Business and personal success is all about
making the right connections--new
colleagues, employees, customers, friends,
and partners--and finding the people who
will lead you to new opportunities. But for
many, it's more about volume than true
connection.
We live in a world that is increasingly
focused on making and managing
connections, and most of us have bought
into this notion hook, line, and sinker. As a
result, we race to the next networking event
where we hand out as many business cards
as we can, work overtime to add to our
LinkedIn contacts, and create semi-
remarkable Twitter feeds in the hope of
gaining a massive following.
But according to author and business
consultant Alan Gregerman, most of us are
going about connecting in the wrong way,
based on the wrong model. In his new book
"The Necessity of Strangers" he suggests
that our real objective should be to connect
with, learn from, and build real relationships
with people who are very different than us
and could challenge us to stretch our
thinking.
"We don't need or benefit from having a lot
of superficial relationships," Gregerman says.
"And most, if not all of our closest
connections are people who are a lot like us.
Of course friends, relatives, and
acquaintances are important, but in business
they can only get us so far. To reach our full
potential we need to create meaningful
connections with a much broader palette of
folks who see things differently than we do,
ask very different questions, imagine very
different possibilities, and challenge us to
rethink the way we do the things that matter
most."
Here are Gregerman's suggestions for
making connections to challenge your status
quo:
1. Acknowledge that you need to continually
deliver greater value to customers. Also
recognize that you don't have all the
answers. In fact, you probably have a
relatively limited view of your business, its
key challenges, and its real potential.
2. Be honest about your biggest challenges
and create a culture of curiosity and
openness. Encourage your team to ask
questions and to regularly go beyond their
own walls and knowledge for new and better
answers.
3. Make time to search for new ideas and
inspiration. Ask your employees and
colleagues to leave the office periodically to
visit organizations in different industries and
are remarkable in some important way. Then
seek to build new and meaningful
connections with people in those
organizations who know something
important that you don't know.
4. The world is filled with genius that can be
leveraged to improve your business. Visit
science and history museums to discover
important breakthroughs; go to art galleries
and connect with artists to understand how
they approach problems and opportunities;
participate in the life of bustling
neighborhoods to explore what it takes to
create energy and enthusiasm; attend
lectures on topics far afield from your work;
and even go to performances to gain new
insights on collaboration and innovation.
5. Make a deliberate effort to connect with
strangers from different walks of life and
invite them to visit your company and share
their ideas. Then challenge yourself and your
colleagues to imagine how their thinking and
perspectives might provide a new framework
for looking at your world.
6. Be open to serendipity and the potential of
random connections. Put yourself in places
where you can meet new people and start
meaningful conversations--in a park at lunch
time, at the airport, waiting in line at the
theatre, or anyplace else. Ask a stranger for
directions or a recommendation. Offer to be
helpful to someone on the street. Say "hello"
and begin a conversation.
7. Make sure that all of your colleagues take
the time to hang out with and build closer
personal and working relationships with each
other. In the process you'll create a powerful
culture of conversation in which you inspire
everyone to be more innovative together.
"We've all been taught to believe that it is
who we know that matters," says Gregerman.
"That's simply too narrow a worldview. It's
who we could know that matters more. The
future belongs to the most curious people on
the planet--those who are willing to connect
with, learn from, and collaborate with
strangers.
Article by MARLA TABAKA
@MarlaTabaka
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
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