Do You Have Your Best Friend In Your Work?

At the end of 1960s, after nearly 20 years of teaching psychology at Nebraska, Donald Clifton made an astonishing decision to resign.

He found a better chance in his basement.

Clifton is hard to get along with other researchers in his field.

When most psychologists are committed to the treatment of mental illness, Clifton has his own interest.

He is more interested in how the brain works when everything is normal.

What's the difference between highly efficient staff? Clifton is curious.

He believes there is something hidden in people's insight data that can help ordinary people get a more meaningful life.

So when he was 45 years old, Clifton gave up his job as a professor and set up a company that specializes in finding excellent employees.

Clifton died in 2003, but you may still know the name of the company, Gallup poll.

The company has 40 offices and more than 2000 employees in 27 countries.

Before his death, Clifton conducted a survey, which in many respects represented the pinnacle of his life's work.

The survey has a well known name, Q12, which includes 12 sets of surveys that Clifton believes can maximize employee engagement.

One of the problems is more attractive than others. Not all problems are active.

In fact, Gallup's researchers frankly admitted that a large number of top executives were trying to avoid accepting Q12 tests.

Because they can not understand why this project is the first priority.

One of the issues at issue is: do you have your best friend in your work?

Clifton insisted on investigation

There are good reasons for friendship: This is one of the best problems to predict productivity.

Research shows that employees who build friendship with their colleagues at work can concentrate more, be more enthusiastic and be more loyal to their organization.

They are less sick, less prone to mistakes, and less frequent in changing jobs.

Customers are more satisfied with them.

Why is it better to work with friends than to work with acquaintances?

A joint study by management professors from two universities of University of Pennsylvania and University of Minnesota has provided us with a clue.

In a large classroom, researchers asked students to provide "close friends with them". Then they used the information to divide students into groups of friends and acquaintances.

What the researchers want to know is whether previous friendships can be beneficial to some group activities and have bad effects on others. In order to find out the answers, they let all teams complete two different tasks.

One is a decision-making project that requires cooperation and consideration, and the other is a model project that requires repeated manual labor.

The conclusion is clear: in the two task, the performance of the friends group is better than that of the acquaintance group.

Why? Friends show more involvement at the beginning of the project, communicate more smoothly in activities, and encourage their teammates every step of the project.

Their assessment of opinions is more critical, giving feedback when teammates deviate from orbit.

Conversely, the acquaintance group took different approaches.

They tend to work independently, and only when they are very necessary.

Asking for help is also uncomfortable for them. When partners make mistakes, they do not want to point out.

They can not integrate into the collective, can not take advantage of each other, lack of communication between them, work loitering, their work is in silos.

Research shows that workplace friendships allow employees.

The reason for this is not just that it is easier for friends to cooperate, but there are other mysteries.

The sense of intimacy with colleagues can motivate employees to work harder, for the simple reason.

When your colleagues are close, if they do not work hard, they will be dissatisfied with the customers and the manager will be unhappy. This will also disappoint your friends.

The power of work under social pressure is more effective than any other words of the boss.

There is another reason why workplace friendships are good for organizations: employees who maintain good friendships with their colleagues are more likely to work in the company for a long time.

In today's society, loyalty to an organization has become an outdated concept and has little effect on people's career decisions.

But when a colleague is a friend at the same time, it is difficult to quit.

It is often because of our loyalty to our colleagues that we do not accept higher salaries and higher posts in other companies.

What is the situation when there is no friendship in the workplace? Psychologists call it process loss. If you have worked with a difficult colleague, you may feel empathy.

The definition of operation is "energy waste and efficiency decline due to interpersonal difficulties".

We can recognize this symptom.

The moderate version includes occasional misunderstandings.

The more serious symptoms of the disease are full of tension which can not be relieved, unable to cooperate, and finally a comprehensive territorial dispute.

Your energy is not focused on how to work. You find yourself totally in the battle of interpersonal relationships, which only makes your work worse.

How can we build it?

What about it?

Washington State University professor Patricia Seges and Daniel Cahill's two professors' research can give us some clues.

In the study, they asked employees of various organizations to provide a close colleague.

Then they interviewed the two sides about how friendship was built.

They found that close workplace friendships were usually built by three different models.

The first is the mode of acquaintances to friends.

Seges and Cahill's research report says that in most cases, this change often occurs after about a year of work together and often among colleagues working in the same team.

So how do you define colleagues as friends? Generally speaking, it's time for them to talk about non working topics together.

The more frequent workers talk about non work problems, the closer their relationship is.

Here's a wake up to those who want to establish influence in the workplace: when you talk about topics in your office only about work, you may build a reputation for your ability to work, but you can't get any friends.

The most surprising thing about Seges and Cahill's research is that they investigate second and third pformation patterns: from friends to close friends, from close friends to close friends.

The closeness and common ground that cause the first change do not contribute to a close relationship.

What is it? Discuss all kinds of problems in individual, family and work life together.

Psychologists have long emphasized the importance of self opening as an important factor in establishing intimate and romantic relationships and also the key to establishing long-term relationships in the workplace.

Of course, the challenge for most of us is to share the embarrassing information voluntarily. It's sort of like getting into an emotional casino.

If your listeners respond and talk about their secrets, you get a big reward: you start to gain a deeper and satisfying relationship.

If your self opening is not answered, or worse: you can only hear cynicism, you will feel that you are in broad daylight, and this experience is very painful.

Ironically, close relationships are often based on shared adventures.

When we reveal our weaknesses, we make new friends.

Though it seems to be exposed under fluorescent lamps in the office compartment.