Building Your Network for Your 2013 Career

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“In the new workplace we’re seeing greater emphasis on relationships,” says Brian Kropp, a managing director at CEB in this month's edition of Forbes. He attributes this interest in how relationships add value to the workplace to the economic crisis, and notices that employees who have been in the company for longer are at a far greater advantage. According to CEB research, longer-tenured workers are beginning to rise to positions of success more quickly than those who move every few years.

The Forbes article suggests making use of your ability to create relationships by choosing to work with others, and to share your ideas.

Don’t Be A Loner

In the new workplace, 40% of employees work with more than 20 people on a given day, and more than 80% work with 10 according to CEB research. “The idea that you can be an individual contributor and be successful is an idea of the past,” says Kropp. “Fitting within the network of the workplace is a part of the new definition of a great employee.”

Be A Thought Leader

All of that knowledge you’ve gained by reading up on the industry? Make a habit of sharing it. “Write articles, make presentations, serve on panels or blog,” she says. “People need to have confidence in you that you know what you’re doing and that you’re willing to use it to help other peoples’ problems.”

See the Big Picture

There are many employees who only focus on what they’re doing, which prevents them from seeing the big picture. Find out what your co-workers are doing. Find out what other departments are doing and link to them. By getting a better understanding of the big picture, it will become clearer to you why you’ve been asked to complete certain projects. 

This new research underlines the main message of NETSHEILA: you are part of a circle of colleagues, friends, relatives and acquaintances. Said differently, you exist within a network of people and you form an essential link between your organisation and those people. The people are potential resources. When you to tap into this vast resource you benefit  yourself and your organisation. The more effective you become at building relationships, the greater you train yourself as an asset in "people economics"  the more valuable your contribution becomes to projects and processes.

Seeing yourself as an asset in the economy of people, you start to look differently at the economic crisis.
NETSHEILA engaged in projects in 2012 where people discovered they can get more done with less effort, simply by tapping into the relational networks of their colleagues.  As one university teacher wrote: "The NETSHEILA half day workshop in discovering the secrets of networking was very valuable to me, and to our team. Just look at the contact information I was given for people who can provide me with information as I develop my new curriculum". At the same time, the way people look at time shifts. People feel overwhelmed an overworked when working alone. When people share their knowledge of how the system works at their workplace, of how to get things done more effectively, who to speak with, and who can be a resource in a specific area, the idea that there is not enough time to get everything done begins to diminish. It is replaced by an idea of being able to do more, with a team.

As the year comes to an end, we at NETSHEILA offer you a simple framework for developing yourself as a person who builds relationships and adds value to your organisation by making use of those relationships. 

• Define a big goal for yourself that has to do with the people you know and want to get to know.
• Think carefully about whether this goal is as fun for you as it is for the organisation. You are in charge of balance, no one else!
• Define specific, measurable and time bound milestones to reaching that goal.
• Be very clear about the conditions for satisfaction of each milestone. Make life easy for yourself by knowing beforehand how you define success.
• Be aware that your big goal is a huge contribution to other people. So share your goal with other people and let them contribute to you.

 Lin McDevitt-Pugh

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Lin McDevitt-Pugh is the founder and director of NETSHEILA, a company dedicated to working with organisations and individuals to expand their ability to transform the networks of relationships they already have into resources to improve the quality of the workplace. Call +31 6 150 68468 to discuss how your organisation can benefit from working with NETSHEILA  or write to admin@netsheila.com.

How a Conference can Carry your Vision

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How the networked organization approach made a difference at the LGBTI ALMS 2012 conference.

A week has passed since the LGBTI ALMS 2012 conference, designed as a networked organization event, and it is clear that our approach had extraordinary results.

Lin McDevitt-Pugh delivering networking workshop

IHLIA, the international gay and lesbian archive based in Amsterdam, hosted this conference. We knew what we wanted when we set out to create this conference. We wanted community LGBTI heritage organizations in the room with mainstream heritage institutes, to share their experience and desires and to create new partnerships. We wanted academics to inspire and students to excite the people ‘in the trenches’. We wanted to delve into the amazing day to day of what people are doing, to discover how others can benefit in their day to day worlds. We wanted people to write about the conference on their blogs and websites and share our vision, carry our vision forward.

It all happened. All of it.

Our methods were invented and I will share them.

It began with the vision. It always begins with the vision. As organizers we were clear about what we were up to, what legacy our conference would leave in the world. By 2020 every young LGBTI person will wander into a cultural heritage institute and be at home, because they are part of the history.

Putting together the call for proposals we explored what kinds of contributions, and from whom, would move us toward this vision. We knew who we needed in the room. We chose to focus on Europe and North America and be open to the contribution of people from other parts of the world. We knew we wanted the conversation to be about lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, trans and intersex people. People working on LGBTI cultural heritage in community organizations, in academic organizations and in mainstream institutions. We wanted to see how students, the young wise folk, were bringing together what they were learning with what could be.

