 
So you noted how these methods can help you in different, different types of employees take advantage of things like that. If an employee is uncomfortable with sharing parts of their personalitie, you know, how do you balance that and how can that line be towed?

Michael Lee Stallard
Well I, I completely relate to that there are times in my work life when I felt that, you know, work is a stage and personal life has to be has to be kept separate. But that really led me personally to a place where I was lonely because I spend so much time at work and with my community. For a lot of us today we come into the workplace with a connection deficit. So I would suggest this when it comes to people who are reluctant number one, it's important to really frame this and provide some context and let people know that this is by getting to know each other a little bit better on a personal level actually helps our performances as individuals and as a team. And I think the larger issue and by the way I would suggest people even just share that article that we wrote for government executive because that lays it out pretty well. And then the larger issue is that we have an epidemic of loneliness in society today. And because we spend so much time in the workplace, and we're coming into the workplace with a connection deficit. It's important to use some of those hours during the day to connect with each other and this always reminds me of gallops research they have a their 12 Question assessment of an employee engagement, they've shared that the most predictive question on that 12 question survey Ross is, Do I have a best friend at work. And that really requires getting to know people on a personal level. So, what we're seeing in this research from Gallup from Ashley horrible, just what we've seen in, in these practices from leaders like Dr. Murthy and Reen Bisignani Oh, is that personal knowledge of one another in the workplace really does make a difference, it helps us both as a team, but also as individuals, it's one of the best ways I mentioned earlier to cope with stress when we have friendships and people who, you know, since we have a sense of belonging and people who have our backs and that comes from getting to know one another. 

Ross Gianfortune
So I guess I'll push back a little on the work life balance side of things, in the sense that you know are all these kind of methods, done, you know, in the nine to five, I mean, the pandemic remote work situation has really blurred, some of those work life balance lines I think often to the detriment of other employees.

Michael Lee Stallard
 I think they can be done in the nine to five, you know, for example, when you start a call with someone or a meeting, you know, inquiring about something that's personal that you've learned about them just you know, following up things you've learned in the past. Taking time to connect with people outside of work, especially as the world opens up again, pre or post pandemic. There are those opportunities, but let me just say this also, it should always be voluntary we shouldn't coerce people into doing this, I'm a real believer in both these practices I mentioned inside scoop and one good thing. It's something where you could open up and just let people take their returns, and those who are comfortable doing so we'll jump in and those who, you know, it may be just they want to hold back that week they just don't feel like sharing anything, and that's okay. We shouldn't force people coerce people into doing that. So I think that deals with that issue of people are not comfortable yet but I think over time as they get to know their colleagues better they'll feel safer, and they'll join in.

Ross Gianfortune
 So we'll end up on this and certainly because I know you're an expert in it. Can you just generally talk about how these kinds of communications help with connections outside of just the absence of backstabbing, how do they help teamwork and just the connection within these organizations? 

Michael Lee Stallard
You know we found in our research that there were seven universal needs that need to be met in the workplace for people to perform their very best, and they are respect, recognition, belonging, autonomy personal growth, meaning, and progress. And the first three of those ROS are respect, recognition belonging is we get to know people better, all of those needs tend to be met. So, I always think did like to describe it as we first come into a workplace people don't know us, but at a minimum, we expect them to be respectful, and as we're there longer, we've had a chance to show what work we can do we expect to get some recognition that people see the good work we're doing and the effort we're putting in, and then as we're there even longer we expect to build friendships where people have our back and we have their backs, it has to go both ways. And when this does it just creates this sense of safety and we can enjoy our work more stress can really undermine our work especially chronic stress undermines our performance. And so, personal knowledge this is one piece of the culture that we cultivate that makes people feel connected and helps bring out their best performance, and it also helps with their health, both physical and emotional health. 

Ross Gianfortune
We all could use better of both, at least right now in my anecdotal experience, and as such, let's hope we can get more. This kind of connection in the workplace, Mike, thanks so much for being on the show with us. 

Michael Lee Stallard
Thank you, Ross, it's a pleasure. 

Ross Gianfortune
Thanks for listening to GovExec Daily. Our show was produced by Adam Butler and hosted by me, Ross Gianfortune. We want to thank Evan Lesser of Clearancejobs,com for joining the program. Our music is the song “Signals” by Catfish Dancing. Be sure to rate, review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can email us any feedback at podcast @ govexec.com or hit us on Twitter @ Govexec.  
 
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