Internal Networking: Time-Waster or Value Creator?

Turn conversations at the water cooler into long-lasting, value-adding partnerships.

Google's new campus is designed to "engineer serendipity." The environment promotes the likelihood of casual conversations for the people who work there. The interaction with colleagues you accidently bump into, Google figures, will lead to the creation of new value for the company.

If you worked at Yahoo, you recently would have been asked to give up your work-at-home sweatpants and show up at the office every day. There, your face-to-face conversations would (so management hopes) lead to sharing, synergy, and success.

These leading-edge companies are betting that proximity will result in innovation and collaboration. But to go beyond friendly chatter, you must know how to build trust-based relationships—on which a Network-Oriented Workforce thrives—and use them to get results.

A Network-Oriented Workforce is comprised of individuals who have claimed a networking identity that contributes to enterprisewide success.

At their own discretion, they use their networking skills to exchange information, resources, support, and access. Through intentional connections, meaningful conversations, and strategic collaborations, they build internal and external trust-based relationships that create additional value for the organization.

To forge a Network-Oriented Workforce at your organization, make the following steps part of your personal and career development plan.

Claim your networking identity

If your attitude about networking is full of misconceptions and negative mindsets, reframe those notions. Consider the strategic role networking plays in the workplace. Networking is not about "talking and taking"—it's about teaching and learning.

Networking is now recognized as a professional competency needed by almost everyone, in almost every job, at almost every level. Most people protest that they are not prepared for spontaneous networking opportunities, but with a little effort you can avoid the too-common scenario like the one below.

Jill, who works in the contracts department, found herself riding the elevator one morning with the new leader of NASA. Jill froze. Later she said, "If only I'd thought of some things to say ahead of time. I know I'll run into leaders because I work at headquarters. I wasted the opportunity to tell him about the great job my team did renegotiating our agreements with the Russian Space Center."

When you claim a positive networking identity, you can confront these spontaneous encounters with confidence. You'll be able to turn them into opportunities to help you get the job done, uncork bureaucratic bottlenecks, expand your knowledge base, and round up talent.

Take networking skills seriously

In most organizations, the people who comfortably and competently exchange information, resources, support, and access are the ones who rise to the top. Our studies show that

• about 20 percent of us are "naturals"—people for whom networking comes easily
• about 70 percent of us are "neutrals"—people who are willing to adopt a networking identity and learn networking skills
• about 10 percent are "naysayers" who refuse to network intentionally, declaring, "Sorry, it's not my thing."

If you're a natural, become more conscious about what you're doing to build trust-based relationships, so you can teach others to do so.

If you're a neutral, tune into the skills required to become a natural. Find a role model and experiment with strategies such as answering the question "What do you do?" in a way that's memorable and starts a conversation, and teaching people about your character and competence.

If you're a naysayer, you must decide to either get on board or accept that your influence—and therefore your career—will be severely limited.

Capitalize on "ChoicePoints"

Make use of the many opportunities to forge intentional connections, have meaningful conversations, and build strategic collaborations. A ChoicePoint is a moment in time that could have a big impact on your career and on the success of your organization.

Many people overlook these moments, but they are quite frequent and can be seized easily. Could you invite a new teammate to lunch? How about stopping by a colleague's desk instead of sending her an email? Why not get to know people while you're on break at a training class instead of checking your email?

Create additional value

You don't network just for yourself. You network for your colleagues, boss, team, division, and whole organization. One of our clients became interested in ensuring his company was having a positive environmental impact while "networking"—or volunteering on a project—with his son's Boy Scout troop.

He formed a cross-functional "green group" to help him develop a new purchasing plan and get people in every department onboard with the changes. His program was
applauded by the CEO and chief
financial officer.

How CEOs see it

According to IBM's 2012 Leading Through Connections study, which surveyed more than 1,700 CEOs in 64 countries, connecting and collaborating internally is not a time-waster. CEOs cite "creating a collaborative environment" as one of the top three attributes they value the most.

You, as a member of the Network-Oriented Workforce, can be a major player in creating this kind of environment.

Networking Skills Checklist

• Do you use connections, conversation, and collaboration to get things done and contribute to enterprisewide success?
• Do you actively gather business intelligence—not only so you can do your job better, but also to bring vital information back to others in your organization?
• When you see that some innovation or synergy might come out of introducing two people to each other, do you make the connection?
• Are you enriched by new ideas and fresh perspectives because your network reflects diversity in age, gender, function, geography, and rank?
• Do you mentor (formally or informally) people in your organization who show potential?
• Do you let people know what kinds of problems and assignments to send your way by giving conversational examples that highlight your capabilities and talents?
• Do you look for resources, ideas, and people who can help you understand and contribute to larger strategic initiatives?
• Do you ask questions that elicit emotions, opinions, analysis, and fresh ways of seeing things?
• Do you regularly touch base with people whom you don’t regularly come into contact with, so you can maintain a deep and broad network?
• Are you a good listener? Do you listen with the goal of helping your conversation partner accomplish her goals?
• Do you consider the quality of the trust you’ve built in each relationship, so that you avoid asking for too much too soon or too little too late?