Does it feel like your team is physically together but miles apart? You are not alone.
If you are in any doubt, just look at the statistics with only 10% of UK employees actively engaged at work. Just one in ten people genuinely care about what they are doing and what if everyone else is just going through the motions. It is costing the UK economy a staggering £257 billion annually.
We have got more collaboration tools than ever. How much time do you spend on Slack, Teams, WhatsApp and Zoom? Yet somehow, we still feel more disconnected than we did when we were all in the office. Hybrid working has potentially created a new problem, one where we are present but not connected.
This has resulted in siloed teams, trust being eroded and it might feel like people working in parallel instead of together.
But how does it feel? Using the Emotional Culture Deck, we see words like: Alone. Restless. Closed. Alienated. Reactive.
This matters because companies with genuinely engaged workforces aren’t just happier, they’re 21% more profitable and 18% more productive. It is never about just squeezing more output from people. When you work in a connected team, people tend to stay in role longer, treat customers better, and so do some brilliant work.
From Disconnection to Genuine Community
So how do you build genuine community in the workplace? Not forced fun (who wants that!) but real community. You must start with creating the conditions where connection becomes possible. Conversations must go deeper than just status updates. Teams talking about how they really feel, including frustrations, uncertainty and excitement.
So, where do we come in? We help organisations create real connections, helping you to join the dots.
Lumina Spark gives teams a shared language for understanding each other. It helps to build genuine empathy and an appreciation for diverse working styles.
The Emotional Culture Deck enables teams to start to have truly authentic conversations. This tool helps them talk about what they’re feeling, which is where real connection starts.
Our BREAKING™ framework helps individuals and teams figure out where boundaries have been crossed, where authenticity got lost, and how to get back to being genuine and authentic with each other.
Working with organisations so they stop feeling like collections of individuals and start feeling like actual communities.
Using the Emotional Culture Deck again, teams would start using words like: Energised. Appreciated. Connected. Involved. Curious.
When you build genuine community, you don’t just solve the disconnection crisis. You create conditions for people to do their best work together. It is the difference between people showing up because they must and showing up because they want to.
