L&D In Action: Winning Strategies from Learning Leaders - The Power of Networks: Transforming our Lives, Communities, and Organizations

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

What's your network if you subtract the work? Your net. Your safety net to be more precise. So says Kimberli Jeter, Constellation Catalyst and founder of River Wolf Group. This week, KJ joins the show to discuss the power of networks, both personal and professional, as well as strategies organizations and leaders can use to help their people expand their networks.

You're listening to L&D in Action, winning strategies from learning leaders. This podcast, presented by Get Abstract, brings together the brightest minds in learning and development to discuss the best strategies for fostering employee engagement, maximizing potential and building a culture of learning in your organization. This week, I welcome to the show Kimberly Jeter. Kimberly is founder of and constellation catalyst at Riverwolf Group, a social impact consulting firm. Prior to opening her consultancy, Kimberly spent 25 years working for global impact organizations, including Susan G. Komen and Citizens Development Corps. Her

goal is to leverage the power of networks to help individuals, organizations, and communities thrive. Her 30-plus year career doing so spans six continents, bridges multiple generations, cultures, communities, sectors, and industries. Her work with Fortune 50s, international nonprofits, and multilateral government agencies already has a worldwide impact, but she hopes to bring the transformative power of networks to 100 million people. Let's dive in. the transformative power of networks to 100 million people. Let's dive in. Hello and welcome to LND in Action. I'm your host Tyler Lay and today my guest is Kimberly Jeter. KJ thanks so much for joining me. I'm happy to have you on the show.

I'm excited to be here thanks so much Tyler. Looking forward to our conversation today. Awesome. When we first met and chatted you referred to yourself as a nauseous networker. And I very quickly was able to relate to that term. I used to work and live in LA and San Francisco with a whole lot of entrepreneurs and in the sort of startup culture that exists over there. And boy, oh boy, do they love to network. Your network is your net worth.

And I feel like that's something that you might actually agree with. But at the end of the day, it was such a difficult thing to do. It was so hard to keep up with and sometimes it literally made me sick. I want to start off by just giving you the chance to explain what that means to you. Because I know at the end of the day, networks are at the crux of your message and your purpose. What does it mean to be a nauseous networker? How does networking empower you? How does this identity empower you and how does this identity empower you?

No, I love that. So thank you for being able to be relatable to Nausha's Networker because I'm extremely introverted. So when you go to a big space or event, it's like, I don't think I'm going to like this. I've literally driven to LA to go to a networking event, stood outside the door and just debated, do I really want to go in here? It was a new space. It was uncomfortable. Who am I going to meet? What's the culture like?

Am I going to find somebody to have a conversation with? And then met somebody outside the door. We chatted and walked in together and it was easier. And then once you get in there and you have a conversation with somebody, then it's delightful and it's amazing. You get to be like, who do I get to meet and lean into curiosity, generosity, and gratitude? And that makes it easier. The nauseous network, you brought up a good point.

A lot of people talk about your network is your net worth. And I don't agree because the concept of net worth makes networking feel transactional. And that's what's what sparks the nauseous part of me because I'm very relational and I don't ever want anybody to feel like I'm using them or things I just wanna show up and see who you are, what lights you up, what gets you excited and what am I gonna learn today meeting you. So it's really that focus on the relationships What lights you up? What gets you excited? And what am I gonna learn today? Meeting you.

So it's really that focus on the relationships. And I like talking about taking the work out of network. So we talk about your net and your network is your safety net. It's the trampoline to help you leap and take risks. It's also the safety net that catches you when you fall. And it's the team that you build to support you throughout your life, personally, professionally,

and the work that you do in the community or however you want to show up in the community. And your network and your net is sort of, to my mind, everybody that you've ever met that creates light and lift and gives you strength, support and inspiration. And those other places that seem really nauseous, if you're really uncomfortable about going there, that's work, right? Those are meetings until you find that right person. And then maybe it's building on the relationship. So it's kind of flipping it a little bit,

but that's why I get nauseous is because I don't like that transactional aspect. And I like to lean in with the curiosity, generosity and gratitude, and that transactional aspect. And I like to lean in with the curiosity, generosity and gratitude. And that makes networking fun. And that's the core of what I love and what I'm passionate about. I'm so happy you said it because I'm also in that camp.

