Man is by nature a social animal. Don’t take my word for it: that’s the conclusion of the Greek philosopher Aristotle and despite the advances in human knowledge since his time I doubt that our basic instincts have changed much. But what does being a social animal really mean?
Quite simply, it means that we don’t work well on our own. Yes I know you can probably point to some great musician or scientist or thinker who made their name through isolationism but in general not only are we happier when we interact with others on a regular basis, the story of the development of the human race has been one of collaboration and the sharing of knowledge.
So why is it that in a business setting we still seek to divide and conquer? We work in silos, we give people their own individual jobs and when we look to innovate we allocate resources to a small pool of individuals rather than across the organisation? And when it comes to training, why do we still persist in instruction rather than interaction?
Okay, maybe I’m being a little gloomy. Because there are organisations out there which have realised the step change which can come from tapping into our social natures. These are the businesses which have moved away from silos and towards interactive collaboration. These are the businesses which have empowered their customer service people to take ownership of a query and stay with it until they have found a solution. And these are the businesses that see training not simply as an instruction in process but rather as an enabler of engagement, empowerment and development.
Social learning is key
Key to this is a move towards social learning. The father of social learning theory, Albert Bandura, commented in 1977 that "Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do.” But we don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel and we don’t have to learn in isolation. Learning through social interaction, learning through observation, can be intensely rewarding. It gives us a chance to ask why and how in order to build a deep understanding of the subject. And because we are asking questions and we are exploring with others then we have a far greater chance of moving the topic on, of developing innovative solutions rather than maintaining stasis.
If all I have to do is process follow then you might as well get a robot or a computer in to do my job. But people aren’t automata and our sociability and the way we interact is the key to our development. If you want innovation, if you want great customer interactions, if you want employees who are engaged in delivering something special for the organisation then it’s time to tap in to one of the key elements of human success, it’s time to get social.
