Humans are inherently social beings. What makes us really happy, apart from meaningful work, is social connections. The ability to connect with peers and share thoughts and feelings in a safe environment. A connection on a deeper level than merely sharing work-related facts and figures. Being able to have a personality and express it at work. The more connected, the happier we are, and this creates happy workplaces.
Happiness collaborates.
Regardless of whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, we crave being part of a group. The more people can socially connect, the happier they are. Introverts might need less external stimuli than extroverts, that does however not mean that they don’t need to feel connected. Both equally have a deep need for feeling connected to the people they spend their time with.
Spending on average a third of our day at work, it is essential that you are able to satisfy this need for social connection without any negative repercussions.
Sadly, however, most people are afraid to voice their perspectives at work as it might unintentionally offend someone. Add to that a culture where the only feedback received from your manager is when you did something wrong, and you have a disconnected workplace where people refrain from speaking to each other.
Now we’re talking!
If you want a happy workplace, you need to get your employees talking to each other. Once they are talking, they will be much more likely to collaborate on projects and thus increase productivity. The more they talk to each other, the better they will work together.