The same is true for relationships. We need to find a way for people to SEE relationships. Until we can, we’ll always be pushing uphill to get large groups to value them.

Keep inspiring me, Steve.

The info/relationship issue strikes at the heart of just about everything. I’m sitting here scrolling my RSS reader while getting ready for a workshop to help a group of executives with their stand-up communication. The issue? Lots of information, no connection with their audiences. As a result, the information doesn’t hit home, either.

After working in this corporate arena for 30 years the struggle continues: transactions or relationships?

Whether on the internet or in the meeting room, without meaning it’s just information. And without relationships, it’s very difficult to find the real meaning.

Keep writing, Liz…

I’m in my 40′s, and I can tell you that I hear that from many people. So…where are these people with a lack of work ethic coming from?

I think the root of it is a lack of “relationship” in business today. There’s not much “mentoring” out there, as there is “data transfer”. What I mean is, adults in general are stepping away from the “teacher” role, and expecting kids today to just take the information and do your job! There is very little interaction while they are on the job, so how would they learn to have a work ethic in the first place?

This is my biggest pet peeve, and I tell my son on a daily basis, “I don’t ever want to see you work with a person like that”. I learned my work ethic from my Mom, and I’m praying that it rubs off on him! Just being laid off from my position, I am dealing with many people from many different venues on a daily basis. I can tell you that my frustration is growing. Why are people with no people skills hired for retail, or people interactive positions? Why are the company owners/executives not hearing, and seeing this? They can’t be seeing/hearing it because if they did, they would correct it right? The one thing my Mom said to me that really stuck with me is, “if you take the responsibility of working with people, you have no right to ruin their day!” What she meant by that is you give everyone the best, and most pleasant, service/job that you can!

I had updated my resume’, and went online to put it out there on the jobsearch sites. I then saw a new tool to send your resume’ to multiple sites at the same time. I thought this was great! Then, last night I heard on the news that the new way to find a job is by blogging! I found this very interesting, as it is leaning back to the “relationship” aspect of people in business.

Today, I googled “career blogs”, and found over 83 Million sites to log onto! That’s how I came upon this site. I have to say that I enjoyed reading it, and if we all stop typing, and start talking, we may be able to get back to a world that isn’t so “impersonal”.

I think it’s time we stopped typing, and started talking. As a manager, I have always thought of myself as a mentor. Someone that is responsible to lead and teach others. That is my responsibility.

Can I have both, please? That’s the overall feeling I’m getting more and more from being in (special retail) business. It’s not only on the ‘net’ that people are looking both for information and for conversation (i.e. not being treated as a number – or statistic).
IMHO a mix of both is the way forward. And the trend is there already (Long Tail comes to mind) – more and more small retail companies are doing great because they have found the right mix. I think we have ;-)

Karin H. (Keep it Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

It may be obvious, but blogging is just a medium. It’s just another way to do a website. It’s just another way to speak to people.

I think the personal/conversational is an important way to connect to people, and for me, makes my business more enjoyable. I do most of it through a membership forum I run where the relationships can go very deep, because it’s more contained and not as public, and I’ve begun blogging more recently and seeing the more public conversations that can happen.

However, the informational is important to. People are suffering. Our businesses are one way that we address the suffering and the help that people need. If we don’t take on the role of helper/facilitator/teacher/expert that we can rightly claim, then we’re not extending our hand to those who need the help.

It’s not about always being in the teacher/helper role- just where appropriate.

As a friend of mine Adam Kayce taught me during my healership training: what people want from you is your divinity (the strength, clarity, wisdom, that your heart transmits). But enables them to take it from you is your humanity (imperfection, vulnerability, weakness).

I’ve found that it’s critical to my business, and to my heart, and to my life, that I hold both.

We construct meaning from data in order to learn it. Our construction involves building on what we know,having a purpose for learning, and giving the new information context. People and relationships are such a part of that.

Other people motivate so much of what we do, learn, and communicate.

I’ve been thinking on ideas to integrate the two in a more natural way, but as JP’s post shows on “confused in calcutta,” some of it involves changing world views in more places than my own head. :)

We need to be sensitive to the tendency that we have to separate the two and work toward more integrations instead.

Don’t imagine that I didn’t spend as much time reading over your response. You make me think too.

As I tried to answer your question, I came to this: It’s not an either/or. It’s a both/and. Perhaps it’s my mediator’s mind, which calls on me to draw connections between apparent polarizations instead of focusing on the dividing line. Questions that suggest a forced choice are exactly those I tend to reframe to expand options.

So, I’ll say that the web and blogs are, for me, about both information and relationships. Sometimes I just want information and don’t need or want a new relationship to get some data I want. Most of the blogs I read, though, connect information and relationship more deeply, because I’ll trust the information more when I have either a relationship with the blogger or have been a visitor long enough that it feels like a relationship.

Both. And when I blog, I’m trying to offer information for those folks who only want some tips and foster relationships with those folks whom I may be able to serve in additional ways.