At Neu21 we have a practice, where each quarter someone in the team takes on the role of coach for someone else in the team, and in the last rotation, Gus Balbontin took on the role of my coach.

I asked Gus about how he thinks about growing a business, and what he told me was not what I thought he’d say, and it’s one of the most valuable pieces of advice I’ve ever received.

He talked about connected networks, not just the number people that follow you on LinkedIn, but the quality, diversity and health of those connections.

He was referring to the network effect, the phenomena that powers the internet and social media, but it’s equally powerful for humble folks like you an me. And even more powerful when unleashed within an organisation, or contact centre.

Here’s how we are thinking about it. Kudos to Hannah Gee’s also at Neu21 for her articulate words.

Internally, externally and within our own relationships, we are a Networked Ecosystem.

An ecosystem’s health is measured the same way as the health of a network.

This means that to establish a healthy, thriving ecosystem of people, contact centres, businesses and knowledge economy initiatives, we need to focus on increasing four elements:

The number of nodes.
The first indicator of how healthy a network is can be found by counting the number of nodes that make up the network.
The diversity of nodes.
The second indicator of how healthy a network is can be found by looking at the diversity of nodes. If everyone in the network, or ecosystem, is the same, growth will be severely limited. Efforts should also consider customers, suppliers and vendors, contractors, support services and other relevant ecosystem players.
The number of connections between nodes.
The third indicator is one of the stronger ones, if you have a healthy and diverse number of nodes but they are not connected, your network or ecosystem will definitely not be healthy. Building connections is the most important focal point and efforts.
The quality of the connections between nodes.
The final indicator of network or ecosystem health is the quality of the connections between the different nodes. Nodes might be connected but if the connection is of low quality, this might mean nothing more than an email back and forth. For a healthy, thriving ecosystem to get established, these connections need to be of an extremely high quality. This means that the various nodes (or business, support services and other ecosystem players) know of each other, know what they can do for each other and have a low barrier to engaging with each other, like being able to pick up the phone at any time.

I’m now being more intentional about the connections I have within my network, not just for my benefit, but for everyone else in it.

Here’s what I’ve learnt so far.

The common enemies of a connected network:

Siloes - the first barrier to break down inside the organisation, it stops collaboration and learning and the ability to get important work done.
Scarcity mindset - fearing competition, reach out to other people who do work like you, in your category. Leaders can share their experiences and learn from each other without giving away trade secrets.
Self-awareness - not thinking you need to build a connected network, I can speak from experience that the best and most valuable connections I have are those I never expected I would need. Think about the network they have not just the connection you have with them, this opens up huge opportunities.
Sameness - we surround ourselves with people like us, and we do this unconsciously so take an inventory of your network and work on building it up with people that have different views, experience, backgrounds, gender. Aim to make your self uncomfortable and be open to having your strongly held views, changed.

For cultures to thrive they must adapt, and the quality of it’s networks will be a major factor in its success with being able to succeed in a volatile, uncertain and complex world. And it all starts with how we foster connection.