3 Ways to Cultivate “Withness”*

I’m with you.

Not above, not below.

Not next to, not nearby.

Not across, but with.

I’m with you.

“Withness” is core to meaningful camaraderie – that secret ingredient to the secret sauce of an extraordinary workplace culture.

What would it look like to engage, explore and witness your co-workers?

Those people with whom you share the world of work–a world in which you each contribute together 2000 hours of your life every year.

What would it feel like to know they’re with you?  To feel known by them, to feel seen by them.

How to Cultivate “Withness”:

1. Engage: Face-to-face seek a co-worker’s input, advice, feedback, thoughts, best practice–and then listen for that moment like there’s no one else in the world.
2. Explore: Get interested. Get curious. Seek to learn something real and meaningful about your colleagues.  If you’re not sure where to start, choose from any of the first 24 of these meaningful 36 questions.  In turn, you will be known–as Elizabeth Gilbert says, “Interesting people are interested.”
3. Witness: Notice and celebrate–high-five when a co-worker is having success, even when it has nothing to do with your work. Notice, and with empathy acknowledge, when a co-worker is struggling. Consider, notice and speak to their world.

*This Culture Tip fully inspired by Poet Duriel E Harris’s description of her poem ‘The Soldier’s Dream’ as a part of “an ongoing project taking up withness as a primary mode of engagement, exploration, and witness.”