What does it mean to be relationally healthy? and what effect does this have on the bottom line – service delivery?According to the Relational Health Audit developed by Team Focus there are five essential components of relational health.
1. Parity: the extent to which staff feel there is genuine fairness in terms of pay, conditions, opportunities for promotion, and other opportunities for development.
2. Multiplexity: the extent to which staff at different levels, grades and/or functions have real understanding of each other’s roles. The theory being that the more staff understand each other’s roles, the more likely they are to think interdependently.
3. Commonality: the extent to which staff share common values, experiences, stories, vision. The greater the commonality the greater the cohesion.
4. Directness: the extent to which staff have direct face to face contact with one another. The greater the contact the greater the connection.
5. Continuity: the extent to which staff have a shared story or narrative over time. The greater the shared narrative over time, the greater the sense of unity.
The more leaders can cultivate these five aspects of relational health, the greater they experience a sense of team, the more focused is the teams sense of purpose, and the greater the empathy towards service users which results in higher levels of customer satisfaction – which has a beneficial effect on the bottom line.
