Network your way to energy and innovation

Tue, 19 May 2009 | By Lynda Gratton

The election of President Barack Obama marked a sea-change in the political process, and a return to democracy via grass-roots activism. The campaign clearly demonstrated the power of good old-fashioned networking: his social networking application had more than 1 million users by election day, and he raised more than $600m through YouTube. The most valuable lesson businesses can learn from the campaign is to make people feel part of your team, and they will promote you to their network of friends, family and colleagues.

Increasing the value of networks is one of the pivotal actions we can take to spark innovation and creativity within ourselves and our working environment. I call this Glowing: radiating positive energy and success, and creating superior value at work. Thanks to the increase in the private and business applications of social media, word-of-mouth networking can be highly efficient and helps us broaden our personal reach and influence.

People who Glow are skilled at increasing the value of their networks and at balancing their networks between acquaintances and close friends who are similar to them, with more extensive networks to people who are very different from them. They know that sometimes the most interesting, innovative ideas come from people they barely know. If you want to increase your Glow quotient, you will have to do more than concentrate simply on your closest friends, where you run the risk of severely limiting your capacity to think outside the box, and limit your capacity to create energy and innovation.

The key to maximising your networks is to ensure a balance of familiarity and difference, of breadth and depth. You need strong, trusting and highly cooperative friendships, and you need links with a wide variety of associates.

So, to accomplish the latter, we need to focus on building broad and diverse networks. These looser connections are most powerful when they are with people with very different perspectives. These can be people who are from another generation, who live in different circumstances or in different countries. For some, particularly for people who are natural networkers, widening a network will be second nature. But for others, it requires time and effort.

Do you have a balanced network?

Take a closer look at your current networks and evaluate just how balanced they are. Ask yourself these two simple questions about your friends and acquaintances:

“How well do we know each other?”

“How different is the person from me?”

Similarities and differences can come in all sorts of guises. They could be surface similarities (age, gender, nationality or functional background), as well as those that are much deeper and less obvious – yet still very important, for example, points of view, values or habits. Both can act as powerful determinant of the impact of the type and quality of networks you form.

Make a note of three people who are close friends who are similar to you, three people who are close friends who are different from you, three people who are acquaintances who are similar to you, and three people who are acquaintances who are different from you. Now take a look at each of these 12 people and think about how much value they have brought to you. Is this a relationship that fills you with joy and helps me Glow? Is this a relationship where you learn something new? Is this a relationship where you feel cooperative and trusting?

Close friends who are similar to you: these are people you have probably known for some time. You like each other, you have a shared history; you have created the friendship with ease and co-operation is second nature between you. These are great relationships to understand the other person’s insights and knowledge and to share what you both know. Since you know these people so well and spend time around them, these are typically the places that you pick up new habits.

Actions to strengthen these relationships: invest in regular conversations, spend time together engaged in a common activity, and set up rituals that become part of your routine, such as weekly lunches or outings.

Close friends who are different from you: like close friendships with people who are similar, these relationships are a valuable source of support and insight. When you develop close relationships with people who are very different from you, this enables you to create a unique perspective on how you see the world and to really explore and appreciate others’ perspectives. Through this exploration, both of you are able to broaden your own understanding and increase your tolerance of variety and diversity. You will become more tolerant, more open to differences, and therefore more skilful in the habit of cooperation.

Actions to strengthen these relationships: ensure you develop a well-rounded network and include some people who have higher status and power – these can be valuable when important decisions have to be made and resources acquired. Reach out to colleagues and peers for brainstorming and information sharing, as well as to younger, less skilled people – these can be valuable for mentoring and coaching. If the three names you have listed are all long-standing relationships then think about how you might open up your networks over the next year. Likewise, if the relationships are all relatively new, then consider how you can ensure you keep these relationships going over time.

Acquaintances who are similar to you: these can provide a valuable but often untapped resource. Maintaining these relationships is less resource-intensive than close relationships, so you can have many more. I call this a ‘cloud of acquaintances’. This network is a ‘community of practice’ in the sense that it has been built around a common shared interest or experience. These communities of practice can be marvellous places of excitement and really enrich your experience of Glowing.  These are great networks for you to rapidly learn more about the topics you are interested in, for example networking groups within your industry, or within your organisation.

Actions to strengthen these relationships: consider whether you need to shift your level of involvement in these communities, either becoming more central or more peripheral. Even being on the sidelines can enable you to gain insight; whatever your involvement level is, remain engaged and a participant.

Acquaintances who are different from you: these are likely to be people you have met through a friend of a friend, or bumped into, and you may not have had anything in common. These relationships are created through classic ‘jumping across worlds’. There can often be a feeling of fate, when valuable ideas arise out of relationships within this group. These are wonderful sources of new ideas, when you hear something that you have never heard before or an idea that really ignites your excitement and creativity.

Actions to strengthen these relationships: ensure that you are curious about the world around you. Expand your activities so that you bump into different people. Take time out to wander around – become a flaneur – relaxed by life and prepared to meet new people.

The networks that support you to Glow and help you find, create and flourish in Hot Spots have a balance between closeness and difference. When you become too embedded in relationships with people who you know very well then you leave little space in your working life for serendipity to open up possibilities of meeting other people. When you overemphasise similarity, then you surround yourself with friends and acquaintances who have the same point of view as you. This will result in you becoming too narrow in your viewpoint, less innovative and ultimately less valuable.

Finally, it is often true that you can invest more time in antagonistic relationships that simply cause you grief than in those that you find satisfying and rewarding. Are you investing too much time with unsatisfactory and conflicting relationships, rather than with positive and life-enhancing relationships?

Think about how you feel about each of your close relationships and monitor whether you feel as if you are Glowing when you are with the other person. If not you have two options: if this is a relationship that is very precious to you but has gone sour, then you may decide to keep on investing in the relationship whilst trying to tip it from unsatisfactory to satisfactory. If this is a relationship that you have very little hope for, then now is the time to bring it to an end as decently as possible. Remember you will never Glow if too much of your time is spent with people who sap your energy.

• Lynda Gratton is a professor at London Business School and bestselling author of ‘Hot Spots: why some teams, workplaces and organisations buzz with energy and others don’t’. Her new book ‘Glow: how you can radiate energy, innovation and success’, was published on 2 April by FT Prentice Hall and Berrett-Koehler.www.hotspotsmovement.com