Home featured Featured HR Leadership Advice Featured The rise of the relationship-driven workplace Guest Author September 28, 2015 Organisations often view their workforce as an amalgamation of highly talented individuals bringing their own unique skills and experience to the table. Indeed, the strength of a team has traditionally been built upon the knowledge of individual members, who have all come together as a collective. As such when interviewing potential candidates, organisations tend to look out for attributes such as experience, knowledge and personality – as this collective IP will eventually come to define the calibre and competitive advantage of the company. However, in today’s increasingly hyper-connected world, the focus has somewhat evolved. Knowledge has become commoditised in so many ways – information is easily retrievable and made available online, with the option to even store it indefinitely. While knowledge is still key, the focus has shifted away from expertise in favour of ideation and innovation sparked by interactions amongst knowledge workers within the organisation. Ideation and innovation go on to transform the competitive advantage and profitability of companies. Ergo, the more relationships and conversations triggered, the better. This begs the question – how best can organisations cultivate relationships among employees and bring out interactions that might otherwise not exist? How can companies tease workers into generative exchanges and creative connectivity? One possibility is to emulate Google’s approach. The company, which is known for its hip and playful work environment, also offers staff free gourmet meals at its office in Sydney.