Questions every employee and leader can ask to gauge how deeply they have moved forward – together.
Calendar year-end typically provides an opportunity to reflect on the extent to which personal goals for the year have been achieved. However, in this article, we propose a shift from individual reflection to the collective – emphasising how one’s organisational relationships either strengthen or weaken the shared fabric of the organisation and its broader stakeholder ecosystem.
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Organisations as social systems Any organisation is fundamentally a social system. Its interacting units are people, and relationships are its nervous system – the invisible yet vital channels that enable coordination, trust, and collective intelligence. At the most basic level, every relationship begins and survives through interaction. Without reciprocal action – a conversation, a shared task, a moment of support or conflict – there is no connection, and therefore no relationship at all. Interaction is the spark that establishes connection, the frequency and tone that define its quality, and the ongoing fuel that keeps it alive. Positive relationships grow from interactions marked by mutual support and open dialogue. Negative ones emerge From avoidance, criticism, or unresolved tension. Neutral or weak ties persist where interactions remain purely transactional and rare. What drives interaction? Interdependence. Perceived dependency often triggers interaction. Social psychology’s Interdependence Theory explains that we reach out when we believe someone else controls resources, outcomes, or support we need – and often when they need something from us in return. In workplaces, this dependency exists on two levels: Interdependence as a Catalyst for Connection Task and/or process interdependence is the engine of most workplace interaction. When my deliverable is your starting point, we must communicate, coordinate, and sometimes compromise. Over time, these forced interactions create opportunities for trust, shared identity, and genuine connectedness to emerge. Conversely, teams designed with low interdependence – “work groups” rather than true teams – rarely develop the emotional bonds that turn collective effort into collective excellence. Yet interdependence alone is not enough. How gracefully we navigate it depends on connectedness – the perceived sense of belonging, psychological safety, and mutual care. When connectedness is high, people share knowledge freely, speak up without fear, and go the extra mile for one another. When it is low, even high interdependence produces friction, silos, and sub-optimal results. The relationship is cyclical: Interdependence forces interaction → interaction builds connectedness → connectedness strengthens collaboration → performance improves → reinforcing the system. A year-end mirror for 2025 As 2025 ends, the most honest personal performance mirror is not only a list of individual KPIs – it is also a set of relational questions we can all ask ourselves: Honest answers reveal the true health of your organisation’s nervous system – its degree of connectedness. Year-end reflection then stops being a private exercise and becomes one of the strongest predictors of a truly shared, collaborative and successful 2026.
