Networks and Networking

Networking or Marketing: How to Escape the Advertising Trap and Get Real

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Several weeks ago, I fell into a network trap. I asked someone for her business card without getting to know her first. We were at a networking event so it wasn’t rude or unexpected. She gave the card to me although I could tell she wasn’t thrilled with me or my request.

People do this all the time. They exchange cards with acquaintances and then go back to the office and file them. Perhaps they add them to their emailing list and then they congratulate themselves: “Wow! I’m up to 1000 people on my email list. I’m hot stuff!”

The problem is that there is a big difference between developing genuine networks and advertising.

Getting Ahead of the Curve: Workforce Planning to Anticipate Talent Gaps

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Mind the Talent Gaps. Image by limaoscarjuliet on flickr.

People have been predicting boomer brain drain for years. In 2008, a SHRM / AARP study warned about the impending brain drain. Yet, companies haven’t been too worried, partially because the economy has made it impossible for people to leave.

It might be time for that relaxed attitude to change.

Recently, one of my clients was surprised to learn that 28% of their workforce would be eligible to walk out the door with full benefits within the next two years. That’s a lot of people and a lot of institutional knowledge. With the market in recovery, they decided it was time to act.

Networking for Introverts: A Starter List of Tips & Techniques

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I recently wrote about how we need to rethink networking: what it is and why we do it. I confessed that I am, in fact, an introvert and that I force myself to get through large-scale, cocktail-style, traditional networking events. I shared my belief that we need to network differently, particularly those of us who are introverts.

A Starter List: Networking for Introverts

What are some networking techniques that are well suited to introverts’ styles? Here’s a quick list.

Share a link, article, or report that you think will interest a specific person. I have a list of my top ten connectors: people who have gone out of their way to connect me to others.

Rethinking Networking

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Maya's LinkedIn Network

Why do we network? It’s an important question that most of us don’t consider. I didn’t until I started my business in 2004. People told me that networking would be an important way to build my practice. I agreed and started going to traditional, cocktail-style, business card passing events.

I’m a bona fide introvert. What that means is that, at the end of a standard networking event, I’m exhausted and want to curl up by myself with a book for a few hours. Traditional networking was something I forced myself to do, usually by gritting my teeth, setting a simple goal like “Meet two new people and then you can go home,” and soldiering through the experience.

Illuminating the Invisible: Mapping Austin’s Adolescent Health System Using Value Network Analysis

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I’m delighted to announce that has published an article on the work done last year with the Austin Healthy Adolescent Initiative. “Illuminating the Invisible: Mapping Austin’s Adolescent Health System Using Value Network Analysis” provides a case study of how we used a specific technique to paint a holistic picture of how the system works from service provider and youth perspectives.

Here’s an excerpt from the beginning of the article:

In Austin, Texas, a diverse group of people—service providers, funders, and policy makers—came together to improve adolescent health. They ran into a critical issue: the adolescent health system was so complex, multifaceted, and dynamic that it resisted traditional analytical approaches.

Making Organizational Networks a Force for Learning & Innovation

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Social networks are hot topics these days. But the allure of Facebook and LinkedIn also holds a trap: they can lure us into thinking that building and maintaining our connections ties is simply a matter of using our smart phones to “bring people to the square” (as in the Arab Spring), communicating through Twitter, or attending the latest networking meeting.

To make informal networks a force for institutional learning and innovation, we must get beyond the idea that network creation is finding each other in the virtual hallways of social media. We need to bring focus to our networks, identify the value we wish to mine from them, align around that imperative, and then take joint action to pilot and perfect new products and services.

Building Networks to Support Change Leadership

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Years ago, I coached a new manager who did the worst thing possible. In his insecurity about his new role and desire to succeed, he forbade his direct reports from having any conversations with others in the organization without him in the room.

It was a disaster. The direct reports felt micromanaged and untrusted. They told others that their new boss was a controlling, egotistical jerk. They certainly weren’t going to follow him anywhere.

This new leader did, by the way, see the error of his decision and improve his behavior. However, he started on the wrong foot by failing at one of the central jobs of the leader: building trust.

Talent Management for CIOs: Learning from IT Networks about Organizational Networks

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Organization Network Analysis

“It’s not the technical stuff that worries me. It’s the people.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this from IT leaders. They feel confident with the infrastructure, budgeting, project delivery, support, and project management aspects of their jobs. It’s the people stuff that does them in.

It’s not surprising. People are annoyingly complex, creative, and stubborn creatures who continually find ways to do new and interesting things (when you don’t want them to) or resist change (when you want them to change). However, most IT people already have a hidden asset to help them manage people: their understanding of networks.

The Most Important Positions In Your Company: Lessons from Organizational Networks

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Every organization has a hidden system: a web of relationships and informal networks that people use to complete day-to-day work. This system has its benefits: it helps get things done, disseminate knowledge, and incubate innovation. However, most leaders are unaware of how these networks influence productivity or workflow. By ignoring human networks, leaders miss out on an important network dynamic that can make or break talent management and change initiatives.

Within every network, 5 – 10% of nodes (in this case, individuals) represent critical connectors. These individuals have disproportionate influence over the whole. The critical connectors are:

Hubs – Highly connected individuals who communicate directly and frequently; Gatekeepers – Individuals who manage information flow between areas or around expertise; and Pulsetakers – Quiet, behind-the-scenes influencers who subtly lead and learn.

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