the 21st century networking handbook: how to translate insights from network science into success in...

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21ST CENTURYNETWORKING

HANDBOOKHow to translate insights from network science into success

in business

THE

Published in 2014 by Head Resourcing Ltd, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Written and edited by

Scott Torrance & Ross Coverdale

Design and layout by

Ross Coverdale

Illustrations by

Scott Torrance

Downloadable PDF of this white paper is available online at

blog.headresourcing.com

CONTENTSA look back at network science

A key principle for results

A system for success

What’s your why?

Desired outcomes

What does success look like to you?

Building a networking habit

Consistency is key

Becoming a magnet

Kick-start your networking

1. INTRODUCTION

2. LAYING THE

FOUNDATIONS

3. MINDSET

Everyday actions

(Re)Designing your network

Maintaining your network

Where can you start?

Diversity

Expanding your network

4. SMALL, SMART

CHOICES

5. CONSISTENT

ACTIVITY

Give & take

The community model

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4

As the business world becomes ever more interconnected, social networks

are affecting more areas of business.

It doesn’t matter what your goals are in business. You could want to...

Find a solution to a problem

Hit sales targets

Become CEO of your company

Even set up your own business

The quality of your network – that is the fabric of your personal

relationships – will play an increasingly important role in your success.

In this white paper we will outline a system to help you:

PROACTIVELY BUILD A

PURPOSEFUL NETWORK

How do you make your network work for you? Read on...

INTRODUCTION

You can’t wait

until a need

arises to start

to achieve specific goals

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http://headr.es/NWPTw


5

As we covered in our last white paper, A Guide to 21st Century Networking,

there is a lot that science knows about networking that is generally

ignored by business.

A social network is simply a network

where the nodes are people and

organisations that are connected

by formal, informal, logical or

emotional links.

We looked at how different types of

relationships are formed, and how

your social capital is connected to

your position within a community.

To recap, this diagram shows how different clusters of people can be

connected, and how people can influence others depending on their place

in their network:

A LOOK BACK AT NETWORK SCIENCE

BROKE

RS

(connecting clusters)

CLOSURE(building trustwithin a cluster)

loosely

connected

densely connected

clusters

HOW CAN WE TAKE OUR INSIGHTS FROM NETWORK SCIENCE

AND TRANSLATE THIS KNOWLEDGE INTO RESULTS?







6

A KEY PRINCIPLE FOR RESULTS

In order to find success through networking there is one very important

concept that should sit at the back of your mind thoughout every step in the

planning and execution of your networking strategy.

The compound effect is a principle – developed by publisher and author

Darren Hardy – that maintains that success is dictated by the impact of small,

everyday actions, and that these actions (or inactions) are either moving you

towards or away from your goals.

If you were to have a heart attack after your first hamburger you’d change

your behaviour immediately – but that’s not how it works!

It is the small decisions we make, that don’t seem to have much of an impact

in the moment, when compounded over time result in transformational

change.

This idea can transform your networking. It is simple, but it isn’t easy.

It’s not easy because it involves hard work and the results aren’t immediate.

THE COMPOUND EFFECT

RESULTS

TIME







7

A SYSTEM FOR SUCCESS

CONSISTENT ACTIVITY

HABITS

ACTIONS

SMALL, SMART CHOICES

ATTITUDE

MINDSET

+

+

=

What kind of networker are you?

Will your decisions move you towards or away

from your goals?

Build momentum so your

hard work pays off!

In this white paper we will outline a step-by-step system that will help

shape your networking strategy. Following these steps will help you create

the conditions for your network to grow in a way that works for you.







8

LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS

What’s your

Why?

Desired outcomes

Goals

The community model







9

WHAT’S YOUR WHY?

Before we get started on the how or what, we need to look at the why.

We need to rethink our idea of what networking is and move beyond the

negative connotations of it being something that only people in sales do.

Instead, think of it as creating a fabric of personal contacts who you can

mutually provide support and share information or resources with.

If you’re going to start crafting a networking strategy, the why needs to be

specific to you.

FOCUS ON YOUR PURPOSE

Keeping your focus on your why is easy to do, but it is also easy to not do.

When you are busy and tired and following through on all the actions you

set out feels like the last thing you want to do, it is your why that will keep

you focused. It should be something that really excites you – it should tap

into your heart and soul.

All the theory and action is meaningless until you nail the purpose behind

your planning.

“He who has a why to live for can

bear almost any how.”Nietzsche

A DREAM JOB

PURPOSE

IMPACT

SOCIAL CHANGE







10

DESIRED OUTCOMES

Too often people spend time networking without any real idea of what

they want to achieve and therefore cannot say whether they’ve achieved

success or not.

