I am giving a talk on networking and relationship building tonight. I have given many talks and workshops on this topic and I have learned that the best way to help people become better at networking is to create something close to a coaching sessions. I prefer getting into real issues trying to guide a volunteer with an issue on the spot. The volunteer gets a free coaching session and the other participants learn by listening and helping out.

More often than not, people have the same issues on networking. This evolves around career development and getting things done. The career stuff is more long-term and strategic whereas the latter is much more operational driven.

It will be fun tonight where I will get into parts of my latest article — see below and this link: Are You Ready for the Next Generation of Innovation?

Relationship building

As we move towards open innovation, companies have to be able to identify and establish partnerships that complement their own business capabilities. This requires people who are experts at networking and building relationships.

Rob Cross, an associate professor in University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, has identified three networking types that you should pay attention to within an organization:  central connectors, brokers, and peripheral people1.

Central connectors are those people with the highest number of direct connections. They can be formal leaders–or political players trying to be leaders–who everyone seeks out either because they make things happen, or because they have made themselves bottlenecks.

The latter can become a major problem with regards to innovation where you often need a dynamic flow. Some experts are also central connectors and this could lead to an overuse of these people as everyone goes to them with questions. Sometimes you need to protect these experts. 

Brokers connect people across boundaries, such as functions, skills, geography, hierarchy, ethnicity, and gender. They have ground-level credibility and acknowledged expertise in the eyes of their peers, which makes them more likely to be sought out and listened to than a designated expert or leader who might not be influential in the network.

According to Cross, brokers often sit in “tipping point” positions and so diffuse information faster than leaders and central connectors. As such, brokers have the leverage ability to drive change, diffusion or innovation and they can also act in key liaison or cross-process roles.
 
You should also be aware of peripheral people who could be new people, experts, sales people, poor performers or cultural misfits. They sit on the edge of the network, and Cross has learned that typically 30 to 40 percent of peripheral people are trying to get better connected but have run into obstacles. These people reflect untapped expertise and are substantial flight risks.

Once you gain a  better understanding of these networking types, you should ask yourself what type you are and how this impacts your future goals and your ability to work with open innovation projects. Working with innovation, you have to deal with all three networking types and you should also try to understand how to work best with the different types. This is especially important if you are a manager or leader.

Besides this introduction to networking types, let’s look at some ways of maximizing the effectiveness of your networking efforts:

•  Only network if you have a purpose: I strongly encourage you not to listen to the people who say you should network with everyone within sight so as to not risk losing any opportunities. You are already busy and time is the most precious thing you have, so do not spend time on activities that do not serve a higher meaning.

•  Leverage the power of “six degrees of separation” to reach anyone in the world:  This refers to the idea that if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is an average of six “steps” away from each person on Earth. Think of someone who could really influence the success of your innovation work and see how many steps it would take you to connect with that person. You’ll often be surprised that you don’t even need six steps; it can often be done in just three or four connections.

•  Use virtual tools: A growing number of online tools and services make networking so much easier. I use LinkedIn, the largest online business networking site, which is great for managing my network. The discussion features of the LinkedIn groups tool has also proven to be a powerful and simple way for me to engage people from across the world in productive discussion about my areas of interest. You can do the same.

•  Understand informal versus formal network leadership: In an open innovation eco-system, you need to know the influencers who are not on the formal organization chart. They are the people who hold disproportionate influence on other people. Get to know the powers behind the throne.

•  Reason, ask, and tell: Prepare reasons for getting in touch with other people. This goes both ways. Once an interaction such as a brief encounter or a meeting is over you should always remember to ask people how you can help them and let these people know of any ways they might be able to help you. Nothing happens if you do not ask.

•  Speak-write-meet: You can use several means to build your personal brand which again impacts the kind of relationships you can build. Some people are great speakers, others write very well, while others are great with people. Find your strength and build on that. You should also consider how your team can cover all these aspects of what could be called team branding.