In this blog I'm going to highlight the unintended consequences of taking efficiencies too far.

Meta, Apple, Google and Ford are among some of the large corporations declaring a "Year of efficiency."

We've seen them cutting office space, benefits and their workforce down and even laying people off via email.

To save the bottom line, it seems that many businesses have pulled away from their people.

And it hasn't gone unnoticed by workers.

In 2022, EY founds more than 90% of HR professionals felt their organisation was empathic.

In 2023, that number was 68% - the biggest drop they'd ever recorded.

Tuning out emotionally is almost always catastrophic for efficiency because communication crumbles and goodwill evaporates.

Knowledge-Hiding

Put simply, disconnection leads to friction.

People become less accommodating, less civil and start keeping information to themselves in order to get ahead.

This knowledge-hiding gums up the organisation, slowing teams down to a crawl and choking progress.

We've all been there - it feels like groundhog day, becoming very tiresome, very quickly and that's when the good people start to leave.

Building Co-operative Advantage

So this is when it gets interesting and it becomes very clear how companies can gain a clear competitive advantage by creative co-operative advantage.

Making time and space to ensure people feel seen, heard, and understood by their leaders oils the cogs of co-operation.

It can start with just your team and for that I have a suggestion where you can not only learn more about each other, but create a co-ordinated "hive mind" around your collective wisdom and expertise.

Thematic Storytelling

If you're interested in improving bonds and building a more cooperative team culture I would encourage you to organise regular storytelling sessions around specific themes, e.g. resilience, creativity.

This creates a space where people can share their past experiences both in and out of work and the valuable lessons learned along the way.

You can then relate them back to live issues you're facing and discuss how you could leverage this newfound knowledge or deeper understanding of one of your teammates to make progress.

Your team will feel seen and heard and you'll send the signal to them that connection matters.

Sketch🖼️

I sketched some daisies and a little bee so symbolise the start of a connection session! The more bees the better!