The miracle of responsive relationships in Singapore organisations

Ask most people in Singapore what the most valuable asset in the organization is and the almost instantaneous reply will be, People.   

For a long time, leaders, HR professionals and organizations have been operating with the assumption that People are the most valuable asset in the organization.

If so, how can we explain the fact that getting the most competent, experienced and brightest people does not translate into the best-run organizations?

 We want to take it one step further and say, “No, it’s not necessarily the people in companies, but the responsive relationships between these people that makes the difference.”

You may, for example, technically employ the best people, but if the responsive relationships between them are poor or lacking, you are more than likely to have mediocre teams and, by implication, mediocre results.

Consider a situation where bright people are not able to work together. Why is that?

The reason usually is that these bright people who cannot work together:

• rarely ask themselves whether they are the problem or how they may be creating problems for others.
• seldom look at ways to be helpful to others.
• every so often fail to seize the opportunity to help things go right.
• are often the onlookers to problems.

So what does it take to nurture and strengthen responsive relationships?

The key to nurturing and strengthening our responsive relationships has less to do with what we do than with how we are. 

In nurturing responsive relationships the extent of our relationship building efforts and interpersonal training and skills (what we do) is not as important as simply our goodness – how we feel about and relate to other people (how we are).

It is this “goodness” or how we feel about and relate to other people that will determine the extent to which we are able to be honest with others and ourselves. How we feel about and relate to other people is something we cannot hide, however impressive the outward display of manners and interpersonal techniques we employ to conceal it. 

Ultimately, who we really are and how we feel about others always bleeds through such cosmetic remedies, and condemns us.

If we don't learn to change our feelings toward others  (i.e., returning to our goodness) it will be difficult or impossible to truly nurture responsive relationships.

Responsive relationships that are founded on a genuine regard for people, is the most valuable asset in organizations.  Everything else is a function of this!