Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

David Ryback, Ph.D., is an internationally acclaimed speaker and consultant, as wellas a columnist for Business to Business.
Jim Cathcart is president of Cathcart Institute, Inc., a researchand consulting firm.
David Nour is a popular speaker and head of The Nour Group, a provider of business solutions for Fortune 500 clients.

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ConnectAbility

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Contents

Chapter One

In developing strong partnerships with your colleagues and customers, allow yourself to feel secure enough in your own power as an individual to share it with others who contribute in a meaningful fashion. As a result, you'll significantly enhance your power through the respect others gain for you after witnessing such inner confidence.

If you feel somewhat overwhelmed by these issues, you're not alone. Power over others is a daunting proposition. Sure, there's a primal sense of power that feels good when we can tell others what to do and they are forced, more or less, to obey our commands. It's as if we are stronger, better, more privileged, and more worthy of reward. It's not easy to give up that primal feeling. But there's a feeling that's more fulfilling in the long run: cooperating with others freely. It's the option to be more productive and successful in the business world because we're part of a team that functions more efficiently and effectively, while making us feel more involved and appreciated on the basis of who we are in terms of our skills and deeper values. We get the job done with less effort and less stress, and in the process, we help others become even more capable of producing their own results.

As Warren Bennis, guru on business leadership and professor of business administration at the University of Southern California, puts it in a Time magazine article, "There's a point at which you find an interesting kind of nerve circuitry between optimism and hubris. It becomes an arrogance of conceit, an inability to live without power."

In addition, the Awareness Factor is not the dominant culture in much of today's business world. Rather, the Status Factor—based on competition and conflict, even within an organization—still reigns supreme among many who believe in divided interests rather than cooperation. "It has become clear that nature is filled with competition and conflicts of interest," writes journalist D. Brooks in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Status contests came before humanity, and are embedded deep in human relations. We strive for dominance and undermine radical egalitarian dreams. We're tribal and divide the world into in-groups and out-groups."

It's much easier to be simplistic, self-serving, and single-minded in the world of business—easier but not more profitable, at least not in the long run. What really works—in terms of effective leadership, employee loyalty, a more successful marketing approach, superior customer service—is the framework of ConnectAbility. But since confronting the status quo presents a greater challenge, the Status Factor rules the day in more cases than not. This leaves a tremendous margin for success for those who choose the Awareness Factor.

The Status Factor is the favored structure of traditional business organizations, in which power is tightly controlled from top down, resulting in what one expert calls "industry dissonance." More dynamic business organizations integrate ConnectAbility into their value structure. In the following sections, we'll see how the manufacturers at Ford and Mercedes moved toward more ConnectAbility values.

Now that we have a meaningful understanding of the Awareness and Performance Factors, we're ready to explore the basis on which the structure of ConnectAbility stands.

* Relationships are assets. In any business setting, relationships are assets. As such, they can be created, managed, nurtured, measured, and even discontinued, intentionally and consciously.

* It's all about who cares. Business cannot exist in the absence of people relationships. The stronger the relationships, the more potential for success in the business. It's not whom you know that counts; rather, it's who cares whether or not you know them. The more they authentically care—whether the "they" are associates, prospects, customers, or vendors—the greater the potential for success.

* People relationships make up the business. When the purpose of a relationship changes, the expectations and "rules" that apply also change. In that sense, the purpose defines the nature of the relationship, which survives until the purpose or Desired Outcome is met. Then that particular relationship ends, or transforms into a new one if a new purpose is agreed on. Therefore, Desired Outcome is the organizing factor in business relationships. Without it, there is no meaning to the relationships.

* The Desired Outcome defines the business. All relationships can be evaluated with regard to the Desired Outcome, which may be as simple as casual friendship or as complex as the organization of a federal institution. A marriage contract is one that overlaps broadly between personal and legal aspects of a relationship. The success of a business relationship always refers back to the Desired Outcome, which might change over time, requiring ongoing evaluation.

* The key to success is the core group. Any business, other than "mom- and-pop" operations, is run by a select few, which we refer to as the "core group." Core groups, committed to reaching the Desired Outcome, are the key to success. The ConnectAbility of the core group is of utmost importance, for without an effective inner circle, the business will fail. The potential for success of any business can accurately be predicted on the basis of the ConnectAbility of its core group.

* Show me the people. A primary contribution to the structure of ConnectAbility is that businesses are not the brick-and-mortar buildings that house them, but rather the relationships that constitute the social network of the individuals making up the organization. Accordingly, the business is the dynamic interaction between and among its members as they focus on the Desired Outcome. All the rest, including brick-and-mortar physical space, the paperwork files, and the related inventory (if there is such), are merely the physical manifestation of the business, not its essence.

* We have met the business, and it is us. It then follows that the business exists whenever and wherever two or more people communicate to achieve the Desired Outcome, including virtual connection over the Internet. A "virtual" business may have no brick-and-mortar home yet be highly successful. But it must have a relationship network of individuals focusing on a Desired Outcome.

* ConnectAbility works at work. Since relationships make up the essence of any business, ConnectAbility is key to potential for success. Fortunately, ConnectAbility is learnable, through a commitment to education and training. The large body of research on emotional and social intelligences, as well as other aspects of multiple intelligences as revealed by Howard Gardner's seminal...