I don't love the idea of equating it to one's net worth. I do fall into that trap though of hearing the word network, networking and thinking about the professional. I know, I think it's it's really become associated with that, even though, by definition, I might Google that, you know, Merriam Webster, a network is just any interconnected group or system of people or things. It's very simple. It's very broad, of course, it, you know, takes on

that pragmatic definition of, you know, the professional sense. But at the end of the day, we can pull back from that and talk about the net. I want to ask you to start off. Do you think that certain kinds of networks are more valuable than others, depending on who you are? We have our professional network of colleagues and associates. We also might have a network of those who share, you know, an aspect of identity with us. We might have, you know, a local community network. We have those who share a passion,

whether that's professional or independent of our profession, you know, that sort of network. If you're going to conferences or going to events for the things that you love, do you feel that any of these are more important than others, more valuable, maybe at different stages of one's life, or even one is maybe a place to start more so than others?

I think it's all the same, right? And right now when we're doing with hybrid and remote and that work-life balance and people wanting the flexibility, our life is our life. So our network is everybody, right? It's the support system that we have at home. And when we're dealing with family issues, life, things happening outside of work,

it's that support system that's critical. The professional network is very critical in terms of how do we spark innovation, build relationships, bust down silos and support each other so we have a thriving team and a thriving organization. And then in the community, right? That's where we live. We show up, we go play, we do pickleball, we go to art classes, we go to concerts and

all the things that bring us joy in that sense. If you're a foodie, you're going out to restaurants, you might have some friends and you're chatting about food. To my mind, networking is about showing up with love. What are the things that you love to do? What are the places you love to go? Who are the people that you love to do things with? What are the problems that you love to solve? If you show up with love anywhere and everywhere, that's the exciting thing about network. That pulls people to you when you're love anywhere and everywhere, that's the exciting thing about network that pulls people to you when you're all excited and you're lit up and you're jazzed. That gives you the energy to be successful at work, to be successful at home and to thrive.

If you're out of balance in any one of those areas, you're not going to thrive in any of them. Like if you're really doing great at work and you're disregarding everything else, you're going to feel you're going gonna feel that imbalance, right? And eventually it's gonna catch up with you at work. So I think they're all equal in terms of where we get it. And I've gotten some of my best ideas on a soccer field telling somebody about a problem I was working on at work and they had a completely different perspective and some new ideas and it was it was brilliant and like

so much of my my career success has been stimulated outside the office so I Love the question and that's what I hope is that people will expand their their view of their Their net and their network maybe look at things as nodes You know, What are your

anchor knots for these different areas? And then how do you expand them in some places? You'll have big gaps in your net, and that's okay. And sometimes you might want to fill them. And other times you have them really tight and they're small things. Maybe that's your closer circle of friends. And then you can expand outwards as you're trying to do new things and get out of your comfort zone or start building some of the bridging networks that you might need. My last few guests on the show have actually, networks have also been a critical part of their ideas. Dan Pontefract was my last guest that I spoke with before him was Ruth Gautien.

And I think the consensus among you and most of my guests is that we can in fact build meaningful relationships at work. It can be hard to come in and be your whole self in the workplace. And ultimately I greatly respect your thought that if we approach these relationships and these networks with love that we can find fulfillment within them. You speak a lot to leaders. Do you think that leaders have an obligation to be more proactive in helping people make friends within their we can find fulfillment within them. You speak a lot to leaders. Do you think that leaders have an obligation to be more proactive in helping people make friends within their companies, within their organizations,

to develop those networks rather than just bring people in, teach them about the organization and their role, how it fits in as a puzzle piece. Do you think that leaders need to be more of a social guide when it comes to the workplace? A social guide, perhaps yes, helping them make friends. I mean, that's unique to everybody, but being that guide and helping them make connections,

because as a leader, you've got a higher level view of the organization, you've got connections. What are the different parts and functions of every part of the business ecosystem that is gonna make your team thrive thrive and how do things connect? So when you have an employee, helping them navigate that system and that ecosystem is really important. And I think you also brought a good point of, you know, we're talking to them about

the job and about the company, but what I think the leader's responsibility is get excited about your people. You've already asked them, why do you want to work here? And they've told you and for that reason, you hired that person. But then start to say, okay, now I've hired this amazing person. I'm excited to have them on my team. See them, ask about them, say, Tyler, what do you love? Tell me, what are the pivotal moments in your life?

