Many of us get caught up in our own heads, too busy with the day-to-day responsibilities to remember to do this.

However, the benefits are huge for us as individuals, our colleagues, and the organization as a whole.

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Schoox’s Matthew Brown, VP of Learning and Brand Success, takes us through this topic in detail. Matthew shares all the benefits that come with forging strong connections at work, the best ways to do this, and why you should try to interact more with different departments.

To learn more, keep reading or hit play on the podcast below:

The benefits of building strong working relationships

When we focus on building relationships that go beyond our primary functions and responsibilities, the benefits are huge for the business and everyone involved.

Don’t limit yourself as a learning and development professional to only building relationships when you need something. Instead, think about the below benefits of building positive relationships with everyone you interact with.

1. It helps to build trust

Building trust always comes from building relationships. We can see a measured increase in competence and productivity from employees and managers when everyone’s moving in the same direction.

2. It improves confidence

When you have increased trust, you also have increased confidence. You have more confidence in others and yourself to do what needs to be done. This can help ease any tensions, help you collaborate and communicate more effectively with different teams. This, in turn, then increases…

3. It increases productivity

When you combine increased trust and confidence, it can only mean more productivity across the board. When everyone feels more comfortable, you start to see people become more inspired to find new and effective ways to get things done.

This can have such a positive impact on the company culture.

4. Employees become more open

Another benefit is that employees become more open as they become more comfortable. This means you’re more likely to get honest feedback, and they’re more likely to say when they like or dislike something. All of this is key to developing a working culture that’s supportive and encourages productivity.

Learning and development professionals should lead by example

As L&D professionals, we sit in an interesting spot in the company. You are connected to the entire business and can therefore tap into parts of the employee experience that other managers or CEOs may not be aware of.

If we lead by example and create and nurture these relationships, we can implement positive changes for everyone.

You can also look for ways to help fill gaps within your team or the wider organization to inspire people to think and operate differently. The great thing about building relationships is that it’s a two-way thing. You can help inspire employees, but employees can do the same for the business and the people in charge.

Fostering a culture of collaboration and open communication has far-reaching benefits that you may not even realize at the time.

The four key areas of business to build relationships in

Aside from your own little bubble in the workplace, it pays to go beyond our usual functions and connect with different departments. Four key ones to forge connections with are:

1. Human Resources

The benefits of connecting with HR may be obvious, especially as L&D professionals. However, if we look closer at HR, they are essentially the keepers of policies and all things employee related.

This means that we could become more in tune with our organization and maybe even uncover the real needs of employees. We can use our conversations with HR to uncover the gaps and see where we could improve the employee experience as a whole.

Think about ways that you can arm the HR team with some great insights from the L&D team. In turn, try to also learn from them what’s happening, what insights they can share which might help you solve problems for your employees.

2. IT

Where HR is the keeper of employee information, IT is the keeper of technology. Building relationships here could be beneficial to help you build, maintain, and use learning technology.

This ensures that our learning tech and any other online experiences we want to deliver will feel cohesive and integrated into the business’ strategy.

The IT team is involved in all areas of a business because the world is so dependent on technology. If you want to drive transformation throughout your organization, the IT team should be one of your priorities.

3. Marketing

Marketing teams are full of creative, open-minded people who can also shine a light on both the consumer and employee experience.

Think of the marketing team as a group of builders and designers. Their jobs are often collaborative by nature, and there’s an enormous value in partnering with marketing. You can learn much more about the business and the people, but from an entirely different perspective.

4. Legal, risk, compliance, and security

Collectively, these groups are in charge of the safety of the company, and by nature, they have a difficult job. They have to keep up with all the legislation, regulations and always check that the organization is compliant. They also must ensure all employees and customers are safe from legal action, online threats, and so on.

This is a largely overlooked team, but they have a lot to offer. This department is always on the lookout for things that can go wrong. They’re good at anticipating problems and solving them.

This means they have a completely different perspective of the business, which makes them an unbelievably valuable team to connect with. You can learn a lot from them.

There may be other departments in your organization that fit into this list. Some of them may be obvious, like operations, others less so, like the finance team. Each and every department has something to offer, so take the time to get to know them. Build those relationships, help others, and share perspectives. By doing so, you can inspire some incredible change.

The post How To Build Work Relationships That Go Beyond Our Usual Functions appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

There’s a lot more open discussion in the world today, and more people value the spirit of inclusion and diversity. But for some, there’s still a long way to go, particularly in the workplace.

