Something amazing happened in early 2000, which was only a couple months after I began giving national presentations on a new form of networking based on the Golden Rule (help other people first, and receive as a result).
Actually this ‘new’ concept I had created. . .”NetWeaving”. . .wasn’t really new at all. Persons like Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot, owner of the Atlanta Falcons, in his testimonials expressed the sentiments of many who learn about the concept, skill sets, and action steps: “I’ve been doing this my whole life. I just never had a word for it.”
There are three skill sets taught by NetWeaving, each of which ask you to listen differently than you would in the more familiar networking mindset. When talking with someone under the networking concepts, your goal is to discover if the person is a good prospect for you, or if they can help you in some way or may be a good prospect. In general, this isn’t a bad thing, after all it is normal to want to look out for you and your businesses best interests. However, we have found, and our hypothesis has been proven again and again, that just as in nature it is the symbiotic relationships that are most powerful and get passed on rather than those based on survival of the fittest. As time goes on (and sometimes much faster than you’d expect), your “Netweaving” applications will perform far better than the more self focused traditional networking. This often happens in surprising ways you won’t believe until you have experienced “NetWeaving” for yourself.
The three main concepts of NetWeaving are learning how to: (1) be a better connector of other people; (2) becoming a “no strings attached” provider of resources FOR other people; and (3) building a dependable resource network of people who are the best in their chosen industry or field.
Back then in the early 2000′s, when NetWeaving was just beginning to make its entry. a movie, based on a book by the same name – “Pay It Forward” had just come out. Responding to his teacher’s challenge to create something that could change the world, Trevor, one of the 7th graders who was played by Haley Joel Osment, goes to the blackboard and draws a set of small circles representing people – each connected by lines. The idea was that when someone does a favor for you, instead of paying him or her back, you have to ‘pay it forward’ and find ways to help 3 other people; then each of them had to do the same, and so on.
The key action step, in addition to the 3 skills sets for NetWeaving mentioned earlier, is the hosting of meetings in which you endeavor to introduce two people to each other. After discovering various ways that they could help each other in their businesses, one or even both of those people would then ask their host how they could return the favor. My response was always to ask those folks to PIOTTO (pass it on to two others).
Well, you may have guessed already that the funny thing is that after many of my presentations on NetWeaving people would approach me and tell my my concept is a lot like the movie “Pay it Forward.”
I finally saw the move and bought the book which led me to contact the author Catherine Ryan Hyde. She approved of the NetWeaving concept and saw the harmony of it with the Pay It Forward concept. Not only did Catherine trust me to publicly refer to NetWeaving as the business adaptation of “Pay it Forward”, but also invited me to serve as the first outside President of the Pay it Forward Foundation. The mission of the Pay it Forward foundation is to take the “pay it forward” message throughout the world. This year the foundation is at the Tipping Point of success toward this goal under a new President and its very energized members.
And guess what? So is NetWeaving as I am just launching the first “NetWeaving Ambassador” certification programs to train others how to teach NetWeaving and ‘pay it forward’ so as to create an army of coaches, trainers, consultants, or anyone involved in business development out their spreading the good word. I hope to make the two motto’s of NetWeaving a reality for people to discover as I certainly have: First, “Good things happen to those people who MAKE good things happen.” And secondly, “When you open the door for someone else, you never know who YOU will meet as a result”. That’s because what goes around, truly does come back around.
Bob Littell is a business networking speaker who teaches a unique strategic program for creating and nurturing trusted relationships which he calls NetWeaving, based on the pay it forward concept. He is one of the many talented business networking speakers you will find on MotivationalSpeakersWorldwide.com.