Objective:
- To get students engaged in networking
- To get students to understand what networking is
- To get students to see the value of networking
- To get students to acquire networking skills and techniques
Overview:
It goes without saying that networking is a really important activity. Yet students are often reluctant to engage in relationships beyond their immediatecircle. They have powerful aversions to networking partly based upon fears and misconceptions about what it is: selling (it's all about selling yourself and pitching), that it is about being an extrovert (sociable and bubbly), that they as students have nothing to offer (‘who would want to talk to me?'), that it seems pointless (students will have stories about going to events collecting business cards and nothing ever happening). They will have a multitude of good reasons why they can't and shouldn't do it. The challenge is to turn round these misconceptions and show students that networking is valuable, doable and indeed enjoyable.
Activity:
The first task is to get the misconception and fears about networking out into the open and to introduce different versions of what networking might be. This can't be done by asking students about their fears and why they don't currently engage in networking: this is sensitive and students may feel embarrassed talking about it.
The session begins with the value of networks and networking. This should be interactive, talking to students about their networks, how they found opportunities, but also using statistics about how many jobs are filled via networks rather than open advertising. This part of the session functions as a warm up and should get students feeling positive about networking.
The second activity is to get them into groups and ask them to draw a 'good' networker. This will bring out some of the negative misconceptions about it:students will draw someone who is extroverted, experienced, knowledgeable, valuable, confident, good at pitching – all the things they may not be good at. This is your opportunity to demonstrate that a good networker is someone who is good at listening, (not talking), it is someone who is genuine and open (rather than focussed on their own agenda) and that it is about building trust and rapport leading to a lasting relationship.It's an opportunity to discuss their value as students – which they are very anxious about as they have little work experience. Here a discussion about their value in terms of innovation, fresh thinking, new ways of doing things is important.
The third activity is a group brainstorm around how to create rapport with someone: suggestions will include, smiling, shaking hands, complementing people, being helpful, listening to what people have to say. This section could include a listening activity, for example where individuals have to listen to partners and paraphrase.
The final session involves practical activity. The students will network amongst themselves. It's important that they shake hands here: this is partly about creating the rapport, discussed earlier, but also about adopting a more professional outlook and attitude. The students will find this both fun and challenging and some students will become anxious about it so it is worth doing a bit of role play to try it out: i.e. demonstrations of how to shake hands and introduce yourself. The result is that students will feel more professional.
The assignment is:
Find a person, introduce yourself: impress upon them your integrity and openness.
Reflect on what you did and report:
One positive technique; One negative technique
The feedback will draw out feelings about handshaking, observations about body language, about personalising conversations by using the other person's name.
Skill Development:
This activity has been delivered with 3rd year Design and Visual Arts student, 2nd year Photography students and MA Contemporary Art students at Coventry University.
Through a clear group debrief, students' misconceptions about networking are reversed.
Students understand the networking is a skill that they can practice and develop. They learn the importance of networks and collaboration. They learn that networking and professionalism is a 'performance' which they can adopt when necessary – in this context it can be useful to talk about wearing different hats as they often think of themselves as 'students' which can carry a lot of negative connotations.
They feel more comfortable with the idea of networking – they thought it was all about sales and the pitch but find it is actually something they could do. Some students struggle with the handshake, they find it very unusual but with a bit of practice and shift in attitude, do get it.
A group of students who know one another is not as good as a mixed group where they might be introducing themselves to strangers. However, the practical element can be modified by asking students to find out something new about their colleagues, or to find out a shared interest they didn't know they had with a colleague which will help build rapport.