Super Connectors and Real-World Social Networks

I was reading Clive Thomson's piece in Wired this month on  Real-World Social Networks vs. Facebook 'Friends' and was struck by two important concepts identified in the underlying research from MIT, the super connector and the strength of links in face-to-face networks.


The tradition image of the super connector as the sales director or charismatic MD did not hold up under investigation and was more likely to be "some random guy"usually over worked and over stressed.  

In a world on LinkedIn, Facebook, BeBo and organisers stuffed with names and numbers it is very easy to think you are building an amazing business network.  The reality is that a business network, be it a project team or business partners, are significantly more affective when the people have met, have an experience or at the very least spoken to each other .  The scientific expression is "the office metabolism tightens", I call it "doing business with friends".


So what to do with these insights from Thomson and the researcher Weber?

• Find that diamond in the rough, the super connector and leaverage their skills inside and outside the organisation.  Maybe you're "that randon guy", go get some credit!
  
• Put the same effort into your face-toface network as you do your online one, quality not quantity.
  

Great Expectation

How setting expectations makes life easier for all concerned

One the the roles of a Relationship Manager (be it CRM, Account or Project Director) is to balance the requirements, sometimes demands, of your clients with the constraints of resources, budgets, time or quality.

One of the most affective ways to handle this is managing expectations. Sometime it's OK to say "not right now" or "can this wait" or even "I can do this but we need to agree a scope change". It sounds so simple, so why do we find it so difficult to manage expectations?

Too often in business we forget that clients are people too. For the most part they are reasonable and will work with you to achieve your mutual success but you must communicate with them. The only ever appear unreasonable because we don't understand their view point.

I have been exploring this topic as part of improving service levels with clients and a very interesting fact came out. Upon review of 2nd and 3rd line calls the client was willing, in almost every case, to move the resolution date, upon request. What was even more interesting was at service reviews satisfaction levels went up! They felt more informed and in greater control of the situation.

Even more interesting,the support teams satisfaction levels went up because they felt more in control and under less pressure.


There are some great articles out there on this topic, one of my favourites is by Naomi Karten.