HOW DO WE MEASURE SUCCESS IN NETWORKING?

IT’S ABOUT

LEVERAGING YOUR NETWORK

TO

OF YOUR NETWORK.SIZEIT’S NOT ABOUT THE

GET THINGS DONE.

Business development

Career development

Personal development

Delivering a project

Introducing an innovative idea into

the business

A business owner looking to expand

their business (new business,

mergers + acquisitions)

Securing a promotion

Accessing resources from across the business

Landing your dream job

Gaining access to

mentors and advisors

A sales person looking to

uncover new opportunities

Who do you need to

talk to?

WHAT COULD THOSE THINGS BE FOR YOU?

PICK ONE AREA TO FOCUS ON.







11

WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE TO YOU?

We’ve got to start breaking it down into specific goals – have a think about:

– What GOAL do you want to achieve?

– What REASON do you have to want to achieve it?

– Which PEOPLE do you need to connect with?

– WHERE can you find them?

• Online / offline

• Internal / external

• Super hubs (on and offline places or communities where

people congregate)

– WHAT WILL YOU DO to form and maintain these networks?

EXAMPLE:

I will achieve GOAL to allow me to REASON .

To do this I will need to connect with:

HERE

HERE

who can

to form, strengthen, and maintain these relationships?WHAT WILL YOU DO?

+ PEOPLE

PEOPLEwho can













12

Most people’s networks grow and evolve naturally over time without much

thought. This is okay, to an extent, but the problem is that it can limit the

value of the network as well as place undue stress on the individual.

Understanding a few simple principles about the structure and nature of

networks can help you to lay down strong foundations upon which to build

a robust system.

A SHIFT IN THINKING (AND DOING)

One of the biggest obstacles to the growth of

a network is people placing themselves at the

centre of theirs.

If you make a point of connecting everyone in

your network, when there is value in doing so,

you will facilitate turning your network (in your

mind as well as in reality) into a community

model.

It gets interesting when you see how the

connections in your network are linked, or not, as

the case may be.

By making this shift you will appreciate the value

in asking for favours, advice or introductions

not just for yourself but for the benefit of your

network community.

Spread the love!

Community

Shift in ACTION

Hub and Spoke

THE COMMUNITY MODEL






ATTITUDE

MINDSET

IT ALL STARTS WITH YOUR THINKING:

+

+

=

CONSISTENT ACTIVITY

HABITS

ACTIONS



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MINDSET: GIVE & TAKE

“According to conventional wisdom, highly

successful people have three things in common:

motivation, ability, and opportunity. If we

want to succeed, we need a combination of

hard work, talent, and luck. [But there is] a

fourth ingredient, one that’s critical but often

neglected: success depends heavily on how we

approach our interactions with other people.”Give and Take (Grant, 2013)

While being organised and rethinking the way your network is constructed,

to be a successful networker there are also considerations to make around

your mindset.

In Adam Grant’s book Give and Take, the author describes three

characteristics that define how people interact with others.

While the distinction between these

characteristics are more fluid than set in

stone, there is a simple framework that

sits at the core of these three mindsets...

Adam Grant







16

• Driven by a desire

to help others and

create success for

the community

• Give more than they

get in return

• Strive for equal, fair

exchanges between

people and networks

• These people make

great brokers, making

introductions and

leveraging

relationships

• See the world as a competitve place (dog-eat-dog)

• Only help others if there is a direct benefit to themselves

TAKERS

Takers simply see the world as a competitive place. To a taker, life is a

ruthless game where you take everything you want, helping others only if

the personal benefit of doing so outweighs the cost.

GIVERS

Givers are driven by the desire to help others and create success for the

group. The keystone trait of the giver is that in most transactions they give

far more than they get.

MATCHERS

Somewhere in between givers and takers, matchers strive for equal, fair

exchanges with others. The matcher’s goal in their negotiations is being

fair and equitable to all parties, not just one. How much we give or take

is shaped by who we interact with. In addition to group pressure, another

factor affecting our generosity is how much of ourselves we see in the

other person: the more similar he or she is, the more likely we are to give.







17

When you adjust your mindset accordingly, it can result in significant

improvements in the quality and depth of your relationships.

Many believe that when it comes to achieving professional success,

taking is more effective than giving. This is particularly true in traditionally

cutthroat professions like business and politics. Nevertheless, takers

and matchers all can — and do — achieve success, but there’s something

distinctive that happens when givers succeed: it spreads and cascades.

