In her white paper “Connected Citizens: The Power, Peril and Potential of Networks,” Diana Scearce shares with us some characteristics of over 70 experiments that focused on helping people connect, be heard and engage in action.  Before I list the 5 key elements and how it can apply to your career, it’s important to note that these elements require engagement of both sides of the network brain: off-line and on-line interaction.  You can’t do it all on the web and you limit your reach if you try to do it all in person.  An effective use of both sides will undoubtedly give you the best results.

According to the U S Bureau of Labor Statistics 70% of all a jobs found by networking.  Even college students realize this.  The GMAC reports that the number one source for employment for MBA graduates is their own personal network.  That’s right, not even the colleges can produce better results and they setup programs to work with employers directly.  Networking is without a doubt the most critical skill for long term career success.  Here are a few considerations for building today’s network centric career strategy.

Consulting the masses. This element focuses on actively listening.  If you’re online, you’ll want to listen to conversations and openly asking for advice.  When I first began developing my career plans, I would just read what people were posting on the web and try to incorporate it myself.  This could be as simple as copying the format of a resume that looked good to me.  Yet, this simple step seemed to be lacking something.  Results weren’t impressive.  There’s so much to applying such advice that is left out of the articles.  So I began to contact other people for support, mostly by email.  You know….that multiple perspectives thing.  This improved things somewhat.  The difficulty was that it was hard to find someone willing to help.  Little did I know I was looking for support in the wrong environment.    

It wasn’t until I truly engaged in discussion groups that I began to really learn what it takes to build a real plan.  LinkedIn discussion groups became extremely useful as I engaged in debate and commentary on topics that were important to me.  As I ran into the same people over and over online, I began to develop relationships with them.  NOTE:  You need numerous interactions with people to begin developing a relationship.  Not just a single email.  Eventually, these people began referring me to others.  This is growing your online network. 

At the same time I was engaged in online discussion groups, I began the same activity, except this time I was meeting folks face to face.  Strangely enough, the number of interactions is fairly similar.  You make an initial contact, then you follow up with and stay in touch periodically to maintain the familiarity.  Hopefully you find something you are both interested in so that you have the opportunity to work together.  I develop activities all the time where I need support from others, giving me a reason to contact my network.  However, you can’t just constantly ask people for support.  You must give back.  Reciprocity is vital.

Striking a creative plasma.  A plasma is a unique environment where, under the right temperatures, pressures and ambient gas, atoms will collide with each other and generate ions; thereby, making it highly conductive .  You see the results when you look at the sun or the stars at night.  Now, imagine yourself among a group of like-minded, eager individuals like yourself.  Everyone is discussing career topics with great interest and drive, bouncing ideas off of one another and eventually creating ingenious solutions to the problems.  How much brighter would your future be if you could create this type of environment or network you could tap into as needed? 

It can be done.  Take my friend, Chris Perry, for example.  He started the site CareerRocketeer, a site for great career advice.  He started out very small and now has a huge following.  You should be able to find many sites like Chris’ that have numerous authors, experts and coaches that you can reach out to for advice.  These sites give you access to a lot of people wanting answers to the same problems you have.  Post your comments, email questions and most of all get engaged.  To do this offline, you need to find groups and associations that mimic this same online behavior.  Of course, you’ll need to do more than just become a member.  You must be energized and willing to bump into people.  This is how energy is shared and new things are created.

Embrace diversity.  Most people approach their networking strategy the way they address their marketing strategy.  When we create a marketing plan, we identify a specific group of people with very specific characteristics that we target.  Why? Because this helps us narrow down the world into a small group of people who are most likely interested in what we have to share.  We often engage in networking the same way, except that the characteristics of our target audience are the same characteristics we have.  We seek out people just live ourselves!   As Einstein once said, “solutions are not found within the same paradigm the problem was created.”  If we continue to always consult like-minded people, we may always get the same answer.  If your network isn’t providing you the answers you seek, you may be suffering from a lack of diversity of thought.   I’ve improved my network online by joining international groups.  Their perspectives bring new insight into my assessments and even the definition of my career related issues. 

As an engineer, I always sought to consult engineers when making career changes.  They were just like me so their experience should be similar.  It was. So were their suggestions and my results.  Most of us struggle to understand where our skills can take us in our career because we have such a limited view of the world.   While you may find that the problems you see with your career are fairly common, the approach others take can be very different.  I have found much of my career to be trial and error.  Now, I use the expertise of my network to learn about pitfalls before I unknowingly dive into one.

Mutual Support.  Have you ever joined a group on LinkedIn where nothing really seemed to be happening?  There were no engaging discussions, useful links, job leads and articles.  You probably didn’t stay with that group for long.  People usually stay engaged when they see some benefit.  In the previous example, my network was normally engaged with a bunch of engineers to solve a single problem.  However, in networks that promote mutual support, members often find more reasons than the single issue they initially sought to resolve.  The network provides opportunities to engage with other members, by providing solutions as well as finding them.  Quality exchanges of ideas will also lead to the development of trust, where you will find that the network will respond favorably and open itself up a little more to expose you to more growth opportunities.

Readily applicable knowledge.  Have you ever read a book that you could never figure out how to apply to your situation?  There’s little that is more frustrating than advice you can’t use.  A real network-centric strategy will offer solutions that can be implemented right away.  No one wants the “take two aspirins and call me in the morning” type of guidance.  This type of give and take will allow you to create a network that lasts over your whole career because we all bond to people who genuinely help us. 

In solving issues in a network, it’s very important to clearly outline what the goals are, what you need people to do and provide some sort of feedback path so that learning can take place.  Leave little to interpretation.  However, you’ll need to give members of the network room to stretch out their creativity for solving problems.  Some of the best networks I’ve seen are almost like a fish tank.  You throw the idea in the water and all the fish rush up to the surface to chomp on it.