By Francis Wade
Sunday, January 6, 2013.
As we enter 2013 and its promises of economic challenges, we'll be much
better equipped to navigate its landscape if we have 'weak ties'.
According to a recent Harvard
Business Review article entitled 'The Six Rules of Networking at Work', we
need to get rid of some of our old notions of networking if we truly want to
connect with other people in a way that makes a difference.
First of all, it's important to
realise that if your network simply consists of your colleagues, old
schoolmates and friends, then it's probably stale. In the words of the article,
it consists of too many 'strong ties' - people who are already close who aren't
likely to tell you what you need to know. They have become accustomed to
telling you what they think you are comfortable hearing.
To escape the trap, the article
recommends forming 'weak ties' - putting yourself in situations where you are
making connections with people that you aren't familiar with, and who belong to
communities that you have never visited. In today's world, doing this is a
critical skill, and the Internet is an essential tool.
In the days before social
networking, forming these weak ties meant attending live events, just to see
and be seen. This still has its place, but its hit or miss nature makes it far
less important.
Popular social networks like
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are all important websites to use in building a
professional presence, but a more direct benefit can be derived from older
technology, at a low cost.
Nine years ago, I formed an
online cross-regional human resource network connected by a single discussion
list. A discussion list is an ongoing online conversation, in which email
messages from any member are automatically re-distributed to all list members
from a central hub.
In the very beginning, what soon
became known as CaribHRForum had only 10 members. Today, membership is still
free but there are over 500 participants in the largest ongoing, 24/7 dialogue
among HR practitioners in the region.
New services have been added
such as CaribHR.Radio, CaribHRNews and CaribHRStudents, and this has all
happened at a modest cost, using volunteers and low-cost technology.
What I did was not
extraordinary, although it was a bit unusual at the time. The technology exists
for anyone in your industry to form the same kind of professional network that
relies on high-quality membership.
Critical skill
Forming weak ties has become
much easier to do on the forum, as members learn a critical skill that's so
necessary in the virtual age - how to meet someone, and come to trust them
enough to do business with them when you have never met them and never will
meet them.
Forming these weak ties is only
the first step, but this kind of networking is happening all around the world.
We need to overcome our discomfort, join and participate.
Beyond the idea of weak ties,
the article also urges professionals to form diverse networks that include
people with different skills and viewpoints.
One of the bad habits in
Internet usage is to wall ourselves off from others who think in other ways.
It's easy to do - just interact with and visit those people and organisations
that you already trust, and avoid those that you don't. This guarantees that
your network stays the same from year to year. In this sense, it's more
important to diversify your network than it is to grow it. It's one case where
size doesn't matter.
Lastly, many of us need to
appreciate the power of 'swarming'.
If you need to contact someone -
a target - it's best to use your weak ties to help open the door.
When done skilfully, by the time
you make direct contact, your path has already been paved by others. This is
particularly true in small islands like Jamaica, where networks tend to be tight
and concentrated.
In fact, we often get suspicious
when we're approached by someone who no one knows. If they don't exist on
LinkedIn or Facebook, or some other online presence, we are right to ask some
questions.
Such is the nature of networking
in today's environment, where the absence of an online presence on networking
sites raises questions. It underscores the point: forming weak ties and
reinforcing them with diversity helps you achieve your professional goals.
Francis Wade is a consultant with Framework Consulting and author of the One Page Digest. He can be reached at columns@fwconsulting.com