Making it Happen

Another form of association is ‘networking’. Now this is usually taken to imply some sort of ‘business’ network, structured or unstructured, formal or informal, but in truth you and I ‘network’ all the time. The relationships we have with people with whom we network are looser than those with whom we associate. We see them less often, sometimes on a regular basis and sometimes at random.

Although network relationships are less ‘tight’ than those we associate with they do have a particular quality we may not have with our associates or family. We network with people we know, like and trust. You can’t choose or select your family and often your associates come together for random reasons, but you can select who you network with and there are a multitude of reasons and purposes for forming or joining networks.

The real value of networks is this is usually where you find the people who you really want to associate with. You can choose who you associate with within networks but not necessarily on your ordinary, less organised, social or business life, especially the latter.

Networks are larger groups of people engaged in various activities, but they tend to be composed of people at a higher level of consciousness than those you may be associating with. You may even come across partners in believing within the networks you contribute to.

I say ‘contribute to’ because that’s what joining networks is all about. A lot of people get networking entirely wrong – they go there to ‘get’ something from the network but it’s the other way around. Dr Ivan Meisner, the founder of the global business network BNI adopted the term ‘givers gain’ which is really what networking is about. You and I contribute to networks and forget about what might come back to us, but something always does.