| Networking | 2003-08-15 18:04 10 comments |
 by Flemming FunchSo, now that I'm looking for new business opportunities, I'm naturally finding myself networking more. Despite often calling myself a networker, I don't really network very much. I know a lot of people, but I don't particularly deliberately work my personal network, or try to expand it. Which is probably stupid. A network is most valuable when it is already there when you need it. And you need to cultivate it. Check in with people, find out where they're at. Be Interested. Look for opportunities to link things up, supply something somebody else needs, keep them informed about what you need, be a valuable ally to them. See The Networking Game for some simple rules of networking. Oh, I do seem to have friends, and I'm quite available and helpful. But the thing I don't do so much is to work my relations deliberately and strategically. Which I maybe should change. I have been more focused on how I might help others network that I've often overlooked helping myself. I'm quite dedicated to providing facilities and opportunities for other people to find each other, connect, work together, etc. But I've often been so busy with that that I haven't done much of it myself. So I sometimes don't really know who I know, and I sometimes don't keep connections alive. I ironically feel a little silly about calling people up on the phone just to hear how they're doing. Some people are very good at that. But me, despite being considered a skilled communicator in other areas, I either just don't do it, or I don't know how. When I try, very rarely, the person at the other end will very quickly get around to saying "What do you want? What are you calling for?" and I don't have a good answer. Maybe it is because I usually don't call without a specific reason, so people assume that I must always have one. Online it is considerably easier. The threshold is much lower, and in many cases you don't need much of a reason to communicate with somebody. You can leave comments in their blog, sign their guestbook, add them to your contact list. And none of that requires much of an official reason, other than that you might share some interest or the other. One of the online networks other than my own that I've recently explored is Ryze. It has a considerable momentum and lots of people I know are already in it. Its features are relatively simple, but well thought out, and it does what it does well. I found a couple of new contacts in Toulouse, and so far those have been fruitful connections. My page is here. Another one is LinkedIn. A little harder to figure out, but has a high caliber of people that it might otherwise be difficult to get access to. More directly oriented towards serious business connections. Those are business network. I'm also on networks like Friendster, although I don't know what to do with it. Maybe I'm too old to understand what one does there other than to look for dates or promote one's garage band or something. And then there's Friendly Favors, which I just notice has changed its umbrella name to Living Directory Network. Lots of people I know in there, and it is large, but I haven't quite figured out how to make it useful for networking with people I don't already know. Let me know if you need an invitation from me for any of these. One thing I learned today from my new friend Lionel who is a management consultant is that in a place like Toulouse a lot of business is done based on people already being part of the same network. I.e. you're a freemason or in a Rotary club or in the same rugby club or something, and you do business with the people you meet there. You don't just easily do business with strangers. I did have some idea of that, and it is part of the high-context mediterranean culture. Networking seems to be unavoidable at this point. |