[One Thousand Characters a Day] The 1% Difference That Moves People <3>

Editor's NoteWhy did adults in the past say that drinking and smoking were basic when making friends? It means that you need to have a lot of conversations to build relationships. When you drink together, many conversations flow, and when you chat while smoking, a sense of camaraderie forms. Private chatter becomes a bond that creates emotional connections. The same applies in the workplace. Leaders, especially regarding work matters, need to be even more talkative. This prevents the team from heading in a completely different direction from the original goal. The quality of work will improve in proportion to the amount of chatter. Leaders and team members must become a team that understands each other intuitively to create synergy. Word count: 980 characters.

Can people who work together cooperate well if they don't know each other well? Usually, only a formal office relationship will be formed. The three years of the pandemic, which had to be operated through remote work, were a continuation of formal relationships. It felt like a very distant past when we used to write something on the whiteboard in the meeting room, engage in heated debates, and pile ideas upon ideas to increase added value. Now, several years after the COVID period, about 35-40% of our company's employees have left and joined during that time. Rather than becoming more formal, it is difficult to expect highly intimate employee relationships.

Comparing collaboration between employees with formal relationships and collaboration between employees who can say, "I know that person well, we've talked a lot," which side would have higher productivity? Even without measurement, the latter would be far superior. Why? In formal relationships, it is difficult to readily share information or ideas one has, and time is needed to form a friendly rapport.

Moreover, you can understand why successful companies stopped remote work as soon as the COVID period ended by thinking about the reasons. Almost all companies, including IBM, which implemented remote work, have started returning to office attendance. Despite talks of the Great Resignation and quiet quitting, why did they take such measures? Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer reportedly sent an email to all employees saying, "The best decisions and innovations sometimes come from the company hallway or cafeteria. This is why we all need to come to the office to work."

If 10 people can only produce 10 results in total, why come to the office when commuting is difficult? It is to create synergy and produce 100 or 1,000 results. Synergy is created not from formal relationships but from intimate relationships.

In the past, the channel for this was drinking or smoking, but nowadays it is different. How do people make friends within the company? It may start with drinking, smoking, or coffee, but what connects people is the underlying 'certain amount of chatter.'

- Baek Jinki, The 1% Difference That Moves People, Mirae's Chang, 18,000 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.