I screwed up again and feel like a miserable networker. A few weeks ago a new EC tender worth 8 million Euros came out. What an opportunity for us hungry civil society leaders. I worked to pool together a group of cutting-edge ngos in a consortium. I wanted to impress the commission and succeed combining a variety of skills: diversity, innovation, effectiveness and reputation. The plan was impeccable but I raised the bar too high – just to quote the last speech of Tony the invader – and realized my network can’t fulfil all my needs. I had to admit my network was not ready for the challenge!
Is your newtwork ready for the challenge? you don’t come across an 8 Million funding opportunity every day so be ready to grasp it.
What does it mean? You must be strategic while you build your network. First of all you must assess its capacity by identifying the skills, the fields of expertise and links covered. Secondly, determine the lacked qualities as listed above and plan how to gain them. For instance, go to seminar and lectures if you don’t have any partnership with universities and researchers. They are indispensable and often cheap first rate source of information. Once you have spotted the right scholars for your purpose organise a posh dinner and invite them. Academics love to be associated to stars and wealthy people. It flatters their ego – which is proportional to their intellectual value – and its an escape from noisy scruffy students.
Have you already done a quick check to realized you actually can count just on few friends and colleagues? Yes, i know, it’s depressing. However, don’t get demoralized. You are an ordinary person with an ordinary network. you don’t understand networks and how to be strategic in building one. So, let me help you using a metaphor.
In your ordinary life you must have a wife or husband who you have regularly married in front of god, nature and the nation. After a while, you get bored of you partner and find a lover. The lover becomes boring – and expensive – as well- so you diversified by exploring the vast array of opportunities offered by our liberal society. Now you are a navigated citizen who is free to choose what fits in your daily need, embracing the far-flung variety of our wonderful world!
i’m sure everybody is familiar with this scenario. Networking is not different: You need a partner, a lover and many other opportunities ready at the hand to serve the daily purposes. Be strategic and plan in advance if you don’t want to end up in a bathroom as you did in your teens.
