They
say networking is good for you. I guess
it must be else there would not be a Chamber of Commerce in every town. That is where a non-profit promotes profit, in
a friendly environment. (That is so
funny – sounds like a slogan for a political party!). I have never been to one of those meetings
but it must be heavy stuff because those meetings are attended by editors and
journalist of newspapers. I always
thought it was for old people having snacks, drinking wine, and having an
excuse not to go home early. All wrong, I
was. I guess. Maybe the editors and journalist are also trying
to find an excuse not go home early (I think they are part of the conspiracy).
Many
years ago, in the chambers and dungeons of Anglo American and De Beers, I found
that the most productive meetings I ever attended were not the ones in the
board rooms, but the ones where we were chatting away in the kitchen in front
of the coffee dispensing units. Ideas
were created, problems solved, and then the solutions were implemented. All without the need of a boardroom (I have
horrific memories of those boardrooms, anyway).
If it was not in the kitchen, it was in someone’s office, after a
stroll from the kitchen.
Unfortunately
the kitchens where I work now are too small for meetings and too busy with all the
coffeeholics frequenting the always occupied space. Offices are for the privileged few. Open plan areas are the most counterproductive
office system ever if you ask me. Boardrooms
have to be booked. So, a colleague (from
another branch) and I had our very productive “meeting” in the corridor
yesterday. That was the best place we
could find for privacy – or at least as much as we needed. We were frequently interrupted by sarcastic
people making comments about how long we’ve been there (I wonder why they were
walking up and down the corridor, don’t they have real work to do?), and the
plenty ladies we politely opened the close-by door for. The nice thing is that I learned about some
critical IT networking (that stuff that makes your google work) in that time
from him, more than I ever learned in any formal meeting. No need for a boardroom or formal meeting.
I
have a funny feeling (I always have funny feelings when I’m right!) that networking
via social media may lessen the impact of traditional forms of networking but I
doubt it will ever replace face-to-face interacting, or even be as strong as face-to-face
interacting. However, I know of one dude
who really uses social media to his benefit.
Sir Richard Branson. What I find very interesting is how he appears in almost
every photo or FB entry. In almost every
FB photo or entry, or reference in an article, will you find him interacting
with his staff. He even writes articles
about the staff taking care of his pets at home. This is business networking and management like
I have never seen. That is his style of
management. On the floor, in the trenches.
Unknowingly,
I actually have been practicing that style of management for a while. About two years ago one of my customers mentioned
that I was frequently “wandering about”.
Now I must make it clear that wandering does not take place when there
is lots of work to do, but sometimes you will actually see my walking around,
chatting to my customers, learn about their problems, and then we try to fix
the broken stuff we did not know about before, collecting a magazine here &
showing it off there. OK, I’m only
kidding about the latter– that has nothing to do with any management! I learned that there actually is a name for this
style of networking. It is called
Management By Wandering About (MBWA). You
can learn more about MBWA at http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_72.htm
and http://www.economist.com/node/12075015.
Now,
besides the professional networking in the Chamber of Commerce meetings, the
formal networking in the boardrooms, the informal networking by wandering
about and the meetings in corridors, the IT networking used to make your google
appear different every day, there also is another very important type of
networking.
It
is called the non-existent network. You
end up with this type of networking when you do not plug your network cable
into your laptop and then scramble down to the IT office in a panic, and very
cross, because all you see are red crosses.
Like yesterday.
Oops,
just remembered I promised not to tell.
Please skip the previous paragraph.
Greetings,
Besembek
