Intimacy is an awkward word to use in the context of the workplace.
We usually associate intimacy with romantic relationships, family relationships, and close friendships… in that order.
Block highlights the importance of this human, relational, connected, interactive, interdependent reality of working with other people.
As you know, I have long counted “Intimacy” as one of the five fundamental “Cries For Life” that, when working with people, we need to account for. So I was very excited to jump headlong into this subject.
I came away from this chapter a bit hungry still.
I thought Block did a better job warning of the dangers of virtual relationships, marketing based relationships, and digital isolation than he did of proposing strategies and ideas for building intimacy into one’s workplace relationships and culture.
Having said that, I did come away thinking hard myself.
The issue of showing up versus hiding at work arose for me. I can choose whether to bring myself fully to my work and the other team members or I can (more…)