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Connection Culture
Book

Connection Culture

The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work (Second Edition)

Michael Lee Stallard
ATD, 2020
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Concrete Examples
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Employee engagement expert Michael Stallard updates his valuable first edition of Connection Culture by addressing the impact of coronavirus on working people who are already suffering loneliness and disconnection. He makes an impassioned and informed plea for prioritizing organizational belonging and connectedness to improve workers’ health and productivity. He and his contributors – Todd W. Hall, Jason Pankau and Katharine P. Stallard – join a chorus of scientists, experts and social commentators who warn of the dire consequences of ever-increasing isolation. The book’s compelling mix of science, workplace stats and medical data makes the case that “social connection” is a fundamental human and workplace need.

Summary

People are suffering an epidemic of isolation, which COVID-19 exacerbates.

The coronavirus pandemic increases the challenges of maintaining workplace connectivity and belonging. Employee stress and isolation now affect more than two-thirds of workers in the United States.

Leaders must take deliberate steps to build a “connection culture” for the sake of their organizations and the health of their workers.

Connections among people improve their health, happiness and resilience.

Socially connected people more effectively fend off illness and stress, worry less, stay more alert and suffer fewer heart problems. At work, sound relationships lead to higher engagement and productivity. Organizations that forge a connection culture enjoy significantly greater productivity and profitability than those with control cultures that emphasize hierarchy, or even laissez-faire cultures that grant wide autonomy while focusing on outcomes.

Employees have seven specific and immutable needs at work. Each one derives from research spanning more than a century, including discoveries by A.H. Maslow, Edward...

About the Author

Michael Lee Stallard is the co-founder and president of the leadership training and coaching firms E Pluribus Partners and Connection Culture Group.Contributors: Todd W. Hall teaches psychology at Biola University. Jason Pankau is a lecturer. Katharine P. Stallard is a partner in the Connection Culture Group.

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