What do you love to do outside of work? How might you apply that and bring that energy into work? What are the problems that you love to solve? Hey, I saw that you went on a trip recently, or you had this experience in your past. I think you would love to meet this vice president over there that is planning a trip and maybe go talk to him about it. So just how do you make connections personally based on that employee's interest and energy

and get them excited and have them share their experience and their expertise with the team? You're giving them permission, you're inviting them in to take that step, to bring their expertise, to ask questions, to recommend new ways of doing things based on their experience and the things that they've been exposed to in the past. And I think that's the leader's role is helping employees feel seen, helping them feel valued like they matter, and then helping them build those connections of who might they meet because you've been there. So you know, you know, oh, you you know, we've got this supplier out here.

You're going to love them. They come in every, you know, every Thursday. So make sure you come into the office that day, because I think you guys would have a really fun conversation, you know, just different things like that, or how can we weave connections and social connections if we're managing a remote team or a hybrid team and ask your employees what's something fun and different we can do to build connection this time and let them think of some ideas. But having the intention to help your employees build connection I think is really important

and meaningful connections. Not just like make sure you go talk to finance, right? Or go fill out that paperwork with HR. No, tell them the people that they might want to meet and why. And then also, what are the relationship, what's the relationship culture in the organization? And you're, you know, helping your new employees navigate those things as well. And also helping them bust down those things as well, and also helping them bust down hierarchy barriers, right? So if you have a young team and staff and you wanna help them get exposed to executives,

you might have to be the one to make that introduction and bring the executive in to talk to your team. They may not wanna talk to your new recruits and your employees right away, But if you invite them, then they'll start to build that relationship and that executive might be delighted to meet all this bright young talent and they might be re-inspired.

Yeah, I heard you in a prior presentation refer to this as just, this is where curiosity comes in, being curious about the new people that you're bringing in, not just identifying what their skills are, why you hired them and then sticking them in that role, but thinking what else might this person want to contribute to? What problems could they solve based on the skill set that's described here on paper, but based on who they are as a person and sort of what their passions are as well. As

I mentioned before, so Dr. Ruth Gautien was one of my previous guests. She focuses very much on mentorship, how to correctly do a mentorship system at an organization. And that involves much more than just assigning two people together who have similar jobs or similar backgrounds and allowing people to be curious about the organization and maybe finding somebody on their own and developing a more organic relationship. One of the most important things to you is breaking down the silos

that exist within our organizations. And again, in our pre-chat that we had, you mentioned that one thing we can do is as simple as think about where your job falls into the sort of process of developing whatever the product or services that you're working with, who are the people that are sort of before it in the, in the process, and then after you in the process? Would it make sense to get involved in those parts, to learn what's going on before and after, so that you're not just hyper-focused on your team,

the part of the process that you're in, and sort of expand your horizons a little bit? Anything else that you advise for just, not only being somebody in the company who's hoping to meet some other folks within an organization, but also as a leader, encouraging curiosity within the people that you're leading as well.

I love that because curiosity is just part of the joy of work, right? When you meet somebody and they're curious and they're talking about it, they're excited. And I think that that's really important that following that journey of where people are before and after, because that helps give your team insight into what are the drivers of different departments. Every organization is comprised of multiple teams, and each team and function has a

different set of drivers and cultures. And as a leader, helping your employees navigate that and understand that is really important. So if you're launching a new product and you have the chance to build a cross department team, maybe assigning that opportunity to help identify some people or to lead some meetings to one of your more junior staffers. So that way they're able to kind of go and build those relationships, but give them tips of ask questions about why.

