Strategic Connections: The New Face of Networking in a Collaborative World
Anne Baber, Lynn Waymon, André Alphonso, and Jim Wylde
AMACOM (2015)
How to network with a new purpose, collaborate in ways you never have before, and have a significant impact within your organization
Long ago, I concluded that strategies are “hammers” that drive “nails” (tactics). Therefore, to forge strategic alliances, you need tactics that will achieve them and one of the best is to create a network of connections with the organizations and individuals that, in mutually beneficial collaboration, can be of substantial importance to the success of the given enterprise.
The co-authors of this book — Anne Baber, Lynn Waymon, André Alphonso, and Jim Wylde — introduce what they characterize as “the new face of networking in a collaborative world.” They explain how and why each workplace culture should be network-oriented and discuss the eight competencies that will establish, then expand and strengthen such a culture. For example, Competency #4: Develop Trusting Relationships. That is, “view relationship development in six stages and manage the trust-building process by teach character and competence.” It is important to keep in mind that these competencies would be highly desirable in almost any organization, whatever its size and nature may be. Also, that the network orientation involves relationships between and among members of a workplace culture, of course, but also their relationships with others such as customers, service providers (e.g. legal and accounting) and vendors.
These are among the dozens of passages of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of this book’s coverage:
o The Eight Must-Have Skills for Strategic Connections
o The Nine Biggest Misconceptions About Networking (12-15)
o Put Some Purpose in Your Small Talk (33-38)
o Connect After Joining the Right Groups (43-49)
o Make the Most of Your Memberships (51-54)
o Your “Nets”: Work, Organization, Professional, and Personal (63- 72)
o How to Teach People to Trust You (84-88)
o Move Through the Six Stages of Trust (88-93)
o Next Steps: Consider the Risk and Value (97-105)
o 11 Tips for Avoiding Awkward Moments (119-122)
o Talk: Get into Dialogues That Build and Sustain Relationships (135-140)
o Listen: Pay Attention to the Three Things That Are Important (145-147)
o Eight Reachback Strategies [to Reactivate Dormant Relationships] That Work (154-156)
o Why Storytelling Works (170-175)
o Clarifying Collaboration (181-183)
o Reinforce the Collaborative Culture (194-196)
o The Need for a Network-Oriented Workplace
o Foster Collaboration (221-229)
Near the conclusion of their book, the co-authors cite one of my favorite passages in Douglas McGregor’s classic, The Human Side of Enterprise (1960): “Fads will come and go. The fundamental fact of man’s capacity to collaborate with his fellows in the face-to-face group will survive the fads and one day be recognized. Then, and only then, will management discover how seriously it has underestimated the true potential of its human resources.”
For me, the single most valuable insight in Strategic Connections is that networking in a collaborative world, especially in today’s global marketplace, requires a different mindset, strategies, tactics, and resources than did networking prior to the establishment of the worldwide web (in 1993) and the subsequent emergence of electronic communication devices and proliferation of social media.
Business leaders must understand that forging and then nourishing strategic connections is not a single project; it is an on-going, never-ending process. Here in a single volume, Anne Baber, Lynn Waymon, André Alphonso, and Jim Wylde provide just about everything business leaders need to know about that process. Most human limits are self-imposed. Those who read this book and then, hopefully, re-read this book will be well-prepared to unleash the full potential of their organization’s human resources.