We selected a broad group of advisors and they sharpened the focus while ensuring it was including the vast colourful palet of what can be seen as LGBTI heritage work. From ancient Greek art to oral histories of black communities in London, from the writings of poets to those of pamphletists.

Our content committee analaysed the proposals and noted the gaps. There were countries missing, institutes missing, themes missing. We noticed very few people offered to discuss the cultural heritage of trans and bisexual people and no one really was working on intersex. So again we went out to our advisors and our networks and found new people to invite and great speakers to address the missing topics - speakers you would perhaps not normally find on a conference for the world of gay heritage. One was a professor in law relating to trans. He was able to show very graphically how representation of trans was interpreted and how this affects how trans is ‘collected’ in a heritage sense. Was the woman soldier in the 18^th century butch, like some say, or trying to get away from a staid situation at home, like others say, or was it actually a woman who liked wearing male-designated clothing? Collection, we heard time an again, was a lot about having an opinion about someone, and often that opinion is pinned down to the paradigms of thinking – the memes – of the day. Those opinions may not be valid in 30 years time, and then what happens to the collection? Will the women dressed as men be findable, with etiquettes plastered on their index cards that make no sense 50 years from now? The legal profession can provide valuable input into methods of making the past visible and accessible.

One quite big gap was in the supplier side of the work of librarians, archivists and people in museums.  I wasn’t surprised we didn’t receive offers of contributions from suppliers. It is an unusual conference for suppliers to be involved in. Yet from the work I do with LGBTI people within corporations I know that there are suppliers to the, lets say, heritage industry that are actually very interesting for the heritage industry to know. Their approach to LGBT in the workplace can offer new insights for heritage workers. In my mind I was thinking that it is quite possible that the director of a museum is concerned that making gay history visible, sponsors may respond negatively. The work of IBM in the field of LGBT at work shows that productivity in the organization increases when there is a practice of valuing people being out at work. I hoped that there could be some cross-fertilization of ideas at the management level as well as the content level. I was happy that IBM agreed to speak at the conference. it brought in a different perspective to the subject at hand.

We had a full program of speakers, some with a 30-minute presentation, most with 10 minutes.

Our format was partially borrowed from a format of speakers I enjoyed at the L-Women at Work conference I spoke at last year. At that conference, people were offered a 6, 12 or 20-minute slot. I liked that I was able to hear every speaker. At so many conferences you have to choose. What I felt could be improved is the way pathways were created to increase interactions between participants. Our team felt we could improve on the format in three ways. A fourth innovation was very particular to the heritage world.

First, we asked the 10-minute speakers to post their contribution on our conference blog so that people could read before they came to the conference what the person would speak about. This is after all the age of connectivity, and there is really no need to arrive uninformed of the content at a conference. By reading the papers beforehand people had a better chance of getting what they had come all the way to Amsterdam to get: new connections, new inspiration, new ideas and a lot of fun. The 30-minute speakers were welcome to post on the blog, but could also keep their contribution as a ‘surprise’.

Secondly, we felt that there could be some organization added to the informal interactions. In a totally unorganized, informal setting, it is possible for people to walk up to a speaker after the presentation and chat, perhaps over coffee. But do you do that? Were they so impressive that you think they wouldn’t want to talk with you? Or would a friend get in first and monopolize the person’s time. There are many reasons not to talk with someone and many people just aren’t used to walking up to a speaker and asking things about the presentation.  We chose to facilitate informal communications by organizing breakout sessions. We placed two speakers from the previous section of the program in a room together and invited people to go to that room and talk more. There was no structure, no further organization. No right way to hold a breakout session. People are adult and could figure out themselves how to make good use of the time available. Feedback on the breakout sessions was very enthusiastic. People really talked with each other and shared ideas.

The third innovation was fun for all of us. We began the conference with a mini networking workshop.  We were aware that most people in the auditorium did not know the other people. About 75 percent of the participants had never been to the previous editions of the conference. In the workshop, my first task was to get everybody on the same page about what ‘networking’ is. We explored what people regard a network to be and then how to translate that to a verb. If a network is connection between people, networking is making connections. The participants were then asked to define for themselves their networking goals and then to share these with their neighbour. If they were sitting alone they were asked to move.  Standing in front of the room watching perfect strangers animatedly talk with each other about why they were here was mind blowing.  I then ran around with the mike, asking volunteers to share what their neighbour’s networking goals were. Suddenly people were engaged with each other and, as one participant later remarked, awake.

