Internal Networking: Window of Opportunities

When you hear the word “Networking” What do you think immediately about?

Most probably about external networking: Participating in networking events, conferences, seminars, training, the local chamber of commerce gathering etc. Right?

Did you think about ‘Internal Networking’? Probably not.

Rarely do people or professionals consider the importance of Internal Networking with their colleague or those they working with at the same office.

It makes me sad, that many people will spend many hours with their colleagues, at the same office (many times much more than the time they spend with their own family) but do know very little about their colleague.

Yet, every employee or collaboration party within an organization , whatever their position in the organization, represents their own network of endless relationships simply waiting to be discovered.   

In one of my previous blog post [Read it HERE] I discussed the importance of being proactive in connecting with your colleagues.

Now, I want to share with you one of the powerful internal processes that can get you to build faster, stronger and more sincere relations with your colleagues.

It is not a secret that interactions between employees are an essential part of any organization.

Whether it is receiving help from colleagues or gaining access to crucial information, developing a strong internal network makes it easier for an employee to get things done.

But does internal networking can be improved to impact the performance of the employees and as a result accelerate the growth of the company?

A DETERMINING FACTOR FOR INTERNAL NETWORKING

From 2004 to 2009, a study done by 3 researchers: Andrew Parker, Daniel S. Halgin & Stephen P. Borgatti, surveyed 150 employees of a global IT company about their internal networking habits.

Each year, the employees (from different 11 countries)  were asked to detail the number of colleagues they interacted with and how often these interactions took place. These yearly analyses of internal networks were then correlated with employee performance evaluations.

The study results suggest that a manager’s feedback can greatly impact an employee’s desire to develop or reduce his or her internal network.

Even more interesting, the authors highlight that employees with positive feedback from their superiors increased their interactions with existing contacts and developed new contacts.

It seems that the correlation between positive feedback and increased internal (and external) network development suggests that feedback has a strong impact on individual confidence levels.

The decision to expand one’s network and connect with more colleagues requires a degree of risk-taking (e.g., choosing who to contact? Can I trust them? Are they reliable? etc.).

As positive feedback from a manager promoted employee confidence, individuals developed the energy to expand their networks despite possible risks.

In contrast, employees with negative feedback reduced their number of contacts and interacted more often with those in their limited network.

The only explanation we can think of is that by undermining confidence, negative feedback can cause employees to focus on contacts they already know and trust.

The authors note that similar conclusions had already been reached in 2003 concerning the CEOs at companies in difficult situations.

During a crisis, these CEOs had a tendency to limit their network to familiar contacts.

The result was that they lost the opportunity to discover new ideas, which might have helped them overcome their current challenge!

OPEN A NEW WINDOW

In evaluating the process of giving and receiving feedback within companies and the influence it has on internal networking, I came across a very interesting model known as the “Johari Window”. 

Psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham developed this model for their group process program and they illustrate it as following:

The “Johari Window” model is a communication window through which you give and receive feedback and information about yourself and others.

Look at the four panes in terms of columns and rows. Let me explain in few more words:

The first pane, the “Arena,” refers to things that I know about myself and about which the others know as well. This pane represents information that flows freely and openly between myself and others. In other words, this behavior is public and available to everyone.

The more information shared by the individual with the group (by better, more open and more frequent internal networking) the bigger the “Arena” pane gets and  the level of trust increases between individuals or between an individual and the group.

The second pane, the “Blind Spot,” refers to information that I do not know about myself but of which the others may know. The may learn it indirectly from others or directly from my verbal cues, body language, the choice of words in my verbal communication etc. For instance, I may not know that I always look down when I tell a personal story, but the others may see that.

Pane three, the “Facade” or “Hidden Area,” refers to a formation that I know about myself but the others do not know.

In this pane, the scholars refer to things we hide from others, like feelings, opinions, emotions. Many times out of the fear that if the others knew them they might hurt, reject or attack the individual.

The fourth and last pane, the “Unknown” refers to things that neither I nor the group knows about me.

This is a very interesting pane and it may include things like unrecognized resources, early childhood memories etc. The internal boundaries of this pane change depending on the amount of feedback sought and received.

I should mention that there will always be part of “you” that will always remain unknown also to you.

This is, in short, the Johari Window model.

It is important to understand that the panes in this model are interdependent (and I think it is quite obvious).

In other words, changing the size to one pane forces the size of corresponding panes to change also.

When dealing with Internal networking, the goal of asking for feedback or giving feedback is to move information from the “Blind Spot” and the “Facade” panes into the “Arena” pane, where everyone accesses it.

Every employee of a company can move new information from the Unknown into the Arena by giving and receiving feedback. Thus, helping directly to get new insights and inspiration to help the company growth. 

Trust can be built in any kind of relationship with this model too. If you and your colleague increase your own Open Areas together, it can be easier to communicate with each other and handle any kind of situation.

Given the above and the results of the different studies, my advice to you is to examine how to encourage your employees to expand their networks and highlight how this can, in fact, improve performance and future evaluations of the company.

INTERNAL NETWORKING = COMPANY GROWTH

Internal Networking allows for employees to network within the same company or organization. This allows new synergies to evolve between staff members that wouldn’t be evident without internal networking.

Internal networking can help a company’s team building, mentoring, and creative strategy efforts.

It has been shown that companies who develop a great feedback system, helped to promote internal networking and as a result have higher retention rates.

The reason for that is because people feel more connected to each other and the company.

Internal networking promotes better relationships and internal resources for your staff, which in turn increases your company’s productivity.

In my daily work, I help companies, professional firms, and organizations to implement various actions such as mentoring, training, masterminds etc. to provide support and opportunities for employees to expand their networks and help directly to the growth of the company.

A totally new window of opportunities….

Over to you my Reader.
Are you making an effort to network inside the company’s walls?How do you give feedback to your employees in your business? Does it affect the internal networking and communication within the company? Please share.