Creating Unity In Your Company
The other day I got a call from a friend of mine about an earlier conversation we'd had. Here's what we talked about.
Years before he had started a company
which has now grown to the point where it has many offices across the USA. On
the surface it doesn't sound like there would be much to be unhappy about does
it?
The problem was that his "baby" (as most entrepreneurs tend refer to their
businesses) had become bloated and lost its "personal" side. Long gone were the
days when everyone still knew each others name. I sensed his frustration so we
talked about a few ideas that might help.
Fast forward to our second call: "Josh you won't believe what I did", he said. I
could tell by his enthusiasm that whatever it was it had certainly made a
difference in him from the last time we'd talked.
He went on to tell me that he started dialing up his company's other offices.
Each time the receptionist answered he would say "Hi (name not mentioned for
privacy reason) I just wanted to take a second to personally introduce myself
and to tell you how much I appreciate you being a part of our organization."
Then he would ask the receptionist to please forward his call to the local
manager which in turn would put him on for a short conference call with the
members of that office.
Sounds like a pretty simple plan doesn't it? Nothing particularly extraordinary
about it until we start to think about the end result! You see by doing such a
simple thing he was re-building the sense of community back into the
organization from a "top down" approach!
Now here's the really exciting part! It works just as effectively no matter what
walk of life we choose to apply it to, business or otherwise. Keep your
interaction with people on a personal level. Be professional, but at the same
time let them know that they're valued.
