“Where everybody knows your name”

There are very few of us who would associate the place we work with the Cheers theme song.

In fact that was the point of the song.  Cheers is the place where we can escape our worries.   A place where we’re understood and appreciated.

You’d think that a place where we spend 50% to 60% of our waking hours getting to and working in would be a place “where everybody knows your name”.  But it’s generally not.  Instead, it’s a place where:

• An EVPs executive assistant for over 5 years told me that her boss didn’t know she had children until she had to stay home one day with a sick child.
• A manager reported that he’d never met his Director face-to-face even though he’d been working for him for over a year.
• [fill in the blank]

What is it about organizations?  After all we’re all there working toward the same organizational mission, vision and values.

What is it about these places that:

• Isolate rather than integrate?
• Create internal competition rather than collaboration?
• Dehumanize rather than humanize?

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t think that colleagues at work need to be your best friend.  Or that a weekly beer with people you don’t really even like is a solution?  I’m not really a fan of the drive for employee engagement [what's really being measured?, implication that employees need to give more?, etc].   But, I do think that organizations can be places that encourage courtesy and respect.  And it starts by knowing some basic things about the people you work with.  Who are they?  What matters to them?

Is your organization doing anything to humanize the work environment?  Is there anything you can do in your corner of the workplace?

“Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

Wouldn’t you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,
and they’re always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.”

With thanks to Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo

Tags: Collaboration, Cultural norms, Culture change, Employee communication, Innovation, Relationship, Trust