Connect More Connect more broadly, more deeply

Connect more: Connect with people more broadly and more deeply. We are becoming more connected with each other and less connected with each other at the same time, and this has consequences for how we think, decide, and act.

The Paradox

We are becoming more connected with each other and less connected with each other at the same time.

We can now reach almost anyone, anywhere. Yet many of our connections remain thin, transactional, and fleeting.

On our own, our thinking is limited. We fall back on habit, bias, and partial views of the world. It is through connection with others that our thinking is tested, stretched, and sometimes changed.

We have the ability to connect with more and more people around the world, but our emotions are undermining our ability to make deeper and more fulfilling connections that can help all of us to achieve more of our potential.

There’s a vicious cycle underway that continues to erode our ability to make connections that matter – the more fear we feel, the less likely we are to trust others and that leads to a growing sense of isolation which in turn feeds the fear, leading to even less trust and the cycle continues.

While this emotion is understandable, it's preventing us from harnessing the potential that's created by the ability to connect with others more broadly and more deeply.

We need to embrace opportunity-based narratives and the passion of the explorer to turn this around and, for the first time, discover the enormous power that comes from broader and deeper connections.

Credit: John Hagel

When we are only loosely connected, it is easy to stay detached. We can observe, comment, even criticise, without ever really being implicated in what happens next.

Stronger connection changes that.

When we know people, when we have spoken with them and listened to them, something shifts. We begin to feel a sense of responsibility, not imposed from outside, but arising from the relationship itself.

Accountability is often framed as something external, a system or a line of reporting. Responsibility is something we take on. And one of the most powerful sources of that is connection.

We are far more likely to act, to follow through, and to care about the consequences of our actions when we are in relationship with others who are affected by them.

In this sense, connection is not a soft extra. It is a condition for good judgement and responsible action, especially in complex situations.

Without connection, we default to isolated thinking and fragmented action. With it, we have at least the possibility of thinking together and acting with some coherence.

This sits at the heart of Conversational Leadership. It is through connection that meaningful conversation becomes possible, and through conversation that we begin to think, reason, and act together.

NO PERMISSION REQUIRED

Connecting more is a habit that requires no training, no resources, or consent.

We can start at any time. Quietly. Without announcement.

It is less about technique and more about intention, a small shift in how we show up with others.

SUGGESTIONS

Here are a few simple ways to begin:

• Identify people you are not currently in conversation with but perhaps should be, inside and outside the organisation
• Make time for conversations that are not driven by immediate tasks
• Say hello to strangers and sit next to people you do not know in meetings or conferences
• Ask questions you are genuinely curious about and stay with the answers
• Follow up and reconnect rather than letting conversations drop