(Writing in from Central Java, Indonesia): Why do companies have such a hard time getting their employees to network? Obviously, they don't realize that networking isn't just for their sales people to win new business. It's also about getting all of their employees, vendors and partners to talk to each other and share information that can create better ideas and more value for customers.
Having been an entrepreneur for seven years, I know that we’re a pretty chatty bunch. We’ll talk to anyone who'll listen and give us feedback (and to many who won’t, as well!).
But having worked and consulted at a number of large companies in my career, I’ve seen that reinventing the wheel is often the path of least resistance there. Sharing institutional knowledge, even getting people to talk to one another on a regular basis often requires a cultural shift.
Even when people WANT to talk to each other, they don’t know who to talk to, and the lack of efficient systems makes communication cumbersome. Sure, email gets information from one place to another faster, but you still have to know who to send the email to.
That’s why I was fascinated by yesterday’s IHT article, A web of intelligence: ‘MySpace’ for US spies.
At a conference last year, an attendee from a Fortune 500 firm approached me after my panel presentation and asked if I had any ideas for helping her division in Texas network more effectively with her colleagues in Minnesota. Maybe we can learn something from the government about getting far-flung groups with common interests to collaborate.
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