Lean into that curiosity. Why does accounting always get upset? I'm only three days late turning this in, right? But they have to get payroll out on time. They have such rigid schedules that they've got to keep to keep the company running and thriving, right? So they have a very, very diligence-focused, due diligence-focused and compliance-focused function. If you're coming out of R&D, you want to have no boundaries, a lot of freedom. So I think that curiosity and having employees,

rather than get frustrated at another department or another team or a barrier, lean into that curiosity and say, okay, tell me more about your job. Tell me why this doesn't make sense. What might be a workaround to do this or figure out how they can build that relationship and that understanding. And in the process, they're understanding how the company works. So that's also opening up your leadership bench. It's opening up people's possibilities for creating that strategic vision, that innovation to stepping up and identifying gaps in processes and fixing them themselves. You know, so the more that the leaders can spark that

curiosity and bridge those relationships is, I think, really the more that the leaders can spark that curiosity and bridge those relationships is I think really important. In the presentations that I've seen you give, you tend to ask your audience, especially the leaders that you're speaking to, whether they are teaching their folks how to network. You've already done a good job of explaining some of those tips and tactics that leaders can utilize to help their folks be better at networking. But you also sometimes bring up Gen Z in particular. You say, how many of you are teaching

your younger folks to network? I can imagine why, but can you just explain why it is that you're focusing specifically on that newer generation on Gen Z, and as well what some tips specific to that cohort might be? It's coming from my own experiences as a parent and also working with younger staffers, right?

They're on devices a lot more. They're communicating. They haven't had to be pushed in to as many conversations. Right? So they're on their devices. They're keeping their social networks. They might have a lot of connections or a lot of opportunities,

but they're a distance, they're happening their social networks. They might have a lot of connections or a lot of opportunities, but they're at a distance, they're happening digitally. Right, and also with COVID, people had a whole year of isolation. So how do you help them build these relationships? Because it's scary, right? People are stepping into new places and unless they're really extroverted or they've been playing on a lot of sports

and they had a lot of experience socially bridging those boundaries, it's really intimidating to get out and go into new spaces. So how can you as a leader make those things comfortable? Encourage people to have a 30 minute coffee chat twice a month with somebody new from a different department from different geography encourage them to See what they can learn by if they're doing customer service bringing your favorite customer service story That you've experienced this week when you were out in the community. Did you go to a restaurant? Did you see fantastic service or did you go to a business pop-up or a community fair or something?

So you're encouraging people to get out and have a conversation. I was meeting with a coaching client yesterday and they're learning Chinese and having this opportunity to go out and build their conversational skills. Take it as an exciting adventure. Go out and meet in the community, who do you get to meet? What are the types of conversations you get to have? What do you get to learn? And then write about it.

How might this impact you professionally? Right, so every time we're giving them exposure and pushing them and making it comfortable to be uncomfortable, they're getting that repetition and building that networking muscle. So it's making it easier for them to have more conversations in the future that will help them build relationships internally. It'll help them build them at home and just across the board, it'll make it easier.

So I think that is how do we help them have those conversations in places that feel safe? Or even if they're uncomfortable, they kind of get over that discomfort hurdle because they're leaning into curiosity and then they're finding something exciting to build on. And then how do we give them tasks to get that repetition and build that muscle? If there's one thing my audience knows about me, it's that I love to bring up the sort of trust gap

that has developed between major organizations and employees over the past few years. Unfortunately, we've had some big layoff scenarios. Markets have been tough. Business has generally been tough. There does seem to be a greater sentiment of do these corporations really have me at the forefront of their values, me as the employee? Do they even have us as consumers at the forefront of their values, me as the employee. Do they even have us as consumers at the forefront of their values, honestly too? Ultimately, I think Gen Z is among the most skeptical

of organizations. I think me and my millennial squad were also pretty skeptical of how much the organizations that we work for value us. And I've read some things from the conference board lately. People really, really value learning opportunities and growth opportunities at the organizations that hire them.

It's a big reason why people start to work for a company because they upfront promote their learning and growth opportunities. At the same time, people also really value a degree of independence sort of threaded through those learning opportunities. And, you know, they still prefer some degree of like hybrid remote work overall seems to be the sentiment.

I am curious if you have any thoughts on whether organizations need to broaden maybe like outside of their own organizational learning paths and say, hey, you know, you have passions that exist outside of the job that you're doing for us and maybe outside of the job that we're doing for the world, the product that we're creating or the service that we're serving. We can give you opportunities to go to conferences, to travel to places, not just, you know, to meet the suppliers that we're involved with, but to go to different places and pursue your passion. And in some way, that might feed back into, you know,

their productivity and their success at an organization. But ultimately organizations have a lot of access, a lot of power. They can get people to, you know, different places where they can find networks that match their passions, their identity, et cetera. Do you think that organizations have some obligation to look outside the frame of the work that they do,

you know, the thing that they create and offer people opportunities to network sort of independently of those things. I think you raised wonderful points and those are the things that always excited me as when I was chief learning and partnerships officer in my organization because it's that outside learning that lights people up. Yeah. Sometimes it is learning within the organization and the job, but it's being able to meet peers and hear what somebody else is doing that who's led several projects that you're just launching on. So I think it is that excitement and set energy creation.

