Learn how to build relationships because the relationships you have with coworkers, the community, and your adversaries are ideal for achieving your goals. Show
What is relationship building all about?Relationships are the building blocks for all community organizing activities. Whether you want to organize a volleyball game or get rid of unfair housing practices in your town, you will need lots of good relationships. Why? Because the relationships we have with our coworkers, the communities we serve, and even our adversaries are the means for achieving our goals. People don't work in isolation: we need to be working together! It is our relationships all added together that are the foundation of an organized effort for change. We need lots of people to contribute their ideas, take a stand, and get the work done. It is also the people who motivate us to reach our goals. As community builders, we care deeply about people and caring is part of our work. It is our caring for others that motivates us to work as hard as we do. It is often the health and happiness of our children, neighbors, and coworkers that we hold fixed in our minds as we push ourselves to overcome obstacles and take on challenges that can feel overwhelming. If you are the official leader, or an active citizen without an official title, you will be most effective if you establish many strong relationships around yourself in the community. In this section, we will talk about building and sustaining relationships and give you some practical tips and general guidelines. And remember: ordinary people learn the skills of establishing and maintaining relationships all the time. You don't need to be particularly charming, witty, or talented. However, if you are charming, witty, or talented, these guidelines may help you, too! Why do we need to build and sustain relationships?Let's look at this example:
Fundamental reasons to build relationships:
What kinds of relationships are we talking about?Every relationship is different, but they all matter. If you smile and say hello to the school crossing guard on your way to work every day, you have formed a relationship. That crossing guard may be the one who will be watching out for your kids or grandchildren when they are old enough to walk to school by themselves. The guard will remember you and your warm smile when escorting your child across the street. And maybe the crossing guard will be the one you eventually recruit to head up the citizens' traffic safety committee. Your relationship with the crossing guard may be quite different from the relationships you have with people involved in your neighborhood park-cleaning committee. The relationships you have with the mayor's aide, with your staff, with members of your board of directors, and with your spouse will all be different but they all play an important role in community organizing. The more relationships you have, the better. You never know when they will come in handy. A local gang member might be just the person you need to help you organize a group to build a new playground in your neighborhood. Whether they are government officials, school teachers, business people, elders, gardeners, children, people with disabilities, homeless people or whoever else--building friendships will pay off in ways you may never have anticipated. You are at the centerImagine a wheel in which you are at the hub or center and each spoke represents a relationship with another person. Does that sound egotistical? It doesn't need to be. It takes a lot of spokes to hold the wheel together and the wheel is what helps move the initiative along. There is enough room in the group for everyone to create their own wheel of strong relationships. The point is that you have to take the time to set up and sustain relationships. If you wait for others to establish relationships with you first, you may spend a lot of time waiting. One reminder: It doesn't make sense to form relationships just to get people to do work for you. That won't work because people will feel used. Community builders approach relationships with integrity. We form relationships because we genuinely like someone, because we have something to offer that person, or because we share some common goal. When do you build and sustain relationships?You do it all the time. If you take an extra five minutes to ask the person who is stuffing envelopes how they think the baseball team is doing this year, you will have built a stronger relationship. Some relationships require more time than others. You may want to meet for lunch once a month with all the other directors of youth organizations in your town. You may need to meet twice this week with a staff member who has some built up resentment about the job. You may want to call your school committee representative every now and then to check in about issues of common concern. As community organizers with few resources, we are often under enormous pressures that distract us from paying attention to relationships. We feel the urgency of achieving important goals. We mistakenly feel that spending time on relationships is the fluffy stuff that makes a person feel good, but doesn't get the job done. Often, however, relationships are the key to solving a problem or getting the job done. Building and sustaining many solid, strong relationships is central to our work as community leaders. Relationships are the groundworkOften building relationships is the groundwork that must be laid before anything else gets done on a project. The bigger the project, the more relationships you will usually need as a foundation. For example, if you are organizing a coalition of community groups that will work to create a multicultural arts center, it would be a good idea to get to know people in each organization before trying to get them together to work on the project. Ask yourself: "Would you be more persuaded by someone you know, or by a complete stranger?" Then be guided by your own answer. When you plan a project, you need to include the time it takes to build relationships into your plan. People need time to build trust. Whenever people