How to PlayThe Networking Game

Discovered and described

by Pat Wagner and Leif Smith.

Existing for centuries.

Fine Print

• Use this without restriction.

• Please give credit to Meg Biddle

if you use art that follows. (2003)

• Excuse my self-indulgence:

– love serif type

And now, everyone, it is my pleasure

to introduce you to everyone else!

Agenda

• Brief introduction and history.

• The Networking Game.

• The Five Rules.

• The Core Exercises.

• Typical problems.

• Questions?

Brief Introduction & History

• Office for Open Network - 1975.

• Networking is universal.

• Information exchange.

• Mutual benefit.

• Anyone can be useful to anyone.

Scholarly FAQS

• Humans have always networked:

– economics: exchanging values

– technology transfer and influence

– theory: finding reasons to trade

– theory: open harbors

History-Audiences

• Librarians.• Board trustees.• Community leaders.• Girl Scouts.• Church members.• Scientists and engineers.

History-Purposes

• Job-hunting.• Community-building.• Ice-breakers.• Problem-solving. • Brain-storming.• Research.• Resource-sharing.

The Networking Game

• Remove barriers to exchange.

• Give participants permission.

• Let them become stars.

• The Test: They don’t miss you.

• The conversations are the key.

• Trust the process.

The Five Rules

• Be Useful.

• Don’t Be Boring.

• Listen.

• Ask questions.

• Play the Wild Card.

Be Useful

• Reciprocal:– be useful– let other people be useful to you

• Networking is a tool:– a means, not an end– let the person go back to work

Don’t Be Boring

• Three ways to be boring:

– too much information

– taking, not giving

– giving, not taking

• Most people are lopsided.

Listen

• Who should we listen to?– people we don’t like– people different from us– people with new information– people we take for granted– people outside our comfort zone

Ask Questions

• Tell me more.• How do you know that is true?• What is most important to you?• What are you doing next?• What is the other side?• Don’t get angry; get interested.

Play the Wild Card

• Most people connected to +250.• Most people change:

– college majors– jobs– careers– addresses

Don’t Make Assumptions

• People connect in unlikely ways.

• Ask the next ten people.

• Ask the unlikely person.

• Ask the person you tried before.

• Ask a different way.

The Core Exercises

• Getting Started.

• Partnering.

• Weavers: the next step.

• Written Exercise: Needs and Offers.

• Listening.

• Who do we leave out?

• The Wild Card.

Getting Started

• Open space: see and hear each other.

• Chairs and places to write.

• Paper and pens.

• Business cards.

• Sound system?

• Helpers when group is large.

Partnering

• Main exercise:

– raise your hand.

– find a partner.

– be useful to each other.

– you have five minutes.

– switch!

Weavers: The Next Step

• Weaver see patterns.

• Weavers make connections.

• Network for others.

• Librarians versus weavers.

Written Exercise

• Don’t Be Boring: Needs and Offers

• Two columns: +ten items.

• Be specific: Not just money.

• Be tangible: Not just friendship.

• The Kitten Rule.

• Personal and professional.

Using the Lists

• Which was harder?

• Things to offer: Overlooks obvious.

• Things needed: Self-sufficient.

• Things are currency for exchange.

• Try partnering with lists.

• Practice yourself.

Listening

• Conversations: Contests to win?

• Taking turns.

• Pausing and silences.

• Passing the ball.

• Being in the present moment.

Who Do We Leave Out?

• Use lists of types of networks.

• Which categories of people:

– do we forget?

– do we leave out on purpose?

– do we reject outright?

Types of “Others”

• Age: more or less than 15-20 years.

• Socioeconomic status.

• Philosophical differences.

• Bad history.

• Poor communication skills.

• Strangers.

The Wild Card

• Likely someone else knows:

– has advice

– has a link

– has a personal connection

– has an interesting guess• Works mostly, not always.

Typical Problems

• Trusting the process.

• Some will struggle: that is okay.

• Some will dominate.

• Group harder to control: congrats!

• Collecting stories.

Questions?