We want our employees to be energized and encouraging the building of networks through associations, through board service, through volunteerism are wonderful things that the best in class and world-class organizations are doing. Is it an obligation for any organization? No, but if you're not doing it, you're missing the boat and you're missing the opportunity to really activate and engage your talent. And if you give them these opportunities, you're like, oh my gosh, my company sent me to this conference. This is so cool and they're gonna be excited

and they're gonna stay a little bit. You know, I'm gonna be a new manager and you know, they paid for me to do guitar lessons because I mentioned I always wanted to do it and I never did it and I realized it was really hard and I sucked at it and it was terrible but they wanted me to do that so I could understand the experience of a new employee wanted me to do that so I could understand the experience of a new employee that I might be managing. So I have a little bit more empathy going into it. So I think there are lots of different ways

you can be creative in encouraging your employees to pursue their passions that are personal, that can apply to their learning and their growth within the organization. But also if you're getting them out to like the conferences and the professional associations, they're building their networks. Right. And that set of networks is going to provide them opportunities for mentorship. It's going to have them bringing in the best and brightest ideas. Right. That's why a lot of us are moving to, you know, have moved to the cloud. Right. The cloud companies, their ability to iterate and innovate

is huge because they have this whole client base and everybody's asking for, I want this feature, I want this feature. And you're benefiting from the collective wisdom of all these other companies. And so when you're sending your employees in to engage with people in associations and things, you're benefiting from that wisdom in their peers. But I've also had a lot of fun, Tyler, in being brought into new networks that I didn't have skills in. So I identified a gap to do strategic IT in my old organization.

So I researched, I read some case studies, and I cold called some people that were IT directors, and I asked them how they did it and if they had recommendations and then they started introducing me to their staff. They introduced me to places where I could go network. So I got invited into the Chief Information Officer's Network for Good Association.

And I learned so much about that IT function and the value of it in the organization. And I've since then had fun joining other associations. I'm a member of the American Marketing Association. That's not my background. It's not my interest, but I'm meeting a lot of brilliant people and their approach to communication and change is really helped me in terms of learning and development and the opportunities that I have and just hearing the excitement and seeing how they've designed

some of their programs. You're like, wow, that seems like it was designed by a very skilled learning and development professional. Marketing. So you get to see things in beautiful new ways when you're also broadening those networks and not just staying within your industry. So I think that exposure piece is important too, right? So how are we helping people grow that tighter nucleus network so they have

that safety and the innovation coming from peers? But I also think it's really, really important to get them to go explore a new network. If I'm understanding you correctly, the way you described the movement to the cloud, the term for that, I think is quite literally network effects. I don't think it's usually applied in that sense. But what I've seen is that when we're talking about social media platforms, the reason that a lot of those have been so successful, somebody coined the term network effects where when when one person contributes or participates with that product, it enhances the experience for the others

who are involved with that product because it creates content that you can then consume or view or react to or learn from or whatever. And it seems to be that's what you're describing with the cloud here as well, but maybe more like the organizational level. So network effects, there we go. I think that's a

great point. I also I noticed that in your global impact statement, I think something along those lines on your LinkedIn page, you describe sort of what your hope for global impact is, which I'll give you a chance at the end to describe as well, probably more in depth before you give a little call to action there. But you mentioned that you work with women founders in particular when you have the chance. And I'm wondering if you also see importance in ERGs, employee resource groups, and other types of networks that organizations might develop from leadership or from the bottom up for groups that are underrepresented or otherwise, you know, could use the additional sort of resource and accessibility that a network of identity sharing individuals can

offer. Do you also advocate for those sorts of things and think that those are especially important for organizations to offer and to allow? I do. I think when you asked earlier, are there different types of networks and is one more valuable than the other? And we talked about it personally, professionally and in the community, but within an organization, the ERGs create that psychological safety. It makes people feel, okay, I'm not the only one, I can bring up this challenge, it's a safe space, somebody else might have had a similar experience and they can share in a lot of different ways, right? And

