The Importance of Building Rapport

Meaningful cooperation can't happen until we establish rapport

Once we've formed a genuine connection with someone, it is much easier to get to work on our shared goals. fizkes/Shutterstock

In the mid-90s, I was going through the Special Forces qualification course, and the final exercise is called Robin Sage; the largest role-playing exercise in the world. We were a student team of Green Berets immersed into a fictional nation, Pineland, which was experiencing an insurgency.

An occupation force had moved in, and Green Beret teams were linking up with local partisans, farmers, bakers, and shop owners to help them fight back against the occupation.