Our firm has been working on very intense and complex... capture/connection plans lately, and the results have been amazing . . .
In the last three weeks, I’ve helped diverse groups working together as a team– IT professionals, engineers, construction and design people, and strategic real estate advisors – navigate their way through some pretty big pursuits: Texas Health Resources, BP, The Mayo Clinic, United HealthCare, Microsoft, and other large companies with massive org charts. From a distance, many of these mega-corporations can seem absolutely impenetrable – how do you even get a foot in the door? For that matter, where is the door?
But, when everyone on your team is rowing, and working their own personal connections, the results can be surprising – once you get past the first 20 minutes. That part is like pulling teeth.
At first, everyone responds with blank stares and furrowed brows. It’s pretty painful.
The group: “But, Wayne, I don’t even know anyone at Microsoft!”
My response: “Okay, that may be true. But, who do you know that might already be “connected” at Microsoft?”
And suddenly, we’re off to the races. Fingers are flying as people log in to their LinkedIn profiles. “Googling” in it’s finest sense and “thin slicing”, who is strategically linked to who, takes on other dimensions. Blackberries beep as participants scroll through their contact lists.
All you need is a diverse group and a few laptops. It’s the Wikipedia phenomenon in action – the formerly blank-faced group is energized as they realize that they used to work with a woman who now works at BP, or that their former college roommate is in marketing at Microsoft. They are amazed at what they know, and what everyone else knows.
The best part: Two days later, they’re still thinking about it, adding names and information to the list of client intelligence.
Even better: After three or four days, the summary of what everybody knows is stunning.
When you bring together a diverse group, everybody has a little slice of information to contribute. There’s nothing quite like collective intelligence when trying to “connect” in a respective manner…with a complex client…with any client that matter.
