What We Talk about When We Talk about Networking

Networking, Social Capital & the Goldilocks Ask

I recently had a chance to sit down with Julia Freeland Fisher, Director of Education at the Christensen Institute, and Nitzan Pelman, CEO of Climb Together and founder of Climb Hire, for a live CGN webinar on tapping into our networks (some of you may recall, I wrote about these two phenomenal women in my post, “Who You Know … A Little Bit: The Power of Weak Ties”).

I love getting to learn from their constantly evolving thinking on cultivating and mobilizing social capital. And in this episode, we get super tactical on the how-to’s of networking for young people.

I hope you enjoy these few snippets from our conversation. The full webinar is also available at the bottom of this post.

Julia provides a quick overview of how networks moves people ahead and why we must build more opportunities for young people to practice help-seeking behavior:

Networking can often connote schmoozing, but young people can engage in important conversations with a certain ask in mind. Part of building relationships entails asking for help, and thankfully, as Nitzan explains, people actually like to be helpful:

Here’s what you should know about a Goldilocks ask — not too big and not too little:

Tips for more timid learners on how to talk to adults they don’t know? Julia delves into mindsets, tapping into existing networks, and building in practice opportunities with peers and near-peers:

Alumni networks are supposedly what learners and families often “pay for” when they choose a more selective school, but few of us know exactly how we fully leverage those relationships. In this vignette, Julia proffers a new way of thinking about how educators might tap into their alumni bases to facilitate more near-peer relationship-building opportunities for their students:

The full webinar is available below.