How you approach open discussion in the workplace can significantly affect collaboration, morale, and productivity.

Are you actively seeking to learn from others with different opinions, experiences, and backgrounds? If not, what valuable ideas and perspectives could you be missing out on? Hearing differing perspectives that challenge our own has great benefits.

In this episode, Schoox VP of Learning and Brand Success Matthew Brown discusses the importance of valuing different perspectives.

Listen to The Learning Exchange podcast episode below to learn more or keep reading.

The benefits of seeing a different perspective

Hearing different opinions has multiple benefits. It makes everyone feel heard and understood. But it also helps us broaden how we think about things and how we approach problems.

L&D professionals or a managers can greatly benefit from creating a safe space for people to share their diverse opinions.

Sometimes it’s not easy to hear differing opinions, especially if they are directly challenging your own. But it’s important to fight any defensiveness that often comes up when a challenge presents itself. The benefits will always outweigh any initial discomfort.

The difference between feedback and valuing different perspectives

By listening to different perspectives, we don’t just mean getting some simple feedback.

It’s important to understand the difference between seeking feedback and valuing different perspectives. Feedback is great. But many people are programmed to give positive feedback. While it may be constructive, it may not offer too much in the way of change.

Most feedback won’t go too far outside what you’ve put in front of them. Try to present a completely different perspective that is outside the box and offer something entirely unique.

Different perspectives and problem-solving

We have only lived in our own world, so we only have our own experiences to draw from. Unless we’re open to hearing and encouraging other perspectives, we may never know other experiences or skillsets. And that could be the very thing we need to solve a problem.

Let’s look at an example. Say you are in a meeting about a new project, such as a new learning program or training course. The people in that meeting may not necessarily consume the program themselves. They’re not the target audience. They may create an excellent course for people at their skill or experience level. But it could completely miss the mark for the people taking the course.

It may not be useful for people with lesser experience or completely different skillsets. For example, you need to get everyone up to speed. Maybe you should start the course at Step A instead of Step C.

The outcome you want your course to bring may not happen the way you want it to.

In this case, try seeking an outside perspective. It could help you create a course that fits the needs of those actually consuming it.

Are you in a similar position? Consider whether you may be too close to the topic to give your audience what it needs.

There are no stupid questions, only different perspectives

Have you ever been at an event where someone makes a comment or asks a question intended as a joke? And the audience or moderator casually laughs it off?

What would happen if, instead of disregarding it, we nurtured the conversation and opened a dialogue? Maybe you could say something like, “Tell me more about it,” or “Why do you think that?” Encourage them to speak their mind and share their thoughts openly without judgment.

When something like this happens, you will likely notice that the energy in the room changes. The moderator has decided to create a safe space where people feel more open to talking.

When people know others won’t ridicule them for “stupid questions,” they will be much more open to sharing. When people are comfortable sharing their own thoughts and experiences, everyone wins.

What if people aren’t open to different perspectives?

At some point, you will likely run into people who are less open to other opinions. They may approach things more cynically or will be stubborn to change.

While this can be a challenge, it’s an opportunity to lead by example. You can demonstrate what it looks like to embrace different perspectives. And you can show what happens when someone opens up a dialogue.

Handling difficult conversations

Training yourself to hear other perspectives has another benefit as well. It can make dealing with difficult conversations much more productive.

Whether it’s a difficult guest, customer, or employee, seeing different perspectives can really help you step outside of your preconceptions. You can step outside, recognize when something is wrong when you might normally get defensive. Developing this skill can make you a much better leader.

Try challenging yourself. Pick an upcoming project and bring a diverse group of individuals together to collect feedback.

Actively seek out different perspectives. When you listen to and represent others’ voices, they are much more likely to engage with an open mind. And that’s how we all learn.

The post The Value of Embracing Different Perspectives at Work appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

As many businesses move their communications online, internal relationships need to be actively nurtured in order to thrive.

Whether you are friends or colleagues, forming relationships with the click of a button rather than a handshake is common. While this can make you feel connected to your organization, a virtual relationship is very different from one forged in person. It needs intentional fostering to grow in the same way.

With better connection comes greater opportunities. Companies are beginning to focus on improving online communication, but what could you achieve by actively encouraging a relationship-building culture? 

