Stephen Rosenberger - The Relation Equation

Stephen Rosenberger

Telling the story of behind the creation of The Relation Equation often creates more questions than it answers, but that is precisely how I prefer it. Building equity in a relationship initially seems ridiculous; at least, it did to me. As a matter of fact, I asked multiple people if my inner monologue regarding the topic was simply my own nonsensical way of processing ideas or if relationship equity truly had a wider audience.

The vast majority of experiences driving the text, some of which you will find overtly stated as examples within, occurred over a period of time spent with my cohorts (Tyler and Alyssa Bream) in Cleveland, Ohio, as we launched a faith-based, non-profit, community-oriented art gallery. Appropriately so, the gallery was named Agape, as the love of God was the primary reason for our presence there. Our operating model was centered on building relationships with the people of the community, be it artists, servers, restaurateurs, bartenders, shop keepers, educators or the average Joe resident.

As we began interacting with our community in early 2011 , we immediately encountered difficulty with objectively describing, let alone quantifying, any success we had building relationships. The community we served was not an easy one to break into, which is a point mentioned later within the text. In fact, many a business failed to begin operations, or was significantly delayed, because of insufficient support at block-club meetings. We knew from the onset that building credibility with our neighbors was paramount to Agapes success and our ability to provide a viable service to a community we so very much loved. Through an intentional building of relationships, we sought to be trusted enough to serve our neighbors and used relationship equity to gauge whether or not we had sufficient credibility to do so.

The process of intentional relationship building continued through the departure of my original cohorts and the addition of an extraordinary young woman by the name of Laney. Laney came to Agape as an intern in mid- 2013 and secured a full-time staff position within four months; the girl was incredibly talented. Her most apparent attribute was the unique ability to build and maintain relationships with practically everyone; no one felt left out so long as Laney was present. This one thing was certain: Regardless of whose voice represented our organization at any given time, the persisting objective was the formation and growth of meaningful relationships.