As a team leader, one of your toughest challenges is to rally your team around a common goal, to stoke excitement and pride in their work. Everyone agrees this is a key to productivity and satisfaction, but how to grasp that grail is a discussion often mired in aspiration and frustratingly light on utility.
The first few pages of the Connection Culture Manifesto, penned by Michael Lee Stallard, an expert on building team unity, scans like more of the same. But the further you read, the more Stallard backs up the lofty speech with real-world studies and examples culled from successful and respected businesses. He points out the effective rallying around vision at Apple, Boeing and the Sloan-Kettering Medical Center; how companies like Dun & Bradstreet and JetBlue show their employees that they value them; and how Proctor & Gamble management gives their workers a voice even when it comes to addressing the CEO.
Stallard bolsters his case with studies on engagement conducted by neuroscientists and psychiatrists, and a Gallup poll addressing how feelings of being respected and cared for at work affect productivity. Like many manifestos, it’s a bit long-winded (at 20 pages) but the insights found in the latter pages prove well worth it.
