Networking Smart

Networking, as I mentioned in the previous blogs, is the active process of building relationship, managing productive relationship and developing by communication. The process embraces everyone your work with, relationship within and between organizational units. Good networking ability is a key skill of excellence in business. So I read about Wayne E. Baker’s book “Networking Smart” to support my research.

This book is hard evidence of how important to networking. It illustrates a small world phenomenon. Additionally, this book also demonstrates using different types of connections to work after you build network.

It’s a small world

“Everyone’s network is comprised of zones of contacts. Your first-order zone contains your direct contacts. Your second-order zone contains the contacts of your direct contains, your indirect contacts, those once-removed. An average professional’s first- order zone contains 3500 contacts. If each direct also has 3500 contacts, the second-order zone could contain as many as 12250000 contacts! (Assuming no overlaps, of course.) If acquaintanceship were random, the average number of links between any two people in the United States would be less than Two.” (Baker, 1994)

In other words, people are closer to critical information, resources, and others than they think. For example, you add a new friend’s contact to your personal network, you expand your indirect contacts. You can network more similar friend through him or her. Next, if you repeat interaction builds bridges to those new relationship, it might help to your job such as building cooperative ties with customers, suppliers, and competitors. Therefore, networking is not only close to us, but also important to utilize it.

“it may surprise you to learn that the most useful personal contacts are weak connection. Successful job seekers often use old contacts that have lain forgotten and dormant for years.” (Baker, 1994) As I said in the experience 2, although strong tie can supply good job lead, but because you already know them and familiar to them, you will lose impetus and new information. However, weak ties have the new information which you don’t already know about. This curious power can drive you to seek and become better. Thus, we need to balance the connection ties after networking, and use the right tie to get efficient help.

Reference

Book

Wayne E. Baker (1994). Influence: Networking Smart

In text: (Baker, 1994)