One Apple A Day #973 - working relationships that work
If you want a working relationship to work, you have to work on the relationship first.
In the past, I thought that to create an effective working relationship, I needed a well-defined structure with some shared principles and procedures. As they say, good fences make good neighbours. If everyone knows what to do and how to do it, things go smooth.
This approach worked well for me, at least until things were predictable.
Unfortunately, when situations became messy and uncertain, these kinds of working relationships often crumbled.
In the last three years, I've learned that I must invest my energy in building and nurturing the relationship if I want a working relationship to really work.
When we focus on the "being" part of the connection, the "doing" flows effortlessly. That means creating practices with the only purpose of nurturing the relationship; creating trust and connection.
So when we do things together, we just have to be ourselves. The doing becomes a dance in which everyone fully trusts the others.