Guest post by Tera Qualls, project manager, Community Research Institute, Dorothy A. Johnson Center, Grand Valley State University

“Six Degrees of Separation.” Milgram found it, Kevin Bacon made it famous, but the truth is we all have six degrees between us and who we need to or want to connect with. Today with social networks the degrees may even be less, but the point is that the “Six Degrees of Separation” do exist. Maxim Sytch, facilitator of this session and professor in the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, says, “You can be stuck with your network for a significant amount of time.” For this reason alone, it is essential to develop relationships to build a good network and essentially decrease your degrees of separation from individuals in your own career and life goals.

The session Understand and Leverage Personal and Organizational Networks walked NGen participants through a discussion on how we could better develop and leverage our own networks. It was an effective beginning to a conference where networking is one of the most important takeaways.

There are three distinct benefits of networks.
According to Sytch, “There are three fundamentally distinct benefits you can get from your networks: trust, private information, and informal power.” 

1. Trust provides credibility to your network.
2. From an effective network you should get private information, such as knowledge, resources, and career opportunities you cannot find publically.
3. Informal power is the power you hold in the network over ideas and resources.
The level at which you receive these three benefits depends on the level of connectedness between the members of your network. The more connected these individuals are the more trust in the network, but the less private information and informal power you receive, and vice versa.

Build your own “Rainmaker Network”.
“If you want to maximize on your network advantage, you must have a cohesive network and become a broker of information and resources, ” according to Sytch.  A “Rainmaker Network” is the most maximized network. This network is one in which the individual at the hub of the network has maximized there resources to a level where they are receive the optimal amount of the benefits listed above. Some ways you can support the development of your “Rainmaker Network” include:

1. Actively shape your job description to put yourself in a situation where you work on cross functional teams or projects.
2. Manage your position in the spatial architecture of your organization. Space is one of the most important pieces of a network, be close to those you want in your network.
3. Finally, engage in shared activities, such as conferences, boards, or other professional development opportunities outside of your daily work load.
 
Determine how much energy you are spending on your network and how much is really needed.
Sytch wrapped the session with a discussion on where we spend our energy. He mentioned the importance of identifying where you spend your most energy in your network and whether it’s on the right people. It is important for all of us to take a hard look at who is in our network, think about our life goals, and then spend our energy on the right people to meet those goals. Sytch says, “We only have so much energy, don’t waste it on individuals in your network who cannot reciprocate equal benefits to you.”