Ashish Kothari says coworkers should share personal origin stories over lunch and practice deep listening. Deeper understanding drives flourishing at work, which boosts productivity, creativity, and innovation while reducing attrition.
In this week's tip on flourishing at work, I invite you to consider integrating sharing origin stories with each other to deepen your relationships at work. Now, we know that interpersonal relationships at work are one of the biggest drivers of flourishing, and through that, higher productivity, creativity, innovation, and lower attrition. So how does origin stories work? Origin stories work because so often we know so little about people we interact with, we only see the tip of the iceberg, the role they have, the title, the whole maybe a little bit about the their families, but yet so much of the adventures, stories of triumph, obstacles, events that have shaped them into who they are right now are hidden from us. So I invite you to find a colleague tomorrow, take them out for lunch or maybe coffee and invite them to share their origin story with you. Ask them to share life events that have shaped them into who they are and give them the gift of deep listening. Witness as you start to see with a fresh set of eyes, maybe a person you thought you knew. Invite you to also share your own story and see as you share vulnerably with each other how your relationship deepens and grows over time.
Reducing Regrettable Attrition in Organizations by Fixing the System, Not the People Reducing Regret