Successful givers cultivate and use their vast networks to benefit others

as well as themselves. Givers see potential in everyone they meet, making

them the go-to people for finding and nurturing talent. A key step in

developing a successful networking strategy is to take an honest look at

your actions, and to start making a shift to becoming more of a giver.

In the book Give and Take, Adam Grant gives the examples

of George Meyer, Emmy Award-winning writer for The

Simpsons, is a classic example of a ‘giver’. Meyer routinely

encouraged other writers to use his ideas without asking

for personal credit. So, although he helped shape over 300

episodes of The Simpsons, he is only credited for 12.

What mattered more to him than keeping count of personal

credit was seeing the show succeed.

Source: Give and Take (Grant, 2013)

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if

you do not care who gets the credit.”Harry S. Truman






+

+

=

CONSISTENT ACTIVITY

HABITS

ACTIONS


ATTITUDE

MINDSET

NOW ONTO STEP 2:


19

(RE)DESIGNING YOUR NETWORK

As we mentioned earlier, a lot of people still think of their network as one

big cluster:

Shift in THINKING

In reality it’s a set of interconnected clusters – where different people are

linked via a mix of strong and weak ties.

EVERYDAY ACTIONSIt’s been mentioned a couple of times already, but it’s really important

to remember:

In today’s increasingly connected world, social media and other software

is making it much easier to do this at scale, offering more options for

delivering value and helping you make the most of your networking time.

VALUETHE #1 PRINCIPLE IS

DELIVERING

IN EVERY ENGAGEMENT







20

But what does this mean for you? This awareness will help you to better

position yourself with your network to create more value (as you’ll see later

on in this handbook).

HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR NETWORKS ORGANISED?

As your network grows it will become messy and without attention it

could become hard to manage. By segmenting your network, and placing

everyone you meet into the relevant segment, you will more easily

understand how your network is put together. But more importantly, this

clarity will mean you don’t have to rely on your own fallable memory, so in

theory you should miss out on less potential opportunities to add value.

Once you have a solid foundation in place there’s one thing you can do to

deepen and scale your relationships on an ongoing basis – bring a bit of

structure and order to the activity.

SETTING UP YOUR SEGMENTS

Keep it simple to start with – use no more than 5 segments.

Segmenting will make your follow-up and continued engagement easier

as you’ll be better able to share relevant ideas and make purposeful

connections rather than the typical ad hoc, top of mind approach.

When choosing your segments, make sure they are aligned with your goals

and desired outcomes. There’s no harm in trying a few different ways

before settling on a way that works for you.







21

After every meeting or online interaction, place people into the relevant

segment.

Once you have pools of connections in their relevant segments, you can

then break these segments down even further by filtering – this is where

you can look at things like their location, industry or function, and their

shared interests. This will give you clarity, and will remove the ‘noise’ from

what could be an overcrowded mass of connections.

Tools to help you:

Social Media

CRM Solutions

Relationship management

software

EXPANDING

YOUR NETWORK

MAINTAINING

YOUR NETWORK

Traditional networking

advice focuses too much

on this side

Strengthen your existing relationships

WHERE IS YOUR ATTENTION FOCUSED?

How you act and the choices you make every day will determine the level

of success you will have with your network – are your actions moving you

towards your goals or further away from them?

An important aspect to think about is having balance – you need to

remember your existing network and not put too much weight on finding

new people, ideas and opportunities.







22

If you work in an organisation, this also applies to you – make sure you are

leveraging your internal connections as well as seeking external support.

ACTIONS

Set up relevant segments using your social/CRM tools

Try to connect everyone in your network. Set yourself a goal of

introducing a set number of people every month.

INTERNAL EXTERNALLook at the informal hierarchies that exist within your company – see how things get done!

Don’t forget about the value in your external connections

MAINTAINING YOUR NETWORK

You can guarantee that there are people within your network who are

out there having conversations with your prospective customers about

opportunities that would be a great fit for you, but they are not referring

them your way. Is it something you said? No, it’s something you didn’t say

– you didn’t come to mind during the conversations simply because it has

been so long since they’ve heard from you that they completely forgot,

missing the opportunity to join the dots.

Attention is a finite resource – it’s your job to command the greatest share

of it within your network so that the next time they have the conversation

your name comes straight to mind. It’s your intention to stay on the radar of

your network – don’t underestimate the importance of being top of mind.

STRONG AND WEAK TIES

As your activity ramps up it can become more and more difficult to

maintain relationships. We’re all very busy, and relationships are like plants;

they require constant attention to stop them from withering and dying.







