With this week's readings and discussion on networks, I decided to pull a book from my bookshelf I hadn't revisited in a long time, one by Keith Ferrazzi entitled "Never Eat Alone - and other secrets to success, one relationship at a time."
It is easy to see Ferrazzi's book as simply pop psychology (as I largely did when I initially read it) or the work of an unabashed extrovert that would be unaccessible to others, but another look, this time from the view that informal networks are truly the way business gets done in organizations today, brings Ferrazzi into a new light.
"I don't think of a network of people as a 'net,' into which you wrangle contacts like a school of struggling cod. Again, it's like the Internet, an interconnecting series of links in which each link works collaboratively to strengthen and expand the overall community" (Ferrazzi, 2005, p. 139).
While I doubt any of us run in the same circles as the author, planning gatherings at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles, for example, his outlook on networks and how to be an active contributor to them is worth noting. It forces the reader to consider their role in their networks and work toward being more of a connector, perhaps similar to a liaison, gatekeeper or bridge in our academic readings' social network analysis, rather than sitting on the sidelines, analogous to being an isolate.
Ferrazzi's advice for would-be network participants might be more applicable to entrepreneurs and sales professionals, but this insight into the mindset of high-level social and professional networks gives key insight into the goals and aspirations of professionals engaging in network activities.
References
Ferrazzi, K. (2005). Never eat alone: and other secrets to success, one relationship at a time. New York, NY: Currency-Doubleday.
Krackhardt, D., & Hanson, J. (1993, July-August). Informal networks: the company behind the chart. Harvard Business Review. 113-120.
Well isn't this author fancy, going to lunch at the Bel-Air Hotel. (Maybe his strong network is the result of him taking care of the check.)
ReplyDeleteDo you think Ferrazzi is focusing more on the creation and development of strong or weak ties? When he says never eat alone, is he encouraging the reader to reach outside their social network or cultivate stronger relationships within it? Should we be meeting (or eating?) with people that are inside or outside our organization? Is he trying to create a personal, operational, or strategic network (Ibarra & Hunter, 2007)?
I think that this is one of the unstated concepts in his book, that he is seeking strong ties based on interaction and affection rather than just exchanging business cards. His techniques are designed to be constantly creating new ties and connecting not just A to B and B to C but also A to C. In some ways he advocates both reaching outside the network and cultivating stronger ties within the network, but on the whole he leans toward reaching outside the network for a variety of contacts of different stripes. We should indeed be meeting or eating with those outside our organization, especially those of us in matrix organizations where the IT manager previously thought less critical to a marketing venture suddenly becomes vital. Ferrazzi is primarily seeking a personal network, but his concepts would have transfer to creating operational or strategic networks, provided those networks share a common task or primary objective.
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