The secret to workplace success

I’ve coined it The Workplace Trifecta - the three things you need to master within your company culture to foster success, productivity and a happy team.

Communication.

Connection.

Competency.

The Workplace Trifecta Diagram - communication, competency & connection.

Let’s start with the first one - it’s a given.

Communication.

If the communication is poor, everything else will be impacted.

Let’s consider this - there’s two parents in a family, for the sake of this story let’s say it’s a Mum and a Dad. They have two children. Mum and Dad haven’t made the time to chat much this week. They both know the big game is on this weekend and are excited to enjoy it as a family. The lack of communication is unraveling some issues though. Dad assumes they’re taking the kids to watch the game live on the weekend, and Mum thinks they were going to watch the game at home. Dad bought some tickets, he told the kids - they’re excited. Mum went to the shops, bought some snacks, prepared a great spread to watch the game at home with. Everyone is getting ready for the game, Dad and the kids are getting their favourite team jerseys, Mum is putting her comfortable couch clothes on… suddenly it dawns on Dad.
“What are you wearing - we need to leave in 5 minutes?” he says.
”Leave for where, I thought we’re watching the game from the couch?” says Mum.
”The couch?! I bought us tickets!” shouts Dad.
”Tickets? I made us snacks. What did you think I was doing all morning in the kitchen today? I’m not dressed for the game.” Mum replies.

Alas, a small avoidance of communication has led to a big argument, with an assortment of food potentially going in the bin, or 4 footy tickets being left unused. Wastage of resources some may say.

Now, let’s pretend that Mum and Dad are actually the Operations Manager and the Sales Manager. The Operations Manager has assumed one thing, and hasn’t effectively communicated it with the Sales Manager. Now we’re left with an entire corporate team who is confused, with the potential for a lot of wasted resources, time, energy and money.

I’m sure we don’t need to explain any further why Communication makes up the top of the diagram.

Moving on.

Connection.

Let’s go back to our original story. Mum and Dad, and the footy debacle.

Thankfully in our story, Mum and Dad are married and have a strong connection. Although their communication wasn’t on point this week, Mum has been able to forgive Dad for buying the tickets without telling her, because she know’s he had a really busy week at work and that he loves being able to spoil the children with fun events like the footy. Dad has also been able to recognise the same in Mum, knowing that her love language is acts of service, and making a beautiful selection of footy snacks is how she wants to show love to the family. The connection they have allowed them both to see the bigger picture, recognise the intention behind the actions and move forward with compassion.

In the workplace, the more time spent on building connection between team members, the more opportunity there is for flexibility and consideration to be utilised when making decisions.

Connection is where trust and charisma come from. The more connection you build, the more your team mates will be able to trust you and have consideration for change and alternative approaches to business.

Finally, we loop closed the trifecta with the third point.

Competency.

It goes without saying, to have success in business there needs to be some form of competency in the skills required to run said business. The thing about competency though, is that being competent alone is often not enough. Without connection and communication, you may have results, you most likely won’t have a happy team who have trust, respect and productivity.

Capability is fostered into competency through the power of connection and communication. You can make your team members more competent when you’re effectively building rapport and taking the time to speak with them about development points on regular occasions.

Our Mum and Dad analogy may not be necessary to describe why Competency is so important in the trifecta, but if you’re looking for more story telling to bring this concept to life all I will say is… Imagine if Mum and Dad were demonstrating communication skills, they had a strong connection, but they had absolutely zero competency when it came to preparing food or purchasing tickets to football games. Not only would the family be left hungry, they’d also be left with nothing to do all day. Map that across to your team. Competency keeps the wheels turning towards productivity and success. The more you can keep things moving, the more you’re going to see the business grow.

The Workplace Trifecta.

A simple model to kick off the process of ensuring your team is on the right path to incredible results.

Which area do you need assistance with right now?