23

However, not all relationships need the same amount of attention. When

we understand the structure and nature of social networks and the

distinction between the role that weak and strong ties play, it is easier to

create a strategy for coping with large numbers of connections.

IT’S NOT A CASE OF DEVELOPING EITHER STRONG OR WEAK TIES

You should have a balance of both. Tailoring your actions based on this fact

will help you to maintain existing relationships, while your activity increases

and your network expands.

The thing to remember is that relationships are not fixed; they are fluid and

dynamic, and will change over time and maybe even contextually. It’s also

important not to forget about your existing network; there is a lot of latent

value in these connections – you just have to realise how to make the best

of them.

TOUCH POINTS

Business is all about people and relationships. Face-to-face interaction

will always be the most effective way to build strong relationships, but

you won’t be able to connect with everyone in person. As part of your

relationship building strategy you need to establish touch points; points of

These networks will be larger, more diverse and spread out geographically, and won’t require as much effort to maintain as you are looking to provide a different type of support: • Making introductions • Sharing information • Giving professional feedback

Within a network you are looking to develop closer, deeper relationships: • The size of the networks are likely to be smaller • Sounding boards, advice and support

STRONG TIES

WEAK TIES







24

contact between you and your connections that aim to not only remind

them of you but give you a chance to add value through these interactions.

Face-to-face

Phone calls

Text message

Email

Letters

Brand-led marketing

WHERE CAN YOU START?

It’s likely you’ll already have strong and weak ties in your network; it’s all

about figuring out how to make the best of them.

ADVOCATES

Everyone has their advocates, even if they’re not super-famous or super-

connected. Take a look at those who are closest to you – these are the

people who will have faith in you and will be more likely to help you when

they are called upon.

DORMANT TIES

Your dormant ties are those whose relationships have fizzled out a bit –

you used to know them well but you haven’t heard from them in a while.

These are generally weak ties, but they offer a lot of untapped potential as

there will already be trust in place.

You may have a contact with whom you lost contact with because they

moved jobs into a different industry – these people can offer a wealth of

insight, as well as new opportunities.

IMPACT

TIME







25

ACTIONS

Make a point of reaching out to your top 30 advocates and

commit to contacting one each day for a month with something

that is valuable, relevant, and meaningful to them (don’t just ask

for favours or endoresements!). At the end of the month, you can

start from the top of the list or start afresh.

Pick a problem you are trying to solve and contact one dormant

tie a week to re-connect with – meet them for a coffee or lunch

and chat about your problem.

EXPANDING YOUR NETWORK

Maintaining deep and healthy strong ties with your existing network is

a relatively straightforward thing to do, but expanding your network,

opening up new connections and forming more relationships is a bit more

of an art than a science.

It is not so much about simply increasing the number of people you are

connected to, but rather increasing the number of valuable relationships

within your network. Ultimately you need to meet more people, but how

do you identify people to connect with, and how do you facilitate the

connection?

INTERESTING PERSON FUND

Whether it’s networking events and conferences, or coffees and lunches,

these things require (usually a little) cash, as well as time. This is where

the interesting person fund comes in. Put aside a set amount of money

every month that is dedicated to meeting new people – think of it as an

investment in your personal development.

Same goes for your diary – we’re all busy, but try to keep some time free at

least once every couple of weeks for expanding your network.







26

DIVERSITY

As you look for more strategic, innovative areas or for your own personal

development, you need to look to broaden the diversity in your network.

This means pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.

It is likely that a number of people in your network won’t know each

other – think about how these people are connected to you, and how you

can join them up. If you place yourself strategically at the intersection

People are more likely to attach themselves to large

‘nodes’; people, places, or groups where they share

similar mindsets, functions or even problems.

Super hubs form when people with similar

interests, industries, professions or geographies

come together, as they tend to gravitate

towards what they know and

understand. Social media offers

you the chance to tap into and

connect with like-minded people,

on and offline.

SAN FRANCISCO

SAN FRANCISCO

BAY

BELMONT

PALO ALTO

CUPERTINO

SANTA CLARA

IDENTIFY SUPER HUBS

DIVERSITY

Identify hubs (on and offline)

Spend some time listening

Look for ways to add value to

the community by helping

ACTIONS:Silicon Valley in California

has become a super hub for

technology and innovation

over the last few decades

thanks to heavy investment

and a wealth of tech talent.

As we covered in our first white paper, every network is made up of

clusters, but new people don’t just join these clusters at random.







