It is a small world after all. That makes the people in it—and the partnerships we build with them—incredibly important. If we foster those partnerships with care, they might spark all kinds of opportunities to make a difference.

Too often, however, we pay no attention to people around us. In the process, those opportunities are lost.

Have you ever walked past people with your head down, looking at your BlackBerry? Perhaps it was a particularly crazy day, with meeting booked on top of meeting, and you simply “didn’t have time to talk.” It happens to all of us. But what if the people you walked past are the exact people who, in collaborating with you, could co-create positive change in your workplace? What if they have a perspective that, when combined with yours, could lead to an entirely new level of performance? That collaboration could transform the course of your organization. The impact could be so great.

You are never going to know everything about the people who are in and around your life. On occasion, you literally can’t stop to talk at length. But if you take the minute to engage in a short conversation with them—even if it’s just hello—you open the door for a potential partnership. From there, the possibilities of what the two of you could do together are endless.

This isn’t just about the people you see every day, either. Keeping in touch with old friends, college professors, and peers, checking in with past colleagues and business partners…you never know where one of these encounters may lead.  So take a breath, look up, and connect. The world is small, and you may see—and need—those people again.

By Victoria Gammerman and Julie Bush

It’s not like they were attacking her, it’s like they were degrading her because she was different. They felt like it was no big deal. I didn’t think the play would go there. They went way too far, and it was way too easy for them.  

With all the turmoil going on in the play, I felt that the detective mediated everything. He wasn’t for one side or the other, but he treated everybody the same, because they were all hoodlums.

I loved the Spanish in the play, because I could understand all of it. We live in a world where we speak so many languages, and it’s good to be able to understand.

They fell in love, just like everyone else. Back then, it was a man and a woman, one Latina and one Anglo. Now we’re talking gay marriage. They were the innovators of unconventional marriage.

When Anita kept saying, “But we’re in America,” it reminded me of growing up here. My mom wanted to keep the Colombian traditions and I would say, “But Mom, we’re in America.” Back then, I wanted to do everything my American friends were doing. Now I understand where my mom was coming from.

Both the play and our sessions take planning, training, execution, and a lot of behind-the-scenes effort. The passion with which the actors act is similar to the passion that people in the Firm have around their work.

It hurt to watch Anita become small during the play. At first she was all about relishing her new life in America.  She saw America as big, and she wanted to Be BIG in it. And yet, by the end of the play, circumstances left her singing “stick to your own kind”—a very small idea.

When did you know that “the play” in question was West Side Story?

You might not have recognized it at first. If you’ve seen it, chances are that you view it in a certain way and believe it’s about certain themes. Some of the thoughts above probably startled you.

They startled me. That is why, for me, seeing West Side Story with our Troy office was—more than anything else—about a Four Corners Breakthrough.

Four Corners Breakthrough has become a foundational idea at KJCG. Named after the police procedure of interviewing witnesses from every street corner of an accident scene, this approach brings together people with a broad range of differences and perspectives to convey their knowledge and ideas. By sharing information across departments, shifts, functions, sites, levels in the organization, and other differences, organizations can gain a 360-degree view of every issue and situation, enabling more breakthroughs and better decisions.

We didn’t have to make any decisions about West Side Story. But as I spoke with four people who attended the performance at Proctors in Schenectady—Julie Bush, Kamen Miller, Lixa Santana, and Tanya Zgorzelski, four people with differences of color, gender, skills, life experience, even familiarity with West Side Story —the differences in their perspectives allowed me to see the play with fresh eyes. More than that, they enriched my understanding not only of West Side Story but of our Firm: the values we hold to, the work we do, the way we do it. As a result, I can better align my work with the work of the Firm.  

Imagine if the play were an issue in our organization, and we needed to resolve it. How much closer to a breakthrough would we be, having heard all these perspectives?

That is the essence of Four Corners Breakthrough.  It is one thing to write about. It is quite another to have it happen around you—and feel its transformative power firsthand.

Note: This post would not have been possible without the insights and contributions of four people at KJCG: Julie Bush, Kamen Miller, Lixa Santana, and Tanya Zgorzelski. Thank you, one and all, for adding your street corners—and making the experience of West Side Story richer.

When it comes to meetings, we know how to be inclusive of people who are in the room (through the 12 Inclusive Behaviors and the Inclusive Meeting Norms). We know how to be inclusive of people who are not in the room (by assigning them a buddy to fill them in on what was discussed, who said what, the feeling of the room, and the to-dos that came out of the conversation). 

What about people in a new, third category: people in the meeting but not in the room—because they’re attending via the Internet, from a remote location? What does it mean to include them?

This came up for us during a training class in Charlotte, North Carolina. Because some participants were physically in Charlotte, and others (like us) were taking the class remotely, the experience led us to think about inclusion in virtual learning environments.  The instructor did practice some Inclusive Behaviors: for instance, he had the participants introduce themselves and state their name, the name of their employer, and a hope for the day’s learning.  This reminded us very much of hellos and connecting questions—things we do at the beginning of every KJCG meeting, and within our client systems, as a part of our Inclusive Meeting Norms.

However, while giving us a moment to connect and share about ourselves was great, it was only the first step on the journey of inclusion.  What else could have been done to encourage a more inclusive learning environment?

First, the instructor needed to create a sense of safety in the larger “room”—both the classroom in Charlotte and the virtual “room” full of people in remote locations. To do so, he could have reminded us that we were all going to be learning: we would make mistakes, and generate ideas, and be excited and frustrated all at once, and it was OK to ask questions since this was a learning environment.

Also, the virtual meeting software could have been better designed for inclusion. It allowed us to see the instructor, but he couldn’t see us. We also weren’t able to communicate face to face with the other students. As a result, we lost a lot of opportunity for learning and growth.

How much opportunity did we lose? We were the only two individuals who took the class out of the training center in Albany, New York; there were about 15 people taking the class in total. That means we couldn’t interact with more than 85 percent of the participants. We didn’t get the 360 degrees of vision that happens when you include all the Right People at the Right Time. We were lucky if we got 45.

The point we want to leave you with is this: It’s not only about who is in the room or who is not in the room. It’s about how you interact with those people. Whether they are in the chair next to you or across the world, it is important to practice Inclusive Behaviors, be fully present in your interactions, and carefully consider how the tools in the meeting might help or hinder inclusion.

By Victoria Gammerman and Tia Wager