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success, Matthew Brown, examines the impact relationship building can have within a business. He looks at why organizations should intentionally focus on creating internal connections and their potential benefits. 

Listen to this episode of the podcast below:

Or, keep reading to learn why organizations should focus on intentionally building relationships.

Why relationship building should be an intentional practice

Organizations regularly overlook the benefits of internal relationship building. But teaching employees how to network and engage with other individuals and departments is a business responsibility and necessity. Creating strong internal connections can improve internal workflows, make your workforce happier, and return great business results.

Here are three reasons why you should intentionally focus on relationship building within your organization.

1. Relationship building can help navigate change

Recently, more and more organizations have consolidated departments through restructuring. Learning and development is often the department that gets combined or consumed by others, such as HR, operations, or even legal and marketing. This can be a difficult transition for any department, but internal shifts like this can be more successful within a collaborative environment.

Creating a space for teams to work together can improve reactions to internal change. People can come together to mitigate adjustments and develop practices that help the organization adapt as a whole.

Navigating change management can be difficult. Whether it’s a big initiative or a small issue, leveraging a wider variety of relationships can help. Departments like HR and L&D usually try and create a connection with each team in the organization and are often the go-tos for integrating new changes. But what if all teams had the same approach? Changes would be much easier to implement and far more effective straight away.

L&D makes an intentional effort to grow their relationships. It’s not something that happens overnight. If all employees were encouraged to interact and nurture connections like L&D are, then more organizations would see success when implementing changes.

2. Cross-functional relationship building leads to business success

A good place to start these connections is by encouraging teams to work towards a unified goal. If two departments have similar aims, actively focus on growing a working relationship between them. This way, you can begin introducing a cross-functional company culture.

Take L&D and HR, for example. They both aim to integrate learning into the employee lifecycle. In some organizations, the two departments unite to achieve this goal by both agreeing to reinforce the same behaviors, skills, and more, in employees. This benefits the employees as they’re actively encouraged by two teams to work towards a goal. But it also benefits the departments, as they’ll have a better understanding of each other’s working practices.

Both these internal advantages have a huge impact on the business. The organization is more likely to see overall success with happier employees and more unified teams. To learn more about connecting HR and L&D departments, check out this post, How HR and L&D Can Build a Better Culture Together.

3.  Relationship building improves your insights

When building something new or approaching a big decision, it’s beneficial to hear others’ thoughts. But if you only take the opinions of a small group of people or people who are all very similar, then you’re limiting your potential insights.

Having a broad range of insights is advantageous because it gives you a great vantage point to see any potential issues, obstacles, and what’s going to work. This is why many businesses have beta testers, focus groups, or find ways of eliciting feedback from employees to gain these informative insights.

However, to get someone’s honest opinion, they need to trust you. Feedback is not going to improve your product, service, or business if it’s not truthful. By focusing on building relationships, you can gain people’s trust and then access their honest thoughts.

Take a new training course you’re developing, for example. You want others to try it before you launch it outside of your business. You ask your team, but they’ve already worked closely on the project, and they all agree on what they do and don’t like about it.

This is a very limited way of getting insights. If you ask a similar group of people, you’re not able to get various perspectives as you would in the real world, and you’ll miss opportunities. So, it’s necessary that you reach out to a wider range of the employee population.

This doesn’t just mean building relationships with a cross-section of your organization. It means considering those who might have different perspectives, such as those who have differing:

• Roles within the organization
• Life experiences
• Personal and professional circumstances
• Nationalities and language preferences
• Accessibility challenges
• Performance levels

Being aware of other peoples’ insights can help lead to success. But remember that their insights are only accessible if you’re building a culture of communication. By actively nurturing relationships, people are more forthcoming to help and share their thoughts. So, you can ask more people to help you trial your training course, for example, and you might receive feedback that helps shape its development in ways you never expected.

Why relationship building is an investment in your business

Bringing people together is always going to benefit your business. But a focus on relationship building is crucial to success.

Relationships are vital to the heart of any organization. A business that nurtures and prioritizes relationships sets its employees up for a more enjoyable working experience. It also prepares the company for greater achievements overall. So, focus on networking, encourage employees to share their perspectives, and don’t overlook the importance of connection.

If you enjoyed this podcast episode summary, check out all The Learning Xchange episodes on your favorite podcast app and listen to them on the go!

The post 3 Reasons Businesses Should Focus on Relationship Building appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.