The fourth innovation was particularly successful perhaps because it spoke to the passions of the archivists and collectors who had travelled to Amsterdam to be part of this conference. IHLIA’s colleagues at Aletta E-Quality, the 75 year old collection of the history of the Dutch and international women’s movement, invited conference participants to a tour of their library and archives on the day preceding the conference. Aletta E-Quality senior staff member Evelien Rijsbosch later told me how she saw networking unfold, as she led the groups of participants around the superb collection. People who didn’t know each other were talking together, asking questions, debating answers. When she later attended the conference she noticed how people who had come into her institute disparate and alone were now connected.

So what is networking? It is knowing what you want, asking others for their input, and giving generously when others let you know what they need. A conference is a great place to build strong networks. 

Lin McDevitt-Pugh MBA

Lin McDevitt-Pugh is director of NetSHEila and expert in networked organizations. She provides training to schools, universities, public and private companies and employee networks, supporting them to do more, with more fun, by utilizing the circles of people in which they operate. 
For more on the conference, see the conference website.

Leading Ladies Masterclasses

International Women’s Day news this week:  there is some growth in the number of women company supervisors and board members in Europe, but if we are going to reach the EU's goal of 30% by 2015 and 40% by 2020, we will have to put in twice the effort. The current rate of growth puts us at 40% by 2040, according to the Dutch newspaper, NRC. At present, only one in seven board members of publicly listed companies is a woman.

Stichting De Beuk and NetSHEila intend to be part of the movement to shift the balance in the Netherlands.  De Beuk has developed a program called Leading Ladies, and together with top women leaders offers a series of weekend sessions to work with women to position themselves in powerful roles.

NetSHEila provides the weekend on networking, in October 2012. We will look at the contacts  - the friends, colleagues, families, old school buddies, acquaintances that each participant brings to the weekend and develop strategies to utilize these in claiming leading roles. The NRC Weekend article highlighted the way women who are in positions of power presently go about acquiring these roles. They get most positions by responding to advertisements. As Pamela Boumeester (53), former CEO of the Dutch rail NS Poort said "We have to make the rules ourselves. Don’t forget I am the first generation of full-time working women in this country. We don’t have a blueprint to work from, we invent our careers ourselves.“  

At NetSHEila, we think there are networking strategies that can be used more effectively to bring more speed to the process of bringing more women to  board rooms and supervisory boards. For one, de Beuk has delivered programs supporting women with political ambitions for over 25 years and has a unique database of effective leading women. Bringing these women and their networks of contacts together provides an excellent platform for finding the right woman for the job.

For more information on the program, don’t hesitate to contact either Wilma Ruis of De Beuk or Lin McDevitt-Pugh of NetSheila. 

Lin McDevitt-Pugh MBA is a management consultant, project developer and manager in the public sector, private sector and civil society, based in the Netherlands. With a background in human rights and networking, she works with organizations to move the conversation from “This is not how it should be” to “This is how it will be”.

Lin gets very excited when she trains organizations in working with people as creative economic resources.  By mobilizing the resources we all have at our fingertips - the people we know and the people they know - we can create unique knowledge, build trust and access the people and institutions we need to access.
Contact: mcdevitt-pugh@netsheila.com

The Value of LGBT Networks to HRM

March 8 2012. At a spacious, tastefully designed bar in the heart of Amsterdam, about 100 people in business clothing gathered for the monthly gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) business drinks. As I move around the room I see a good mix of men and women of all ages, and I hear people speaking Spanish, Dutch and English. Many of these people work in transnational corporations. I meet a Latina who recently joined Cisco and is looking to meet people. I run into a client who previously set up the gay and lesbian network in her company. I chat with a friend who, like me, did his MBA at Henley and who now talks with companies throughout Europe about the importance of having policies to improve efficiency by ending any form of discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans employees.

I have been asked speak at this event and to briefly share the results of my research into the added value of corporate LGBT networks to companies. I love opportunities like this to share with people how powerful they are.

My research began exactly 4 years ago, when I dropped into the monthly drinks on my way to celebrate International Women’s Day elsewhere. I had just completed my final exam of the MBA and was looking for a research project. David Pollard, one of the forces behind the establishment of the network of professional and corporate LGBT networks now known as Workplace Pride, knew exactly what I could do. I could research, from a business perspective, the contribution of LGBT networks to a company’s bottom line.

I quickly discovered that this approach was revolutionary. Henley Business College had never had a Masters dissertation – that I could find - relating to gay and business. Most literature on gay and business relates to the difficulties of being LGBT in the business environment – an LGBT as victim approach. That is because in most countries, LGBT’s lack many rights, including in the workplace. The Netherlands, by contrast, has granted LGBT people by law almost every conceivable right. What value can LGBT networks offer under these circumstances?

