Friday, January 14, 2011
E=mc2: "Engagement Equals Meaningful Connections Between Two or More People"
Busy people often feel they are not connected to others. They work so hard to produce at work and yet they sometimes they feel all alone. Even successful professionals with many customers and co-workers will admit to feeling they are not really an active part of their business community.
I work with executives who are striving to get themselves, and their employees, more engaged. How they define a "business community" will vary (a local geography, an industry vertical, or a national or international territory), but they all realize that discovering more success will require meaningful connections to other people.
Online "social media" has been the focus of how to create a network over the past several years, but there is now a pendulum swing back to the human touch.
People do business with those they know, like, and trust... but in the past three years the definition of the work "know" has drastically changed in our society. Everyone now believes they "know" others because they follow them on Twitter, or have conducted a Google Search. In the past it took time to get to know another person, and with that process came decisions on "like" and "trust". Instant "knowing" can leave relationship shallow.
Meaningful connections between two or more people (E=mc2) allows everyone involved to achieve more together than they ever could alone. Engagement is the goal.
People matter. Take the time to invest in getting to know people and new ideas will emerge.
Have A Great Day.
***PS- The idea for this blog post came from a comment by Bertrand Hazard. His comment about "E=mc2" bounced around in my mind for two weeks until the definition appeared very clearly.