work together, they need to have trusting relationships. When trust is missing, people usually have a difficult time functioning cooperatively. They worry about risking too much. Disagreements seem to erupt over no important reason. Investing time, resources, and one's organizational reputation can be risky. At the least people want some return for their investment. They have to feel like you know them as a person, understand their interests, and will not let them down. Back to the multicultural arts center example--if creating one will involve several community groups, and if you don't know them well (and they don't know each other), start working together on a smaller project first. For example, you can jointly sponsor an evening of cultural sharing. If the evening is successful, you will have gained some shared trust and confidence on which to build. You can plan several similar events that will build trust over a period of time. If things are not going well, back up and try an easier challenge. If you begin to hold discussions on the multicultural arts center and people show signs of apprehension rather than excitement, slow down the process. Take on an easier challenge until strong relationships are better established. Establish relationships before you need themIt's always better to build relationships before you need them or before a conflict arises. If you already have a good relationship with the grocery store owner in your neighborhood, you will be in a better position to help solve a dicey conflict between him and some neighborhood teens. If you have already established a relationship with your school committee representative, she might be more willing to respond to your opinions about special education funding. Establishing relationships in a crisisIt is not impossible to establish relationships during a crisis, and often a crisis can bring people together. While it may seem unusual, make the most of your organization's crises. Call for help and people will rise to the call. You can build relationships when you are in need, because people often want to help. How do you build relationships? An 11-step programHere are some tips for getting your relationships off the ground. Some of these ideas we learned in the first grade but, as adults, we sometimes forget.
How do you build relationships with people of different cultural backgrounds than your own?Here are some common-sense guidelines:
How do you build relationships with people who hold positions of political power?Here are some guidelines for forming relationships with elected officials, business leaders, and heads of large organizations.
How do you sustain relationships?Okay, now you've built some relationships. Relationships, like any other living thing, need care to keep them alive and healthy. So what do you do with them to keep them going?
When relationships get messyMany relationships get messy sooner or later and that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, sometimes people need a good fight or a clearing of the air in order to get a relationship back on track. A conflict doesn't mean the relationship has to come to an end. Remember: we often fight with the people we care about the most and with whom we share our greatest hopes. Here are some ideas that might come in handy when things get hard:
Is all this easier said than done? Yes. Managing relationships may be hard, but it is not impossible. Think of yourself as an explorer, charting your course through the mysterious and murky waters of relationships. Treasure lies ahead! Relationships with adversariesYes, you can even have relationships with the people who disagree with you and who may even be working against you and the goals of your organization. You can use the same guidelines listed in the "When relationships get messy" section above, with these additions:
In SummaryBuilding and sustaining relationships are at the heart of organizing communities. The strength of community lies in the strength of the connections that we have with each other. With strong connections, people have the power to make real change. Building these connections takes time; but it is worth it. Relationships are the often the source of our greatest joys and greatest challenges. Understanding relationships is no simple task. People are so unique and complex that there is no easy formula. Central to almost every religion is the idea that we should treat our neighbors the way we would like to be treated. If you keep that in mind, you will most likely succeed in building relationships that you can depend on. Whether you are a "leader" or a follower, you have the ability to build a community of friends, colleagues, associates, allies, partners, and buddies around you. Together, there is no telling what you can do. What is the process of establishing and maintaining contacts with key managers in your own organization or outside of it to serve as informal development systems?Networking is the process of establishing contacts with key managers within and outside the organization to get additional development assistance.
When an organization attempts to improve productivity by increasing its employees abilities to perform it is known as?training and development. all attempts to improve productivity by increasing an employee's ability to perform. training focuses on short term skills, whereas development focuses on long-term abilities. orientation.
Which of the following are some tasks involved in human resource management?In simplest terms, the HR (Human Resources) department is a group who is responsible for managing the employee life cycle (i.e., recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, and firing employees) and administering employee benefits.
What factors make it difficult to recruit qualified employees quizlet?What factors make it difficult to recruit qualified employees? You have to consider the law, what's best for the individual, and what's best for the organization. It can also be very competitive and in order to get good employees you have to offer them something good.
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