27

of clusters of connections, and translate

ideas between connections in order to

help them to see the opportunities that

you see, you will instantly add value.

SERENDIPITY

While it’s still important to be structured

while networking, expanding diversity in

in this way will increase the likelihood of

serendipitous interactions. It’s not about waiting for these happy accidents

to come by you – though you can be open to this – you can deliberately

put yourself in situations where the likelihood of them happening is higher.

“It’s normal to surround

ourselves with similar people

to ourselves… it’s comfortable.

However, the top performers

look to extend their

abilities; to build networks

that challenge them, not

surrounding themselves with

people who know what they

know with other people.”ROB CROSS Author of ‘Driving Results Through Social Networks’

IDEAS

In business we like to place things in clearly defined boxes, or ‘silos’. The

problem with this is that by remaining blinkered and keeping walls up

between groups of people we are closing ourselves off to the interesting

conversations, ideas and solutions that could be happening between the

silos. Worst of all for you, is that these conversations may be happening

whether you are aware of them or not.







28

ADDING VALUE

Too often in business, meetings are looked at in a very transactional

manner, where they are only accepted if there is a direct and measurable

benefit to you. In an increasingly connected world, where networks and

the balance of power are constantly shifting, the value to be had from

an engagement may only be realised in three months, a year, or even a

decade later – i.e. the value of the outcome isn’t fixed or even knowable at

the outset.

REMEMBER – IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MINDSET

Be open-minded to the potential opportunities or learnings that you could

gain from a conversation with a complete stranger.

Be generous, and remember to have fun!

Sharing relevant content

Micro-engagements

Make introductions

Ask for favours

Connect with new people

Stay in contact

#1 source of content + info

is your network

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO ADD VALUE?

Attention is a commodity: A Like, Favourite, Share

or Retweet will go a long way!

Make an effort to cross-pollinate

Don’t rely on being top

of mind – be proactive!

Connect people and ideasBut not just for yourself!

Leverage your CRM functions (LinkedIn, Salesforce,

Twitter lists etc.)Say yes to more

random meetings






+

+

=

CONSISTENT ACTIVITY

HABITS

ACTIONS


ATTITUDE

MINDSET

AND FINALLY, STEP 3:


30

BUILDING A NETWORKING HABIT

The secret ingredient in all of this is time. These small smart actions must

be repeated consistently, and to do this you need to develop a daily

networking habit.

If you are going to build a habit that you are going to keep (and develop)

over your career, the actions you choose must feel like things you can keep

up over the long-term, and they can’t (or shouldn’t) feel like a burden.

Set aside a small amount of time every day and make

sure it fits into your daily routine. For example, you

could get into the habit of scanning through your

Twitter lists while waiting on your morning coffee.

CONSISTENCY IS KEY

Sales expert and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar told a story of two friends

who came across a water pump that relates perfectly back to business.

It takes a lot of work to get a water pump going, and you have to keep

pumping for the water to rise up from the well and flow from the tap.

If you stop putting the hard work in, all the

water will flow back down to the bottom of

the well and you’ll have to start all over again.

The exact same principle applies to networking.

Too often people wait until they have a need

before taking action, and as soon as they have

achieved their goal, they stop.

If you’ve worked so hard, why stop? An on/

off approach will only make it harder to start

up again, and while it may take time to see

the fruits of your labour, it’s really important to

keep going!







31

At the start of this white paper, we talked about the compound effect –

the principle whereby lots of small actions, when compounded over time,

result in having either a positive or negative effect on your success.

If you follow the system outlined in this white paper – taking up the actions

and building your habit – your network will expand. However, over time

you will start to recognise that people, ideas and opportunities will start to

come to you on a voluntary basis.

Cause and effect are disconnected by space and time – you can’t plan for

it, but you can prepare. Opportunities may come out of the blue, or they

may be from someone you helped out two years ago.

This is why it’s important to focus your attention on the inputs, and

surrender to the results no matter what they are – if you are helpful and

well-connected, eventually the fruits of your labour will come your way.

BECOMING A MAGNET







32

KICK-START YOUR NETWORKING

If you enjoyed reading this white paper, let’s chat!

You can connect with the creators of this white paper on various social

media platforms, or feel free to drop them an email.

If you would like to dive into the network science that

inspired this publication – take a look at the first white paper

in this series: A Guide to 21st Century Networking.

Download your copy here: www.headr.es/NetworkingPDF

Ross Coverdale

@radcoverdale

[email protected]

Scott Torrance

@scottorrance

[email protected]






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