Larry D. Lauer

This week I attended a workshop led by the co-founders of E Pluribus Partners about the immense power of developing a “culture of connection” inside every organization. 

The E Pluribus partners have aggregated research findings from psychology, psychiatry, sociology, organizational development, and neuroscience to demonstrate how “a feeling of strong connection between management, employees and customers provides a competitive advantage.”  In fact, they argue that without this strong connection people “will never reach their potential as individuals, nor will the organization.”  I was most especially interested in their reference to connection with “customers.” 

Call them customers, clients, students, donors, or supporters of any kind, as I listened I found myself thinking:  “Whatever happened to customer service?” 

 At one time in our profession we talked abundantly about how a happy customer became repeat customers, attracted other customers, and were the best ambassadors we could ever hope to have for telling and retelling our story.  We demonstrated how cost-effective it was to build strong loyalties rather than to focus mostly on constantly finding new business. Then airlines began to treat us as captive revenue units who needed them more than they needed us, and our banks made calling them on the phone a matter of talking to a whole series of automated impersonal recordings with little chance of ever getting through to a real person. Indeed, organizations of all types drove us to their websites, where even there it was impossible to find the email address or direct phone number of a real person. Alas, genuine connections for the most part have given way to digital, impersonal efficiencies, and human trust and meaningful  relationships have all too often been lost.

In the end, however, I was encouraged during this workshop to realize that all the writing I have been doing here over the past year about the power of integration and the use of group process has been right on the mark. Using orchestrated group interaction to get “everyone on the same page” with respect to vision and values, and inspiring  people to use a common voice in telling the story, is also building the strong “connections” with the customers and constituents we will need to give our organizations a meaningful and powerful competitive advantage. 

Building connections, then, is truly what integrated and relationship marketing is all about. So, I suggest you look into the work and writing of  the partners at:  www.EPluribusPartners.com