“Hey, want my +1?”
Your “+1” guest invitation is a powerful tool for disruption to introduce diversity into closed networks
Your network is starved for cognitive diversity and you have the power to fix this by taking one small action.
You receive an invitation to an insider event. Nice! It doesn’t cost you anything to go, EVERYBODY will be there and there’s the opportunity to casually and socially mingle with people who can directly influence your connections, dealflow, future work opportunities…. Great!
Oh yes, and there’s the opportunity to bring a +1 along with you.
Who are you going to take? Will it be your partner, spouse, buddy, …nobody at all?
Don’t waste another opportunity. Your +1 is a tool in your hand to disrupt the status quo. The more elite the invitation, the more closed the space, the more limited the opportunity: the more it matters who you take with you.
Imagine the event, much like all of the other events you’ve been to: who will be in the room? What’s the make-up of the space: will you see women, ethnic minorities, immigrants, someone in a headscarf, difference in gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, hear a thick accent or meet someone from a different socio-economic or educational background? Or will they all kind of look, sound and think like you? Most often, it’s probably the latter, right?
Your +1 gives you the opportunity to directly impact the demographics of the room.
- Open up those “old boys’ clubs”.
- Sidestep the culture of requisite warm referrals.
- Bring down socio-economic barriers because not all good ideas come only from Harvard/Stanford.
- Use your hard-earned network capital for good while gifting diversity’s multiple benefits to your network.
Why should you want to do this? The list of benefits is long: disruption, innovation, problem solving, better team performance, higher returns, new markets, just to name a few.
If you worry about “Me Too” and don’t feel comfortable about inviting someone out, here’s an easy solution. It’s not a date: just meet your +1 there, about 15 minutes before the event starts. Talk a bit, catch up on what they’re up to and then you can make better, more powerful introductions. But don’t leave them at the door: advocate, introduce, make sure your guest meets the right people. That’s what a good connector does, right? Your +1 is resourceful enough to manage on their own after that.
We tried but we couldn’t find anyone…
This is where those walked-in introductions and warm referrals matter. There is no opportunity for organizations to back out of stated inclusion & diversity goals for founders, investors, boardrooms or management teams if a stream of talent is constantly walked-in and introduced. You are the introducer and your +1 gets them in the door and in front of key people.
Whether you ever receive a direct thanks or not, your network needs you to pick this up. They need access to diverse talent just as diverse talent needs to get inside these closed spaces.
It’s a simple “soundbite” solution but if enough people do this, then we can change the very nature of networking from mundane to meaningful.
So companies, investors, alumni networks, private clubs: I challenge you to not only open your events but to encourage your participants to reflect and seriously consider which guest would bring the greatest value into that room — who wouldn’t have the opportunity to be there otherwise. Skip your usual companion (they’ll be fine) and power your+1 for diversity. #poweryourplus1
