Workforce Learning

A Newsletter by Alice Waagen (Fall 2006)
Photo by by shashiBellamkonda, flickr.com

The Nuts & Bolts of Networking Well

If you work in a corporate environment, positive working relationships provide a sounding board for ideas as well as a release for stress and anxiety. If you are an independent professional, relationships with colleagues provide you with a sense of community, a virtual organization within which you can work and play.

The pushback I get when I recommend expanding our interpersonal networks is: “How? I just can’t go up to someone and ask: Will you be my friend?”

One way to meet new people in a somewhat structured setting is to join a book club. Informal, ad hoc book clubs are springing up everywhere. Public libraries host them, as do some professional organizations and community groups. I even saw a listing for a hiking club that was hosting a hike and book discussion.

Book clubs are ideal entry-level relationship-building groups in that they offer a place for conversations to start along with topics for easy discussion. No additional affinity among the participants is needed beyond having read the book. And since they frequently require no financial outlay other than the price of the book, you can join or quit them if they do not meet your needs.

What do you do if you can’t find a book club that works for you? Start your own. I did that this past year — specifically so that I could enjoy a book group that is geographically close to my house. Four colleagues who live nearby joined me, and it has been a delightful addition to my list of must-attend events. (See the next article on how you can do it, too!)

How to Start a Book Club

• To begin: Find five or six colleagues that share your interest in starting a club. Begin with a planning meeting and use the following template to design the club.

• Determine the club’s purpose and goals. Options include: networking, relationship building, personal learning and development, a night out, the opportunity to taste new foods and wines.

• Membership: Who joins your book club will be driven by the types of books you want to read and share. If you want to read books only from a specific genre, such as business, leadership or organizational learning, you want members who have experience in those fields and can contribute their expertise. Other clubs might be women- or men-only, senior professionals, friends from your neighborhood. Size is also an issue, and in my experience, 12 to 15 guests will fill up most living rooms or dens.

• Frequency: Most clubs meet monthly or bimonthly depending on the members’ ability to read and absorb new books. Many clubs take the summer months off due to vacations.

• Food: This is one area that can really get out of hand if not well managed. Some hostesses will serve full formal dinners while others will struggle to get takeout at the deli. Some want to do it all themselves while others prefer potluck. Set limits and ground rules upfront, or the whole food issue can take the focus away from the book discussion.

• Ground rules: Establish the meeting schedule and book list at least 6 months in advance. Ask the hostess to provide a meeting announcement with directions 3 to 4 weeks ahead of the meeting. Request that everyone RSVP within one week of the meeting. Have the hostess facilitate the discussion (or she can delegate, but someone needs to be responsible for keeping the discussion on track and focused). Have a timekeeper so that the meeting ends on time. Remember, the hostess still needs to clean up her house — designate a rotating clean-up committee to help out the hosts.

Books for Leaders: A Whole New Mind

This book provided a great read for my first book club meeting, and it remains one that I highly recommend: Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind.

Pink’s fundamental premise is that various forces at work in the world today are putting much more emphasis on right-brain thinking. As a former right-brain person (few people know that my education degrees are actually in Art Education) I am encouraged by the notion that our society’s attraction to left-brain, logical, linear thinking is moving toward more inclusion of right-brain processes and products.

The real importance of this for those of us in the people-interaction profession is that, despite the labels, Pink’s message is really about valuing diversity. Good ideas and good decisions come from including all possible ways to look at the issue. And if we’ve been operating a business with half a brain, we are artificially limiting our solutions.

A Whole New Mind is a valuable addition to any personal or professional coaching program that is geared toward developing innovation and creative thinking. The tools, exercises and readings can be used to create a personal development plan that truly changes the way one thinks. Pink’s message — stop relying on left-brain dominant thinking — may point to the most critical shift in organizational learning we’ve seen in a long time.