Issues

Laws are one thing, reality is another. LGBT people in the Netherlands are still the brunt of jokes, and even today 30% of gay employees do not dare to be openly themselves at work. While many managers have no issue with a person’s sexuality, others do.  Working in an international climate, being 'out' in the Netherlands is one thing, but how will it affect an employee's potential to go on foreign postings? Some employees fear the consequences of being completely open, in every situation at home and abroad. Others are fearless, but have a nagging sense that by being so they may miss opportunities.  LGBT networks in companies are addressing these and other issues.

Bottom line

What does this have to do with the ability of a company to run a profitable business? One of the tenets of Human Resource Management theory is that competitive advantage means building a workforce that is unique, imperfectly imitable and with no strategic equivalent. Attracting and retaining talent is important to the bottom line, as is utilizing the people – their skills and competencies. Said differently, a company’s assets and resources, its resource combinations and its organizational competencies only have value when they are combined with the skills of the individual and their social networks. My research challenge was to come up with a convincing argument, with concrete examples, that a corporate LGBT network contributes to the profit of its company through its contribution to HR strategies for competitive advantage.

Results

For my research I interviewed network leaders, network members and HR officers in each of the six companies that at that time made up Company Pride Platform. There are at least 5 ways in which corporate LGBT networks contribute the to the bottom line:

1 LGBT networks contribute to finding the right people for the company

The networks are working with the companies to create an environment that is attractive to a diverse workforce. A major focus of several of the networks was participating in Canal Pride. Canal Pride is fun, exuberant and has a pro-gay message. The presence of the corporate networks generates visibility for the company on the day, positive coverage on TV and in relevant industry recruitment publications. HR and network respondents firmly believe this is good for business and good for recruitment strategies. 

2 LGBT networks help companies utilize employees

While line managers are responsible for ensuring that the employees perform in their jobs, the LGBT networks utilize the employees beyond the relationship defined in the professional contract. Most networks pass on information to HR about what works, and what is not work, for LGBT employees and make suggestions on what could be done better.

The networks cross the hierarchical lines, contributing to the company’s ability to adapt to the changing needs of clients, changing economic conditions, and changing perceptions of the social environment.

3 LGBT networks build social capital

Building a company’s social capital enables people to act collectively, for the benefit of the company.  The networks address issues of engagement, sharing of information, cross-silo engagement in strategy development. They also look at where people are being excluded. They create safe spaces where people can explore the question “Is it me, or is there something really going on out there that is making me uncomfortable?” HR sometimes utilizes the networks to learn why people join the company and why they leave.

4 LGBT networks create economic and reliable business resources

The LGBT networks build trust, and act on the trust to share information with each other and with other parts of the organization, including HR. Strong ties among colleagues can translate into economic and reliable business resources, which contributes to the competitive advantage of the company. Most of the networks help the company develop internal efficiencies by creating communication pathways, sharing information relating to HR issues, marketing issues and company products between different sections of the company.

5 LGBT networks link and leverage knowledge within the company

The companies are starting to tap into the knowledge and the external networks of the networks, mainly around recruitment and utility issues . Workplace Pride plays a significant role in developing knowledge that is specific to the issue of homosexuality in the workplace, and at conferences and meetings networks share data, statistics and best practices that are helpful to all their companies.

Scoping LGBT networks within the company

Where do we go from here?

Each network exists in a unique HRM environment. The networks are emerging as professional, social and intellectual exchange networks. In some cases they are partnering with HR in attracting, recruiting and motivating talent at all levels, including the elusive Generation Y employee.

They have the potential to do much more.  Networks could be building more bridges. The structures are there. The networks could be utilized more in recruitment strategies and in gaining access to Gen Y. Employees that are recruited through personal networks come with a ready-made relationship with the company that can positively affect their engagement and their motivation. In their networks of friends and family, network members have potential specialists, contractors and trustworthy market-based staff.

Workplace Pride recently launched the Declaration of Amsterdam, with 10 items on how to design a workplace that works for LGBT people. Networks can use this Declaration as a guideline for their own strategic plan: what exists already in their company, what has yet to be developed? Events like the monthly Workplace Pride drinks are a perfect opportunity for network members to inquire of other networks what they do, what works, what doesn’t work. Ask what they are proud of. Listen with wonder at what they have achieved and what their goals are. Share your own experiences. And bring in experts to work with your network to make more happen, with greater ease.

By Lin McDevitt-Pugh

Lin is owner of NetSHEila, a company specialized in maximizing the value of relationships between people to companies an organizations. She has delivered strategic network development workshops to corporate LGBT networks, business networks and international NGOs in The Netherlands, Africa and Australia. She can be contacted on +31-6-150 48468 or through the contact form on www.netsheila.com. Follow her tweets via @LinMcDevittPugh.