Yellowfire Press
| Preface | Who Needs Another Guidebook? |
| Chapter 1 | Getting Oriented: Definitions and Benefits |
| Chapter 2 | Getting Started |
| Chapter 3 | Choosing Network Partners: Forming a Circle of Common Concern |
| Chapter 4 | Methods to Make it a Sharing Circle |
| Chapter 5 | Continuation: Let the Circle be Unbroken |
| Chapter 6 | Learning to Link: Some Hints on Helping People Learn to Network |
| Chapter 7 | The Bridge Between Groups |
@ -- permission for use-with-acknowledgment
CHOOSING NETWORK PARTNERS:
FORMING A CIRCLE OF COMMON CONCERN @ People are the primary resources in a network. The choice of these people
– insofar as it is within your power – is therefore crucial to the success
of networking. Here are five steps for forming a circle of common concern:
In real life application, the steps overlap and may occur at essentially
the same time; we keep them separate mainly for purposes of explanation. Nor
does the five-step process mean that you’ll necessarily be doing all the
seeking. People may also come looking for you as a network partner. In that
case, use the five steps as guidelines for responding to network invitations
from others – even though this chapter will be written as if the initiative
were all yours. A. Make Yourself Aware of the Wide Range of
Concerns for Which Network Help Might Be Available. Don’t let your creativity be cramped by the unconscious assumption that
networking is an esoteric process applicable in only highly specialized
situations. Networking is essentially a problem-solving process which can help
with almost any concern. One can classify networks according to services, materials, and services
designed to provide material goods. SERVICES advice SERVICES TO PROVIDE MATERIAL GOODS food cooperatives MATERIAL GOODS tool-sharing Merely as examples, "services" might include board development;
coping better with single parenthood; career exploration and growth; nutrition
in the public school system; drug dependencies; public transportation; day
care; companionship for seniors (by seniors). For an individual, the service needed may include the alleviation of
personal or professional isolation, or feelings of powerlessness and lack of
self-confidence, vulnerability, confusion about the future, etc. Once you’re aware of the range of network options possible, don’t
pigeonhole yourself in only one network box. Thus if you are developing a
women’s network and assume all you’ll do is share personal support, your
network may be passing up some important opportunities in also advocating for
women’s rights, or sharing more concrete advice with each other. Or say,
you’re planning a neighborhood network in which you’ll share lawn mowers,
snow blowers, and the like; you may discover you could also usefully share
information on gardening, and outdoor exercise among at least some of the
neighbors. But even when you’ve gotten and given as much as you can from a single
people-linking system, we doubt if any one network is all you’ll need. We
suspect – we aren’t sure – that most individuals could benefit from at
least several distinct networks, and possibly as many as eight or ten. If you have too few networks, the danger is that you’re trying to get too
much and too wide a variety of help from any one network. If you have too many
distinct networks going, the problem may be "administrative";
keeping track of all your linkages and finding time enough for them all. But
one thing is sure: there are too many places we want to go for one bridge to
take us everywhere. This leads to a people selection point: beware of burnout of trusted and
respected people with double or triple duty in your networks. True, a friend
might comfortably and effectively function in up to two or three of your
networks. But all of them? No way, and it’s not fair to allow them to remain
in such an overloaded situation. Nor is it usually effective. Thus the kind of
person who’s helpful in your energy conservation bridge may be a cipher in
your poetry-reading network. The person who’s a good information networker
might be poor for personal support networking, etc. We would be the last to
suggest segregation, but still, strange as it may seem, people from your
different networks may rarely or never meet, and have little to say to one
another if they do. B. Identify and Define Your Own Network Needs and
Purposes. If you don’t know why you want the network, and what you want to get and
give, you won’t know who to involve. First ask yourself what are the issues or problems you want help with and
for which you are prepared to give help in return. The earlier lists of
network types might be useful as reminders of possibilities, and Worksheet #1
should further assist your thinking on this. Your goals should be broad and flexible enough to change through network
experience. We suggest you identify all or most of your network needs at once.
That doesn’t mean you should try actually to begin many networks
simultaneously; one at a time is a far better rule. It does mean you are less
likely to lump too many things together to overload a single bridge between
people. C. Look for People Who Have Experience in the Subject Area Chosen
for Networking. These will be people who have something to give because 1) they have
experienced the problem/need firsthand, e.g., lack of money for worthy
programs or projects, or 2) they have special training or expertise relevant
to the area, e.g., training in fund-raising, or some combination of these two. In most cases, it is equally important for people to be able to acknowledge
their readiness to receive help or information. Avoid pious pillars of
perfection. One of the best networkers in American history once claimed that
he’d never met a person he couldn’t learn something from. The
networker’s name was Abraham Lincoln. Worksheet #1 should help tie together steps A, B, and C, then prepare us
for later steps.
