I recently had the opportunity to design a program for a client I thoroughly enjoy working with. Their leadership saw something that other organizations sometimes miss.

This group had changed significantly in the past five years, and more than half the staff had never met each other in person. All the while, everyone was expected to collaborate smoothly with people who were, functionally, strangers. Departments knew their own, but had little awareness of their colleagues’ roles. They seemingly didn’t care if they missed a deadline or there was a bug in a new release. I wondered if it was as that they really didn’t care, or if they just did not know how their actions impacted others?

My client, however, did care. They said, essentially, “Let’s fix the actual problem, not just talk around it.” A lot of leaders sense this kind of disconnect and say things like, “Let’s give it time.” Sadly, time rarely fixes a lack of connection, and staying disconnected over time often creates even more detachment.

As we met and discussed the format of the day, we all agreed that this was not the time for problem solving or strategic planning. Instead, this was the time for connection. Because before people can absorb strategy, they need to trust the people sitting next to them. Before they can collaborate across departments, they need a reason to actually enjoy the people in those departments. You can’t build real alignment among strangers. Relationships come first, and those relationships get built through shared experience.

If your organization has been through real change, and the instinct is to jump straight into the “real” agenda, I’d ask you to pause and consider what would happen if you spent some time getting to know one another.

What would happen at your next all-staff meeting if you spent the first hour considering shared mission and purpose?