Review: 'Connection Culture', by Michael Lee Stallard

The dreary title of Connection Culture is suggestive of an old trick of second rate management gurus: attaching an earnest label to an idea or behaviour that most people already instinctively understand in order to make some cash.

But author Michael Lee Stallard, a business consultant, has a point in his new book, which, while sweeping in its scope, he manages to narrow down to make some practical suggestions for employers who want to change the culture of their organisation.

The idea at the book's heart is that people are the most important part of a business and that focusing on operations and financials at their cost is not only wrong but commercially foolish. Companies with a "culture of connection" - broadly speaking, one in which workers are able to "thrive for sustained periods of time" - meanwhile, have a competitive advantage.

Mr Stallard spells this out, citing research that sounds plausible enough. Businesses with high "connection scores" boast higher levels of profitability and productivity than those with lower scores. He also garners the findings of neuroscientists and endocrinologists to build his case, pointing out that "human connection" has been found to reduce the levels of stress hormones in the blood, making us more likely to make rational decisions.

What makes for the kind of culture in which cortisol levels are kept healthy is highly subjective, of course, and it may be more achievable in some sectors than others. Stallard attempts to draw up some broad definitions. He writes that humans have six needs at work: respect, recognition, belonging, autonomy, personal growth and meaning, and offers suggestions for how employers can meet these needs, with practical advice on topics from hiring to communication.

His exposition of the "connection culture" is best made through the anecdotes he tells about the companies who have got it right, however. Unlike lists of optimal "leadership behaviours", such stories are memorable.

When Alan Mulally was introduced as the new chief executive of Ford in 2006, and was asked what car he drove, he replied without hesitation, "a Lexus . . . the finest car in the world". His generosity to a rival did not do the company any harm: Mr Mulally led Ford to 19 consecutive profitable quarters and, having raised shocked eyebrows at his introduction, was given a standing ovation at his retirement.

The paean to U2 with which Stallard opens the book, however, is less useful. The way the band functions, he tells us - by which he seems to mean its members' habit of remaining friends and sharing profits equally, none of which seem staggering - "is even more extraordinary than its music". Allusions to his evidently heartfelt Christian faith also jar; evangelism can arouse suspicions about the real purpose of a message.

One of the strengths of Connection Culture, however, is the way it underlines that the positive habits it describes are also essential to life outside work. The degree to which it does this is unusual in a business book but probably essential to the credibility of this particular one.The writer is Business Life Communities Editor

Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work, by Michael Lee Stallard, ATD Press ($24.95)

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