Many people have asked “what does it take to build a business network”. There are three basic steps.
A. You need an inspirational, aspirational and measurable mission and vision.
B. Second, you need clear, aligning and measurable short and long term objectives.
C. Third, you need to bring together groups of peers who can share knowledge and "Do Stuff".
Most businesses and leaders do points A and B above, with some degree of success. I am going to focus on point C, forming peer groups and getting stuff done through networks. This is the part that most leaders have trouble with because they confuse business networks and social networks.
What do you need to do to achieve the benefits of group dynamics, or point C above?
1. First you need to build peer groups. "Peers" are people or organizations interested in your mission and vision, which is point A above. Peer groups can include businesses, government organizations, educational organizations, philanthropic organizations, customer groups, supplier groups, employee group, and so forth.
2. Second, you need to engage your peer groups by sharing knowledge, information and insights. This can be done by mailings, education sessions, news broadcasts, internet, or face to face meetings, among many other communication approaches.
3. Third, you need to encourage and support the groups to "Do Stuff" that helps to achieve your objectives (point B above). For example, host a meeting, teach a course, write a blog, be an expert, form a support group, write a survey, create a group, etc, etc, etc.
The benefits and mathematics of these three steps are defined by Professor David Reed, commonly referred to as Reed's Law. Professor Reed notes that the value and impact of networks scale exponentially with the size of the network – expressed mathematically as 2 to the nth power.
For example, if your goal is to sell more product by making your company better know, if you can do this through a network of five groups, your impact is 32 times (2 to the 5th power) what it would be if you spent the same time and effort and only got to one person. Adding a sixth group would take the benefit to 64 times (2 to the 6th power).
What do you need to do to achieve group dynamics and the directional benefits?
1. You need a clear, aspirational and inspirational mission and vision that is translated into sound bites that the groups can understand and explain themselves.
2. You need quantifiable short and long term objectives that each group can help to execute.
3. You need a communication strategy and program that gets the mission, vision and relevant objectives out as broadly and as inexpensively as possible.
4. You group leaders who are viewed by their peers as experts or thought leaders. Their job is to "garden" the group, engage members, and facilitate "Doing Stuff" to achieve the objectives.
5. You need people who understand and can use the social and communication media technology.
6. You need a process to measure and report your performance against the objectives on a regular periodic basis. The measurements and progress needs to be reported back to the groups so they can see the impact of what they are doing.
To recap, first you need a clear, aspirational and inspirational mission and vision with quantifiable short term and long term measurements of success.
The you can exponentially leverage your resources by building physical and virtual groups who share knowledge and “do stuff” in support of the objectives.
This model can be used by all organizations, whether business, educational, philanthropic, governmental, faith based, or special interest. But its biggest impact will be in business networking with purpose.
1. You need a clear, aspirational and inspirational mission and vision that is translated into sound bites that the groups can understand and explain themselves.
2. You need quantifiable short and long term objectives that each group can help to execute.
3. You need a communication strategy and program that gets the mission, vision and relevant objectives out as broadly and as inexpensively as possible.
4. You group leaders who are viewed by their peers as experts or thought leaders. Their job is to "garden" the group, engage members, and facilitate "Doing Stuff" to achieve the objectives.
5. You need people who understand and can use the social and communication media technology.
6. You need a process to measure and report your performance against the objectives on a regular periodic basis. The measurements and progress needs to be reported back to the groups so they can see the impact of what they are doing.
To recap, first you need a clear, aspirational and inspirational mission and vision with quantifiable short term and long term measurements of success.
The you can exponentially leverage your resources by building physical and virtual groups who share knowledge and “do stuff” in support of the objectives.
This model can be used by all organizations, whether business, educational, philanthropic, governmental, faith based, or special interest. But its biggest impact will be in business networking with purpose.
One of the best examples of this model in action is The Global Leaders (www.tgleaders.com), or TGL. TGL gives you many of the tools, techniques, and platforms to form and benefit from group dynamics. The Global Leaders (www.tgleaders.com) is free.
George Bickerstaff