In Galia's article "Professionelle's Passion for Networking",
she shared what we have both learned about networking from a
personal and career perspective. At the end of her piece, she
promised that I would next recap on what we have learned from
another perspective: that of designing and organising events over
Professionelle's not-quite-two years of operation. It's been a
steep learning curve, and with a couple of real surprises along the
way. We've not seen many of these insights written about elsewhere,
so we think they're well worth sharing.
Not all our offline events have been strictly networking ones.
Certainly, some were traditional networking meetings, held at the
explicit request of our members, for them to meet other
professional women, or to reconnect with those they had met through
us in other ways. Beyond those, though, our workshops, focus groups
and facilitated discussions have all offered us new opportunities
to observe how women respond to the chance to meet others, how they
interact with each other once there, and what seems to make
get-togethers really hum. The following 3 minute video will give
you a good sense for what these events offer, and the calibre of
women who attend!
Given that many of you attend networking events from time to
time, and some of you also organise them, we thought you would be
interested in what we have uncovered. We are now incorporating
these lessons into the way we structure our events and calendar for
this year. In fact, we've been learning from the very first event,
and you can read about some of the early "aha!" moments in our
"Networking and First Impressions" piece.
Do let us know how our experiences and thoughts compare with
yours…
Networking works
It seems important to start with this not-so-original point! We
have seen a number of valuable new connections spring from women
meeting at our events. Often, we get a sense of these new
relationships developing from the LinkedIn updates that land in our
email boxes. These show our contacts linking to more, and more, of
our contacts.
Later we hear that A has been able to offer valuable advice to a
younger B, that C has spoken to D for the "inside scoop" on working
at D's employer, that E, a contractor, is pursuing a work lead
through F…
These new connections among our members have even come full
circle and led to valuable introductions and opportunities for us.
For example, B and S met at our First Birthday event. They met up
for coffee to talk further and later S put B in touch with a great
friend of hers, who is also in IT. When Galia and I were recently
looking for developers to talk to about website development, we
talked to B …who was now able to recommend we talk to S's friend's
company!
Social capital for careers
It's a truism that women are very often the ones who sustain
social ties. Women write the Christmas and birthday cards, and
women make the phone calls. However, when you look closely, a lot
of this time-consuming maintenance activity is directed squarely at
the family unit's connections. Women work to support the family's
social capital (who you know) rather than their professional social
capital.
By contrast, on average, these women's husbands and partners are
likely to be actively building professional relationships through
casual attendance at Friday night drinks and the odd late afternoon
or weekend golf game. Drinks and golf, we are often told by our
members, are not environments they feel especially comfortable in,
at any career or life stage. Chances are that the average
professional woman on a Friday evening is planning and buying the
groceries, dashing to relieve the nanny or get to childcare…
Not a priority
Published research shows that women do not invest heavily in
building their social capital and this can hinder their careers.
Our own research into networking revealed the surprising fact that
this disinclination to network can be just as prevalent with very
senior women, like CEOs of listed companies, or partners in major
law firms, as it is with their more junior counterparts. One senior
woman told us:
The blokes network all the time and we don't. Not
because of anything intentional but because most senior women are
really stretched for time. For me time is the biggest barrier, I
achieve all I need to professionally and the rest is for my
kids.
If you build it, will they come?
What have we seen in our events that speaks to women's struggle
to prioritise building their professional connections in a social
setting? Plenty! Women tell us they know how important networking
is. They want us to organize events to help them do that offline -
to complement the online opportunities we offer. They very often
pay the modest fee ahead of time, too. And then…
…they don't come. Being responsible professional women, they
almost all call or email to say they won't be attending. In the
last 24 hours before a general networking event, I now expect to
field calls from a good third of attendees who need to bow out due
to ill health (theirs or their child's), unexpected work, forgotten
commitments, etc.
"Something really worthwhile"
You may say that everyone gets ill, everyone gets busy. The
crucial difference is how the numbers track when there is a
concrete reason to attend, something over and above the prospect of
social chat. As the senior woman quoted above added,
It has to be something really worthwhile to get
involved in.
