Networking In Two Directions

By Liz Ryan, 4-07-07

I led a communication workshop last week—this one was for managers. We ran through a bunch of typical manager-employee communication scenarios, like assigning projects, coaching on performance problems, and problem-solving. One of the workshop participants made this comment: “Wow, good communication is really time-consuming.” It’s true - it is time-consuming. When I was a corporate HR person, I was forever saying to managers, “Have you and [the employee you’re so concerned about] had a conversation about this?” It is hard. It is time-consuming. Communication is a pain in the neck, if you want to do it right.

And it is the same with networking. Networking involves two-way communication - as much as a lot of networkers would like things to work differently. They say, “I keep in touch with my network via my monthly newsletter.” As my fifth-grader says all the time, “Are you seriously kidding me?” Your newsletter informs the people who read it about your doings and probably promotes your business. And none of that is networking.

It is odd to see how often people interested in business networking choose broadcast-mode, one-way communication when they could be in two-way communication mode instead. They send blast email messages to everyone in their address books instead of calling one or two people to see what’s new. They send a holiday message to everyone they know instead of scheduling a holiday lunch with three of their closests friends. Why is this? We are raised in a broadcast environment, from billboards on the highway to TV and radio and YouTube and direct mail—broadcast communication is everywhere. But it has little place, if any, in networking.

I belong to an email forum for avid LinkedIn users, and people share great information with one another there. But other folks find the group and, I guess, think, 5000 members! Let me get my message out to this crew right away! They send out a blast email message to let the group know about their services. But here’s the thing: if the services you offer are conventional, then people tend to already know a zillion folks who do just what you do. And they don’t choose those service providers based on a blast message to an email list, but because of personal contacts. If your services are very unconventional, a blast message might help you get the word out. But, what you’re doing is still nothing like networking.

Networking gets the communities around us engaged in what we’re doing and uses the power of trusted relationships to move business messages around a population. It’s very different from shouting in someone’s ear or his inbox. It’s time-consuming to talk to people one on one or in small groups, you don’t have to tell me. But there’s no other way to network.