Power of Relationships
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Relationships - haven for growth and companionship in good and tough times
Photo: EJP Photo |
Shakespeare’s
words, “No man is an island” can be paraphrased as: “man was made to live as a
community”. With community support, people individually and jointly thrive and grow
to their highest productivity. Networking through Facebook and Twitter is a start,
but solid relationships are built beyond cyberspace. After all, in prosperity,
your friends know you; and in adversity, you know your friends.”
Joint Capacity in the New Normal
Forging
new relationships and cultivating existing ones are key in today’s “new normal”
of turbulence. Many challenges exceed our individual capacities. Collective vision,
joint problem solving and pooled resources increase resilience to deal with
issues in personal, work, community or national spheres. When challenges are
faced on a collective front, we are more secure, confident and astute, and stamina
increases. We begin to see problems as enablers in our journey towards destiny.
A workaholic with no friends has little to fall back on when things go wrong.
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The universe is held together by complex relationships between planetary systems
Image: xenuth.com |
Our
world is held together by natural laws eg. of physics, chemistry, biology.
These laws embody relationships. The law of gravity specifies the relationship
between bodies on earth and the earth. Such tightly woven laws give creation
its resilience.
Brains and Ecology
Our
minds are designed with a bias for relationships. Alzheimer’s disease is
generally a serious degeneration of brain cells and neural connections among
the elderly. Normal brain functioning is impeded with the slowing and breaking
down of connection between thought, action and behaviour. Research has shown
that when Alzheimer’s patients make friends and build relationships, new neural
connections are formed! The patient then shows some (albeit small) signs of
recovery. Even Alzheimer’s patients become more resilient with friends.
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Ecology in its natural state, has balanced resilience and ample fruitfulness |
Ecology
is one complex web of relationships between flora, fauna, humans, and the
earth. Violate the relationship and ecological imbalances occur. Sustain the
imbalance and disasters like global warming take place. Innate and symbiotic
resilience manifest when interlocking relationships in nature are upheld. The
same holds true in business or economics.
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The elite SEALS give and receive help from one another in the most extreme circumstances
Photo: www.sharegoodstuffs.com |
Quality Control for Relationships
The
quality of relationships is determined by our level of openness, interaction and commitment. It thrives when there is:
For
one reason or another, many are better at giving than receiving help. Where do
you stand? Does ego get in the way? Giving and taking within a context of commitment, calls for honest
self examination. What have I done or not done? Have I been fair? Should I have done more? What should I have
done less?
Foundations and Social Networking
Such
in-depth relationships can only be maintained with select and trusted friends in
personal, work and community life. Big Tweet followings or record Facebook
“likes” do not equate with deep quality relationships. They however, give us a viral
span of reach for varying degrees of engagement, predicated on the foundation
of deeper, well-cultivated relationships. The wider the reach, the stronger
the foundational pillars need to be.
Stakeholders and Self Protection
For
companies, investing time to engage key stakeholders, (not just shareholders) builds
strong brands and protect the right to operate. Pepsi built relationships with
the people of Kerala in India by drilling borehole wells during pressing water
shortages. They later went on to recharge ground water by pumping water into
the water table, to address dropping ground water levels. Pepsi twice survived political pressure for
their plant to be shut down as a result of water shortages. The second time,
the community spoke up in Pepsi's defense on account of the goodwill and
relationship it had built with the people…because they looked beyond corporate
interests.
Likewise,
when nations go beyond solus national interest, adopting the rules of
reciprocity, accountability, emotional support and balance (fairness), will we
see more resilient economies and a better world? Just as global epidemics need
concerted joint action, and re-examination of health systems at all levels, is
it not time to look at the economic ecology to see if there have been excesses
and deficiencies, imposed or inherent? How has that hurt less visible and
weaker players? What can be done to address that? Correcting economic
relationship problems will herald global economic resilience and recovery – is
that not what we all hope for?
Well,
enough has been said, what will we do about it? What will we do with our
friends?
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Fair trade sustains the global economy
Photo: AP |
I would love to hear your comments and views….do drop a line or two.
Join me for the
next week’s blog on “Money and Relationships”