Are You a Networking Muppet? by Jason Armishaw

I’ve always enjoyed Ben Young’s blog. His posts are short, to the point, and get you thinking. In fact, it was Ben who helped start me on my blogging journey. While scanning his blog one evening, I came across an old post I enjoy called ‘The muppet ratio’. In it, Ben explains whether or not an event is worth staying at based on the people attending. Is it a coincidence that I found myself thinking about ‘the muppet ratio’ the next morning? I think not. 

Arriving early for breakfast, I had the first pick of meeting people as they rolled up for the seminar. One by one they all rushed in. Me, bustling around, trying to play it cool; one hand grasping a bagel, the other shaking the hands of people new to me. And then....5...4...3...2...1... 

“Hi, I’m Jason. What brought you guys to the event this morning?” I said. 

“hah, we don’t know. The boss made us come. Quite frankly, I’m not too keen to be here.” the two of them replied. 

This caught me off guard. I didn’t know quite what to say so I used one of my ‘exit lines’ and got out of there. Phew...

After my escape, I started thinking about my experience. Several questions crossed my mind. They were:

- If they didn’t want to attend the seminar (for learning or networking) why did the boss make them come? Did he really think these staff members were going to be productive and make a good impression?

- Were they doing more damage to their brand (both personally and professionally) by sticking around at an event they had no interest in?

This seems like Muppet behaviour to me. If you’re going to an event, whether by choice or because you have to, try to enjoy yourself! Nobody expects you to ‘score’ the biggest deal of the year, however, it would be nice (for your own self-confidence and to keep your boss happy) if you made one new friend. It’s not hard, it just takes a little effort of your half. What do you really have to loose? 

For me, the event was a success. I left happy, having met three new people and successfully connecting each of them to someone who could help their business. I also built a closer relationship with another contact that I met earlier in the year. 

Link to ‘The muppet ratio’

Link to Ben Young’s blog

Link to ‘Exit lines’

Link to Jason Armishaw's blog, The People People

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Comments

[Jasonarmishaw]

Thanks for the mention Jason. You're awesome!

[Andy Lopata]

Any individual attending an event should certainly take responsibility for what they get out of it and how they act when there.

However, for me the real villain of the piece is the boss who sent staff along without any guidance, training or idea of what success would look like. I do come across a lot of people who network because they are told to and they have no idea what they are supposed to do or what the goal is. As a result they hang around with their colleagues and leave together proclaiming the event to be a 'waste of time'.

Even worse are those people tasked with collecting as many business cards as possible by their boss, whose first act the next day will be to ask how many sales they made at the event!

[Jason Jacobsohn]

Great additional thoughts Andy. I agree that the boss did not do a good job of encouraging them to want to be there. Companies should educate their employees on the value of relationship building. That is why they need to hire you!