We had that kind of reason with our first networking event, I
believe - a relevant talker allied to the powerful novelty of
Professionelle's first offline event. Our second event, for our
first birthday, however, was chiefly designed for women to come
together and talk, and that wasn't enough to cut through all the
other demands on their time. Another, more recent, event has
reinforced this lesson, too. In both those cases, the women who
attended clearly made valuable connections and enjoyed themselves.
The issue we grappled with was how to make our events appeal so
strongly that more women would come along and benefit in a similar
fashion.
We began to see the answer as we undertook other events. In
particular, we learned a lot from our breakfast focus groups that
sought input on the Professionelle 'experience' and our venture's
future direction. These were meetings at which members' attendance
was in truth a favour to us - and we had a near 100% turnout of
those who agreed to come. We had sent a list of discussion topics
ahead of time, making it clear we had some significant issues to
discuss. The different response was striking!
Talk talk talk
If you can achieve 'cut through' by designing an event with a
meaty topic to address, you won't need to worry about awkward
silences. Whenever professional women get together in a room there
is never, ever, a lull in conversation or a shortage of good ideas
being expressed! Early on, I had my doubts, but I've learned to
relax and to trust that meaningful exchanges will happen. Indeed,
the ready willingness to talk has held across all the different
events we have organised. Moreover, the exchanges are always
respectful, supportive and helpful. Galia and I learn a lot by
listening, rather than talking.
Where possible, we always start our events with people briefly
introducing themselves around the table/s. Between that information
and the comments made in the course of the meeting, women can
easily identify who they would like to get to know a little better
at a subsequent meeting. It takes very little prompting to get the
discussions going, but it can certainly take a while at the end for
those "Could we meet again? I'd love to explore xyz with you…"
conversations to wrap up!
Follow up
In Professionelle's workshops and learning journeys, women have
extended opportunities to connect with each other. Some workshops
last a full morning, others are broken into two or three parts to
allow for 'digestion', practice, and exploration in between
sessions. These longer, and repeated, contacts of course offer
chances to build a stronger relationship base than can happen in
the space of networking drinks or breakfast meetings. In the latter
two, the first meeting does no more than open the door between
people. To reach what lies beyond, you have to follow up, as Galia
recently described in her article on Professionelle's Passion for
Networking.
What has been interesting is that women who have established
some understanding of each other through workshops are keen to have
online opportunities to keep up contact. This can be done by email
- for group privacy - or through Professionelle's forum. By
contrast, women who have become aware of each other online are keen
to meet offline to follow up "in the flesh". Online and offline
contacts appear to be very complementary.
A USA-based contact also recently sent us an excellent article
on how academics can leverage networking in their careers. It
addresses this "courtship" and relationship building process and explicitly considers the role and appropriateness
of offline and electronic contacts. The article is by Phil Agre
at the University of California in San Diego. See the takeaway box
for his summary of key angles for building new relationships.
So what?
In consulting, this is the perennial question! You do the
analysis, you work out what's happening - or not happening. Then
you have to come to a conclusion about what to do differently…
We have three 'so what's' from our observations across all of
our events so far:
- Design the event around a meaty topic to cut through women's
competing priorities and ensure it is compelling enough for them to
attend
- At the event, give women a chance to talk to each other, not
just listen, in order to create meaningful exchanges and
opportunities to learn from each other
- Back up the offline meetings with online contact options and
vice versa. (Achieving this simply and effectively will require an
upgrade to our site, a major project we have embarked on).
Professionelle's networking seminars
As a practical expression of the first two 'so what' points, we
have designed our Networking seminars.
In our seminars we present a brief introduction for half an hour
or less, and each table then discuss key questions relating
to the topic and, later, briefly present them back to the group.
We'll ensure you are sitting next to women you've never met before
so you really get to network as you work through the material.
Check out our events and workshops to find a
Professionelle networking seminar near you!
© Professionelle Ltd 2009