How To Transform Work Relationships From Challenging To Collaborative

“Very few of us ever learned how to be present with another person, to ignore internal and external noise and distractions, and to connect and converse with others in useful or collaborative ways,” affirm the authors of the new book, Bridge The Gap: Breakthrough Communication Tools To Transform Work Relationships From Challenging To Collaborative.

In addition, authors Jennifer Edwards and Katie McCleary, share that there are four external forces that make navigating professional relationships increasingly bumpy:

Four generations of people wake every day to go to work, together.
The personal and the professional are intermingling in new and surprising ways.
We are working under the conditions of an increasingly polarized landscape of politics, race, and media disinformation.
We’re blind to the fact that each of us are part of the problem.

Primarily because of these author-identified factors, they wrote their book to focus on the how rather than just the why of fostering better communication.

Through practical exercises, stories, illustrative case studies, chapter-by-chapter reflection questions and action items, you’ll learn how to harness the real and raw power of your mind to build solid workplace relationships for virtually any situation.

For example, three primary ways to foster better professional relationships are to:

Take personal responsibly for how you show up in the relationship and/or in each interaction.
Use curiosity as a reliable tool and international filter for how you listen, speak, and engage in relationship building.
Communicate openly so that all parties can speak their minds and truths to find a way forward.

· And, most important, the authors encourage you to be the person in the relationship to choose to bridge the gap of differences, especially in moments of pressure and stress.

Edwards and McCleary also remind us that when communicating we need to remind ourselves of everyone’s emotional needs:

To be understood.
To be accepted.
To be valued.

Some of my other takeaway valuable lessons from the book are:

A smile goes a long way toward building connections and bridging gaps.
Don’t interrupt. Period.
Never make a point without telling a short-story example.
Build more trust and respect by celebrating others—see others in complimentary ways that often go unnoticed.

Katie McCleary and Jennifer Edwards

Today, the authors share these insights with us:

Question: Because of the four larger external forces that you mention in your book do you believe Bridge The Gap is a must-read for nearly everyone?

Edwards & McCleary: Anyone can benefit from improved communication and collaborative skills; especially given the polarization we’ve been through as a nation in the past few years. Diverse relationships are critical to our success as humans because we can’t do everything on our own. We need people who have different talents, ideas, skills, and perspectives, so learning how to meaningfully connect and engage with someone who is different than you is important.

Quality communication and collaboration begins with how we “show up” and engage in conversations that can bridge the difference gap between us. Anyone can use the tools in, Bridge the Gap, to immediately connect better to anyone…and even mend a divide.

Question: How do you recommend a reader of the book steps up to the plate to become the "one person to choose to bridge the gap"?

Edwards & McCleary: First, it’s about choice and making an intentional commitment to be the one who suspends fear, frustration, doubt, anger, or any other number of intense feelings, and become the one who believes “we can have a better relationship.”

Often, we build narratives in our heads that there is an immense canyon between us and rarely that is the case. There is more that unites than divides people, especially at work where we strive to reach a common goal: the mission, vision, purpose. Second, bridging the gap requires some psychological flexibility to be able to show up curious to hear and learn something new.

Question: There is so much to learn from, Bridge The Gap. What is the best way for a reader to start their journey to become a more collaborative communicator?

Edwards & McCleary: First, most people aren’t great communicators because it’s not something that we teach from a young age forward. Most of us are modeling behaviors from the environments and cultures in which we were raised as youth and as young professionals. We all have our personal preferences about how work should be completed, how people should behave, and/or what to do in any given situation. True collaboration is about creating something new and together. It’s about using the “playdough” of skills, talent, ideas, and perspectives that are brought forth in the relationship and crafting something, together.

Staying too much on your side of “this is how it should be done,” diminishes the level of collaboration, innovation, and creativity that can exist. Communicating with a “we” mentality goes a long way in letting go of the egotistical “I.” It’s where the trust, respect, and magic happens.

Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

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