By Bob Littell, President, The Enrichment Company, LLC
Many people have been “NetWeaving” all their lives… just without calling it that. When I sent a copy of my book, “The Heart and Art of NetWeaving”, to Arthur Blank, those were his exact words: “I’ve been doing this my entire life, just without a word for it.”
So what is NetWeaving? Although NetWeaving isn’t an attack on traditional ‘networking’, rather than searching for persons who may be of help to you, or ways that you can benefit, NetWeaving is known as a Golden Rule and Pay it Forward form of networking.
It’s a different mindset that causes people to operate with these 3 objectives in mind: “Who do I know who might benefit meeting this person?”. . . or “What information or resources do I have that might be of help to this person?”. . . or finally, “Has this person impressed me so much that I need to get to know him or her, and after being convinced of their exceptional capabilities, ask him or her to become part of my “Trusted Resource Network”.
Over the quarter of a century that I have been operating with the NetWeaving mindset, the thing that has stood out the most has been the number of ‘ripple effect’ stories that have occurred. The story below is only one of many examples of the ‘ripple effect’ moments that have enriched my life. Atlanta Way 2.0, has issued a call to their Activators to make the same kind of connections through introductory meetings among friends and associates to create a stronger civic fabric in Atlanta. They hope to develop an entire ‘library’ of ‘ripple effect’ stories that would make anyone proud to live in Atlanta.
As the result of one connection a series of cascading events and subsequent introductions occurred that, in the end, made magic things happen. This isn’t the entire story but here’s some of the amazing ripples that were created from a simple reconnection with an old friend.
I had been Marketing VP of an insurance company in Dallas, Texas, but was now living in the Atlanta area. I had been asked to speak on my NetWeaving concept at a morning meeting in Dallas and so I came in the day before. With an open evening, I called a friend, someone who had reported to me at the insurance company, asking if we might have dinner. He said that unfortunately, he had been invited to a program at SMU. The reception was being jointly sponsored by the National Hispanic Corporate Council (NHCC) and SMU and it was a major announcement that SMU had been selected as a major executive training center for Hispanic Corporate Leaders.
As we walked in, one of the first persons we met was Pat Martinez, the Executive Director of NHCC, and after I explained a little bit more about NetWeaving, which she immediately liked, she took me over and introduced me to Yolanda Casey with Hallmark, one of the NHCC sponsor companies. She, like Pat, was attracted to the NetWeaving concept, and so we promised to keep in touch.
There were several ‘ripples’ that occurred in between, but subsequently, after watching a Hallmark Christmas commercial I saw on TV, a lightbulb went off in my NetWeaving mind. The commercial showed a child holding a ‘talking’ storybook that had been recorded by and sent from a Grandparent.
I had been volunteering in Atlanta for an adult literacy program and got the idea that reading and recording one of these Hallmark recordable children’s storybooks would make for a great incentive for an illiterate parent or grandparent to really improve their reading skills. I followed up with Pat Martinez at Hallmark who introduced me to Carol Hallquist, the Executive Director of the Hallmark foundation.
She liked the idea but she noted that they wouldn’t send a single copy, or even just a few books at a time. Although initially, I was turned down, after telling her what I had in mind, and after asking if I was able to find a place that they could ship large quantities of the books, would they agree to send them.
7,000 Children’s Recordable Storybooks arrived. Bill Bolling, then Executive Director of the Atlanta Food Bank, agreed to receive and store them. Initially, in addition to literacy groups, we distributed them to schools within the Atlanta area. Then when they ran out of space, needing more room for food, my friend, Orlando Lynch, owner and CEO of Atlanta Peach Movers agreed to store and allow non-profits to come pick up even small quantities.
And although Hallmark had been sending the books with the idea in mind of a parent or godparent making a recording while reading the book to a child or godchild, especially one who was in a distant location, I came up with an approach in which a terminally ill child would be the one to record and read the storybook. Can you imagine were you the parent or grandparent of a child who recorded a storybook but didn’t make it, that would become one of your most treasured possessions.
With that idea in mind, we began distributing them to Camp Sunshine, Camp Twin Lakes, and CURE Childhood Cancer. By then, and after sending some of the stories to Hallmark, in addition to the storybooks, they began shipping toys and stuffed animals of all sorts, many which went to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta as shown in this picture of Carol Hallquist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Setting up and hosting NetWeaving meetings used to be somewhat of a logistical challenge since almost all of these meetings had to be done in-person. But today, with Zoom and other tools to set up and host ‘virtual’ face-to-face meetings, it’s as easy as sending an email or text.
If you are one of those people who have been NetWeaving all your life, just without having a word for it, or, if you really like the concept and want to learn how to embrace the concept in your business and personal life, go to http://www.atlantaway.org and register as an Activator. We will share ways that you can learn more and create and then share some of your own NetWeaving ‘ripple effect’ stories.
Then just Pay It Forward, and tell friends about it, and ask them to do the same. As in the book and the movie of the same name, who knows, we just might change the world.
