Creating Human Connection & Psychological Safety in Remote Work with Garrett Rokosh
In today’s episode of Live with Bottleneck, Garrett Rokosh talks about how to create a genuine human connection and build a psychologically safe environment for your remote team. He believes that these safe connections will make your company more powerful and function better as a whole.
Garrett Rokosh is a Managing Partner, Conscious Leadership Coach, and Workshop Facilitator at Social Architect. As a coach and facilitator, he challenges distributed teams to attain extraordinary levels of candor, psychological safety, and social connectedness.
Overcoming the Challenges of Remote Work
Jaime talks about his experience with running a remote-based company and explains the most common challenges that companies encounter. He mentions that isolation and not feeling like they are part of a greater cause are the biggest ones to tackle.
Garrett agrees and shares how he builds that human connection with his team. He does so with the help of a model called Three Levels of Conversation.
“There’s this model called the three levels of conversation, and that’s a model for building authentic relations. By understanding this model, I think it becomes clear as to what kinds of conversation can create intimacy and what kinds of conversation doesn’t.
The takeaway here is that most conversations happen in the informational level (1st level), while the human connection happens in the personal (2nd) and relational (3rd) levels.” – Garrett Rokosh
Engaging in Social Connection Games
Garrett describes how Social Connection Games can improve communication and build empathy with your team. According to Garrett, being empathic and having a relational conversation with someone can help create a human connection with that person.
One way of doing so is opening up to people about one’s vulnerability. This accomplishes three things:
“This (social) game is just an example of three ways that teams can increase psychological safety. The first is to create safety and a celebration for vulnerability. The second is for the leader to model it to their team. The third is to increase the emotional intelligence skills of everyone involved.” – Garrett Rokosh
If you wish to try these Social Connection Games with your team, you can register here to attend one of their demo sessions.
Talking about Missteps
Jaime shares his team’s practice of sharing their personal experiences and Call To Actions during their weekly meetings. Along with their CTAs, each team member also shares their missteps for the week. He thinks that sharing this information can help the team relate to each other’s tasks, and chime in when they can offer their assistance.
Garrett expresses his approval to such practices, as it includes the team and lets them empathize with the person sharing their misstep. It goes back to celebrating each other’s vulnerability: knowing that people are willing to share rather than withhold information from each other.
“I would say, celebrate when people share missteps, especially as a leader, even if it’s painful to hear. Find that part of you that’s genuinely celebrating that they just shared that thing. Because if you can’t find that part of you, that thing might not be shared again in the future.” – Garrett Rokosh
To learn more about Garrett Rokosh and how to build a human connection with your team, watch this episode.
Bio
Garrett Rokosh is a Managing Partner, Conscious Leadership Coach, and Workshop Facilitator at Social Architect. As a coach and facilitator, he challenges distributed teams to attain extraordinary levels of candor, psychological safety, and social connectedness.
Based in Victoria, Canada, his work is driven by the belief that safe connection will make the business the most powerful force for good in the world. His mission is to build a more safely connected distributed workforce.
Connect with Garrett!
Web: Social Architect
Linkedin: in/GarrettRokosh
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About Jaime Jay
Meet Jaime Jay – a man who wears many hats, and wears them all admirably. He's a master connector, an entrepreneur extraordinaire, and a published author who knows how to get things done.
Before he found his way to the business world, Jaime served his country as a brave paratrooper in the U.S. Army. But that's just the beginning of his many accomplishments.
He's the founder of the renowned Bottleneck Distant Assistant Services firm, and his book "Quit Repeating Yourself" has become a must-read for entrepreneurs everywhere.
When he's not busy building his empire, you can find him on his beloved Harley Davidson, cruising through the countryside and taking in the invigorating effects of Uitwaaien – a Dutch practice that involves facing the wind to boost health and relieve stress.
He enjoys spending his free time outside building stuff with his wife, Nikita the dog and their two kittens (for now at least) Tommy and Tater.
He is ‘over-the-moon’ happily married to his wonderful wife Sara, his amazing daughter, Jessica, who is serving our country as a United States Army soldier. Jaime and Sara are the proud grand parents of two beautiful little girls.
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Quit Repeating Yourself provides guidance for entrepreneurs, business leaders, and managers to help prevent unknown challenges from ruining their business.
