Mark Edward Brown's Blog

In today’s integrated and socially connected world relationships are the key to both personal and professional success.  In this blog post we will focus on building effective relationships through groups and organizations.  I will cover individual social networking and connection in a separate blog post so for now lets go straight to heart of the matter and learn why the the ability to connect at the group or organizational level can incrementally increase the quality of both your online and offline social life.

Society is defined as a web of relationships, which requires all parties to work and contribute their share in order to achieve a common goal. Having a relationship that is good, where cooperation and respect is manifested can make group relationships or membership more valuable than trying to go it alone. In a group each member works towards achieving a common goal for the good of the whole group. This can only be attained with effective and efficient relationships or networking.

The best example of this is to search online for a group of people who are interested in or who do what you do as a hobby, passion, or pastime.  Some people call these groups a club.  If you do not belong to such a group try it out and like I said, you can do it either online, offline or both.

Oganizations tend to be a little more formal than a group or loose knit club.  Organizations are usually professional in nature yet have a similiar structure to groups.  Following are some key tips to consider when working to get the most out of your social relationships in either groups or organizations:

Respect is important to relationship. In order to create a more effective relationship, parties should treat each other with respect. We can show respect just by listening to the other party and by trying sincerely to understand how they function. Respect is the very foundation for a great relationship. This means both respecting yourself and respecting others.

Another key area in forming an effective relationship is to tackle differences of the other party directly. Differences between parties or people are quite interesting. For example in a conversation where each party listens to the other party, you may observe that each is having two different perspectives. It is important to discuss these differences so that each party understands the other even if no agreement is made.

Effectively listening and no pre-judging is also important if parties are to understand each other. It is beneficial for both parties to regularly have informal discussions. This allows everyone involved to bring out issues and concerns comfortably thus allowing all invloved to feel more relaxed making them think more clearly.

When parties fail to express whatever is on their mind or their feelings, it can get in the way of building an effective relationship. Relationships are important to anyone for improving life so consider the other person involved in your group or organization and you will already be half way to being successful.

What are some ways that you use to improve the value of your social connections?

Mark Edward Brown