I was unaware of the patterns to my approach to relationships in the real world until I was first introduced to the concept of containeering last month at the Temenos Conference in Boston, May 2016.
The above visualization was a result of me collecting my thoughts on the way I approached the various containers or groups of people or individuals in my life. Coming from a Sales and Marketing background of 17+ years, I have always been one to spend a lot of time and effort in meeting and cultivating new relationships. In the early days of my career these relationships were formed towards a focused goal of creating the right business relationships to increase the chances of getting more sales. These relationships existed as long as I was in the trade or industry and fizzled out after I took up a new assignment or role. Hence the relationships were based on a need of mine while fulfilling the need of the other.
Over the course of my experience I have learnt that the intention behind anything also determines its results. I started approaching my containers with a more caring attitude, making myself available to my friends, family and customers. I started caring for the happiness and well-being of everyone that got connected to me.
The patterns of establishing the containers remained the same, it was just that my approach to them that had changed. I tend to establish a direct connection with everyone in a given container, the size of a container would range from 1-15. Even if engaging a larger group, I tend to form various containers within the group and make the effort to have one on one conversations, sometimes over coffee or a meal if given the opportunity.
My approach is now one of genuine interest in every container and the individuals that form it. While I energize each container with enthusiasm, love and happiness I also do tend to keep my radar on to filter out the excessively negative ones. My containers became long lasting and I ensure now that I make a connect with virtually every one of them at least once in 6 months. Face to face meetings, Phone calls, emails, whatsapp, social media has served me well to keep these containers intact.
There have been instances where one or more containers of mine have connected remotely without me being present but I still being the catalyst to bring the containers together. A recent example was where I stirred off a high school alumni conversation on Facebook with a select group and they all ended up meeting in Dubai while I was in New Delhi. Creating a large network of containers globally has provided me with the opportunity of making great friends almost anywhere that I might land up with my extensive travelling for work. I love the people that have become a part of my life and feel happy that I can play a role to be of help to them in anyway possible.
