Half-term was last week for us, here in Wales, and like many of you I took some time off for a little vacation. My husband and I had a wonderful time relaxing, socializing and getting outdoors in the beautiful crisp autumn weather.
France was glorious. The colors of the leaves, the mist rolling over the river Loire first thing and the sunrises – wow you wouldn’t believe the pinks.
If this delightful scene wasn’t enough, we were joined halfway through the holiday by a couple of friends. One of which had never been to that area of France before. I was in my tour guiding element. I’d been looking forward to sharing our little piece of heaven with others and this week showed me how wonderful it was to see others enjoy the place as much as we did.
It got me thinking of the power of sharing things. I always think sharing something makes it more special, gives it a third or even fourth dimension. You experience a multi levels of happiness. Let me explain what I mean.
First dimension: Going to an art gallery or visiting a museum on your own means you can experience the beauty; fantastic to see such wonders.
(EXPERIENCE SOMETHING NEW)
Second dimension: By visiting with someone else, you also get their views. You look at the installations with 2 sets of eyes. What did they see that you didn’t?
(SEE SOMETHING DIFFERENT)
Third dimension: You are also getting to spend time with your friend. The conversations you might have means you get to know them better; their likes and dislikes. You also might learn something; always good in my book.
(LEARN SOMETHING)
Fourth dimension: Shared moments. You never know what might happen. I didn’t ever think I would go to a tank museum, but I have!!! (Check it here!) Now I have a funny story to share and relive for years to come.
(BUILD STRONGER RELATIONSHIPS)
This made me think about work and how we should share more whilst encouraging our teams to share more. It helps us to develop knowledge and experience. Its always a good way to learn. You build stronger relationships and often see things differently which helps in decision making and with innovation.
Sharing often means greater creativity, increased productivity and higher team performance. The increased transparency also improves trust across the organisation.
What can you do this week to share your experience, your knowledge, your opinion?
Here are 8 quick ideas
Start a mentoring scheme
Buddy up senior team members with early career team members
Develop some informal conversation areas or a Q&A section to your internal comms channels. Remove any comms barriers.
Encourage feedback and open questioning
Mix teams up during projects. Make sure you have cross team projects going on all the time.
Develop a list of skills in the business and encourage the people to share what they know.
Host a breakfast seminar series based on sharing knowledge
Set up a reward sharing scheme – where team members nominate others who have shared, supported, and helped each other.