Networlding and Davos

"The bottomline is to target the top 100 socially responsible companies and provide them with the perfect support to get to the next level of innovating new products and services. From here the 100 will be asked to mentor, each, another small group of 10 along with more support from a team of experts. Within one year the results could realize more than 10,000 companies innovating new products and services, creating major economic revitalization."

- Melissa Giovagnoli

I was asked yesterday what my exact program would look like if I were to be asked to implement it. The highlights are as follows:

1. Hold a contest to identify the top 100 socially responsible companies in the world. This contest would require companies to provide a comprehensive action plan outlining the steps they would take to grow their businesses to a new level of effectiveness. Note that the contest would provide monetary and facilitated support from a "network" of complimentary experts (e.g. consultants, accountants, attorneys, bankers, engineers, analysts, technologists, and specialty thought leaders).
   
   Each company would have what I call a "Power-of-Ten Circle of Support." The magic number I have found after fifteen years of implementing effective networks is "10." In the science of networks this number plays out well as a network that is the most powerful in leveraging results.
   
   Also note that each of these experts of support for each of the 100 companies must have "facilitator" skills. Why? Because facilitators are "other-people focused." They are able to maestro the collective skills to create a result that is more than the sum of the individual parts. They "get" collaboration. This is not a time for people to grandstand. It's a time for all of us to "leave our egos at the door."
   


2. Each Networlding Power-of-Ten Facilitator Group would assist their respective socially responsible company that wins the contest for three months in achieving goals that address, certainly, financial gain, but also community support. This second step responds to something that Bill Gates said in his talk at Davos in 2008. He talked about "creative capitalism" which includes those less fortunate. Here I believe the challenge and also opportunity grows. I know I keep bringing up the concept of networks, but I believe there is a way to do "network thinking."
   
   What does this look like? It is all about thinking both analytically (left-brain dominant thinking) and creative (right-brain dominant thinking). This "whole-brain" thinking creates a network effect that, again, is more than the sum of its parts. Studies show that only 2-5% of the population are whole-brain thinkers. What if we locate these people who can optimize their network thinking ability to help companies build more opportunities?
   
   
3. Paying it Forward - Each participant is asked to continue the mentoring or peer-mentoring support to others who are either socially responsible business leaders or potential community leaders who come from disadvantaged communities. The visual here is about "rippling out and trickling down." These mentors who have gone through Networlding are "ready, willing and able" to help others and, in turn, have them paying forward the similar support that helps others with entrepreneurial interests who are disadvantaged.
   
   

Leveraging Past Initiatives to Help Even More People

One of the books I wrote several years ago was on the best cities to live in within the US. I visited these cities and offered them programs from one city to the next that had worked well. The cities were happy to share their successful initiatives. Everyone gained which is what my process is all about.

The surprising insight I got from these towns was that the leaders don't talk to each other enough. That's part of my program--to facilitate onnection and collaboration.

I became like the honeybee that cross polinates the flowers (by the way my name, Melissa, means honeybee in Greek.) I enjoy facilitating collaboration. Over the last 20 years in business I see company after company--big companies like Motorola, American Express, etc. with top leaders who state, "We have a problem with siloism." Well, if you apply the human touch of facilitating collaboration among diverse groups within an organization and you are good at facilitation which is a skill that needs to be constantly developed, then you should be able to help companies move from a myopic and siloed way of doing business to a more collaborative and creative state.

So with this you get innovation. With my process the first step is to find people who have similar and complimentary values to the following: 1)making a difference, 2)integrity, 3)innovation and 4)collaboration. To my surprise I keep finding people who connect to these values--at least some of them. From this group of what I call "Can Do People" we are able to accomplish goals much faster.

I also ran a United Way for a couple of years and found that many people want to volunteer but they don't know how to do so in a modest way, still making a difference and managing their time well. My approach is to first start with small projects where goals are simple and achievable and help these people experience quick wins. From here these people can then move on to other projects. I am always working on live events and initiatives to help individuals and groups achieve goals faster through a network approach.

Please. Bring on more questions as I do believe they are helpful. I am not offering something that I have not tried in many venues. I also have many others who have worked with me, volunteering their time. I believe there would be a lot of people who would like to get involved initaitves to help others in need but they just need someone to give them a process.