Reconnecting and Rebuilding

I’ve really felt the momentum building in last few weeks. I feel energised, my team and colleagues are all engaged and motivated. Like many others, our business has felt the affects of the pandemic but we’re slowly starting to turn things around.The biggest factor to this change of gear has been the ability to finally meet up, in person with my team! (Following current Covid guidelines of course).We’ve all been living such isolated, tech dominated lives for so many months and speaking to friends, colleagues and my wider network it seems that lockdown fatigue peaked months ago.We’ve all done our best to adapt and that should be commended, but it’s clear that human connections are vital to our wellbeing, to our development, to the culture of our organisation and in shaping who we are as individuals.Direct human interaction cannot be replicated.Research by Envoy found that reconnecting with co-workers in person is the number one motivator for employees[1] and the benefits of doing so are huge.That’s why we’ve been encouraging all our teams to host their own connector events as well as organising lots of in-person networking and training sessions throughout the coming months.Already we’ve seen a fantastic uptake and lots of out of the box thinking, from a team litter pick to a hike up Pen-y-fan, a glorious picnic and vineyard trip! Fortunately, the weather has been on our side which has meant we’ve been able to meet up outside in larger groups and really maximise getting the teams back together whilst following the appropriate rules.All the events have been fun and social, but they’ve also been the perfect opportunity to press the reset button and re-establish our core values. Getting together enables more people to get their voices heard and for us to come together and align ourselves to our collective vision and goals for the future.A stand out for me was seeing the support and camaraderie during the climb up Pen-y-fan. No one was going to be left behind, we were walking as one and encouraging anyone who was struggling to keep pushing. It embodied exactly what we stand for as a team, pushing the boundaries and building each other up with support and positivity.Recent research shows that our professional and personal networks have shrunk by almost 16% (or by more than 200 people) during the pandemic.[2] The results of a smaller network can make it harder to progress, harder to find work and reduces creative thinking.I firmly believe that reconnecting and rebuilding will be critical in unlocking our full potential in a post-pandemic world.My advice would be to maximise the opportunities we have now to meet up safely, be mindful of people’s boundaries but also encourage your colleagues to start reconnecting in person. The sooner we can start introducing more “normal” activities, the stronger our impact will be in rebuilding and thriving.What have you got planned in the coming weeks to start reconnecting with your network? I’d love to know! Why not drop me a comment on my Facebook page to let me know what you’re up to![1] https://envoy.com/blog/envoy-survey-finds-employees-want-companies-to-embrace-hybrid-work-and-mandate-covid-vaccines/[2] https://hbr.org/2021/02/research-were-losing-touch-with-our-networks#:~:text=A%20new%20study%20found%20that,by%2016%25%20during%20the%20pandemic.&text=Our%20recent%20research%20shows%20that,finding%20a%20job%20more%20difficult.