.
peer support
advocacy
building support around an issue
information
buying cooperatives
books
food
supplies
paintings
bikes
|
WORKSHEET #1 FINDING YOUR CIRCLE OF COMMON CONCERN
3. Further refine and define this segment.
4. Answer, in writing or orally, the following questions:
N -improved techniques for handling crises 5. When you have your needs listed from paragraph 4, choose a general area that you would like to concentrate on (for example, a crisis counselor as listed above). 6. Could other people help? Brainstorm who you already know that could help in one of these need areas. 7. Brainstorm a list of people/groups you have heard of who might be helpful. Think in terms of the widest range of logical places you could look. 8. Now you have your needs defined in one area and you have some lists of people and places to begin looking for networkers. Besides carefully selecting "good" networkers you’ll more likely meet with success if you now think of what you can OFFER in this area you’re choosing to concentrate on. Brainstorm numerous answers to the following statement:
Now you are ready to start searching for those in your potential circle of common concern (and have something to offer them too). |
D. Try to Find People Who are Likely to Be Compatible and Considerate as Network Partners.
Expertise is not the only criterion of a good networker. Certain other features of attitude, style, and belief are just as important as experience. Thus, if you’re a minority person seeking personal growth, KKK members are out! Say the same for a career women’s support network. Male chauvinists need not apply! Racists and sexists may have (or claim) some experience in these subject areas; it’s just that their values and beliefs are beyond the pale of tolerable dissent in the above networks.
Then there’s the matter of attitude and style which makes some people easier to network with while others are just awful and can actually be destructive. Our thanks to Connie Hyatt* for a vivid description of several types who specialize in blowing up people bridges in the volunteer leadership sector.
Turf Ogre: A person with insecurities who needs to control. Turf Ogres can be found dominating meetings, identifying [others’] successful projects by the pronoun "we", hiding names of volunteers, never mentioning funding sources, looking after #1, and in general being difficult. Turf Ogres fear the ‘pirating away’ of volunteers more than any other calamity they can imagine. They encounter great difficulty dealing with volunteers who do not see themselves as slaves.
Co-Opter: A person with a silky smile and an overly agreeable nature. Co-opting is a very effective way to neutralize the competition. Co-Opters want to own people and are, in general, immature, insecure, and lacking in a sense of professionalism. A Co-Opter ‘assimilates’ the competition by including them as members, making their activity a part of his/her newsletter, making sure that the competition is always invited to recognition events and receives a reward if possible. [In these ways,] a Co-Opter will destroy the competition’s ability to relate to anybody else. Co-Opters encounter great difficulty with networks, democracy, the vote, adults, etc. [Watch out you don’t wake up and find yourself in their network, never knowing how it happened.0
Lone Ranger: A person with the ‘only I can do it’ martyr syndrome. Lone Rangers can be found working late, reassuring the world that only their agency is helping resolve a problem [mainly because they won’t let anyone else help], heaving sighs of fatigue while volunteering to take on added tasks, suffering burnout while making sure that nobody can rescue them and generally seeking lots of sympathy. The word ‘delegation’ is frightening to a Lone Ranger."
Does all this contradict a belief that anyone can network (well, almost anyone)? Not necessarily. It may just mean that some of us are distinctly better networkers than others. And even the unpromising types might function better with certain people and situations. Thus, it may be that my Ogre is your generous friend, and your Lone Ranger is my team player.
We do suggest that wherever possible you begin networks with people you know and trust, and people they know and trust, or with people whose network ability is reasonably well assured in some other way such as active membership in a credible organization. Then steadily build, through personal knowledge, linkages in subject-area groups. But, risks will be there always when people reach out. Thus when you’re new in town (or at the office, the church, etc.) or just plain lonely, you’re more prone to glom onto just about any available person as friend or networker.
Don’t rush that reaching out; it’s too important. As we’ve said before, do your best to associate with people you have good reason to trust.
*Connie D. Hyatt, CAVS, Supervisor of Volunteer Services, State of Oregon Department of Human Resources.
E. Think About How You’re Going to Get and Keep in Touch.
Let’s say the first four steps have led us to this most marvelously qualified person. In Tibet. We should never have gone that far. Our network partners must have all the three C’s, not just compatible and capable, but also – connectable. Ordinarily, we’re looking for the easiest, most meaningful accessibility between people, and usually, not always, that means being in the same geographical space. On the other hand, if your purpose or concern is esoteric, the relevant people are likely to be far-flung. If you’re really interested in the mating habits of whooping cranes, or in ancient Greco-Roman games, you might need a continent or two to complete your network with interest-sharers.
But most network purposes are ordinary and important enough so that a reasonably populated area will contain enough potential network members. Thus how many city blocks does one need before there are enough senior citizens for a network? True, since many senior citizens may not be willing or able to participate in a particular network for them, you might still have to reach out a ways.
One important consideration here is choice of network medium. Insofar as it is desirable that network connections be frequent and face-to-face, your members should live reasonably close to one another (especially with soaring gasoline prices). Insofar as your network can be a telephone tie line, you can go further out (easily to the borders of the toll-free area). Finally where occasional in-writing, or in-print contacts suffice for an effective network, members can be located almost anywhere with reliable mail service.
Almost any method used to get and keep in touch will take someone’s special initiative and time to make it go. This crucial person(s) calls people for meetings, reminds them of network responsibilities, monitors and reports on progress in common projects, and generally keeps the whole thing together. This initiator-maintainer-enabler person(s) is a key ingredient in all but the briefest and simplest of networks. Perhaps you intend being that person. If not, look for him/her as a hub of your circle of common concern.
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Ivan Scheier
Stillpoint
607 Marr
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, 87901
Tel (505) 894-1340
Email: ivan@zianet.comFor comments and editing suggestions please contact Mary Lou McNatt mlmcnatt@indra.com
