Interactions: Medium of influence

Summary: Interactions are as crucial organizationally as in our personal spheres. Greater exchange of ideas, services and goods means more business.

We keep organizational interactions to a minimum, to just as far as we think we have to… and we’re wrong.

Energy exchange

The word ‘interact’ is defined by Webster’s dictionary as ‘to act on each other’. Meaning that there is mutuality, reciprocity in the process of being with people, talking with them, sharing thoughts and experiences.

Interactions mean a lot to us in our personal spheres in making or breaking relationships. With family and friends, there are plenty of highs and lows in the energy exchange.

But by habit or by learning, we’re guarded at work.

Business activity

Interactions relate to the exchange of ideas, services and goods. Fact is they are the point in business influence today.

Figures reported in 1997 (McKinsey Quarterly) mentioned how interactions are or should be, at various levels of the business world:

economy level: 36-53 percent

industry level: 35-50 percent

firm level: 58 percent

individual level: 15 percent in physical labour jobs, 80 percent for managers and supervisors.

These interactions ensure that every organization goes about the tasks of searching for the right party to work with, managing its activities associated with the exchange, and monitoring the resulting performances.

Infrastructure transforms

Boundaries, geographical and organizational, are being loosened every day.

Much of the transformation is in infrastructure – the proliferation of networks, connectivity and bandwidth, new generations of routers, fibre-optic cables and wi-fi making our globally interactive capability easier, faster and cheaper by far.

Change in structure

The structure of organizations is also undergoing change. Smaller size now means greater agility.

Even larger companies are seeing value in horizontal integrations, shifting towards forms that are more networked, more loosely linked.

Added to this mix are demographic changes in society and the rising numbers in diversity at the workplace of people and skills.

Exchange of expertise

Information may be exchanged anywhere and anytime between points through intranet and websites.

Technology has created huge opportunities to interact. Skills transfer in the global marketplace becomes easier as costs of interactions fall.

Expertise is the most valuable asset sought and leveraged across borders – this, unimaginable before.

Business value

Crucial business interactions occur within different companies, between them, and in the marketplace right up to the consumer.

They take various forms – management meetings, conferences, phone conversations, sales calls, problem solving sessions, reports, memos, and so on throughout any working day.

Most importantly, they influence customer behaviour. Positive moves turn non-customers into active users, although negative impressions precipitate the search for new suppliers!

The point is with the information explosion, companies should value interactions much more in their businesses today, and make greater use of them.

Cont’d 2…Change focus, not just accent