Collaboration by Hansen Morten;

Author:Hansen, Morten; [HANSEN, MORTEN T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 5181885
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Published: 2009-05-11T16:00:00+00:00

The More, the Merrier

Many people think that the more contacts they have, the better. They mistakenly see the person who knows lots and lots of people as a dream networker. This belief runs deep.4 In his influential book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell identified Dallas businessman and musical producer Roger Horchow as a supreme networker: “He keeps on his computer a roster of 1,600 names and addresses, and on each entry is a note describing the circumstances under which he met the person.”5 Gladwell goes on to assert that “the first—and most obvious” reason people such as Horchow are aces at connecting is that they “know lots of people.”6

With all due respect to Gladwell, such beliefs are misplaced. Research shows that “the more, the merrier” does not necessarily yield the best results, at least not when it comes to networking in business. Why? Because networking is costly. It takes time and effort to nurture relationships. In my study of Hewlett-Packard in the 1990s (referred to in chapter 3), product-development teams that had many contacts took 20 percent longer to finish projects than those with few contacts. Team members spent time interacting with others at the expense of completing their own work.7 For networks to be valuable, benefits need to be greater than costs. Building a bulging Rolodex can actually undermine performance.

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