be able to have that release. But you need to do more, right? So if you're creating an ERG and helping people feel valued and seen and showing them, okay, we've got this CEO, we've got these different levels of executives so you can see it to be it. That's great. So you want to get them excited. So they see their potential and everything that they can do, but also have that supportive network. But it, if you're creating the ERGs, I also think that you have a responsibility to be intentional and bring executives from across the

company to talk with, with the people in those ERGs, to be really intentional to how do we help them build their network? Because I believe that we can close the wealth gap by closing the social capital gap. And if we can introduce people from underrepresented parts of the organization or the communities to executives sooner in their career and have the executives be excited about this talent that we have and then they're opening up access at a much higher level. So if you get the VP of one of the business units coming in and getting really excited about staff, they're going to introduce them to other executives.

And that's going to close that social capital gap. It's going to close the idea gap and the innovation gap, but you have to be really intentional. If you just leave the ERG to its own devices, they're gonna be reliant on their own networks and it's gonna be more of a closed network than it is sort of that open and bridging network. I do think that's one of the problems that I've seen

with DEI efforts and ERGs is that they end up getting treated as like an isolated entity. They aren't given the respect or attention that they deserve or they aren't understood as this is a systemic issue that we're addressing by creating this initiative or this group. And therefore, you know, it's important to have this network of people, but it's also important to embrace these values at the systematic organizational level. And I feel like I have seen all too many times those sorts of things just be sort of left in isolation. And I think that's dangerous and it's not effective for achieving what those groups are meant to achieve.

So I think we're in agreement there for sure. Well, they have so much talent, right? You have this brilliant talent. Just how do you unlock it? How do you help them build the connections to really help them thrive and help your organization thrive in and your your ERGs are also the people that are going to help you unlock new markets. Yeah. Right. So if you're you're trying to to reach a broader market, you're tapping your community that you already have. Guys, bring us in. You're like, bring us in some of the problems.

What are the things that we don't know about your experience that we can solve? Encourage them, invite them, have them have showcase opportunities or bring in more questions or run a design thinking exercise or just give them more opportunities opportunities or bring in more questions or run a design thinking exercise or, you know, just give them more opportunities and responsibilities with that invitation, right? How do you, you've created this group, honor the talent and expertise that's in there, and then figure out how

to unleash it within your organization. One of the topics that I'm most curious about from our pre-chat is you mentioned that you also work with networks and their value into and beyond retirement. Correct me if I'm misunderstanding how you initially put this, but it's just based on my notes from that conversation that we had. It sounds like you've dealt with some situations where folks retire and they were the kind of people who were very career oriented and their network is really very dependent upon their career, their organizations, their companies. And I think we've all seen these people in the movies if we haven't met them in person. I've met many people like this, but their life is very much intertwined with their career and their career in some ways is their life.

When you leave your organization or the job that you do and that network that you've built up and you're retiring, often the understanding is that you kind of go and you spend time with your family, but these are your friends, these are your people. And just because you're no longer at that organization doesn't mean that you shouldn't be spending time with them or still drawing value from those relationships. So can you describe a little bit

sort of what your ideology is here and also more specifically, maybe what that work is that you do with people who are either late in their career or going into retirement Yeah, and this this idea came up because I was having conversations of how does your network change throughout your life? So when you're young and you're first starting your career, it's like exciting You didn't know there was a job like that for you, and it's really all about exposure. And then you get into your rhythm and your career, and then you're building your career network and getting more solidified,

and then you might have a family transition or a life transition, so your networks and your needs-free networks change. And then I was having conversations about my role, and I love to give back. So much of my networking is giving back and reaching out to different people. And I had a conversation with somebody and they talked about that retirement. Friends were retiring

and they didn't have a plan. So they didn't know what to do with themselves. They didn't build up their networks in the community. They didn't build up their hobbies. And like you said, there was something missing in their lives, right? So then they get depressed, they don't know what to do. So I think helping your people through life transitions and help them build their networks is really important at every stage, right? From the early career, give them lots of exposure. From the other ones, you know, as you're making transitions, you might be moving to a new community. How do you help them build their networks in that community? And then as you're thinking about your employees who are close to retirement, what is the plan? Are you checking in

with them to build their social networks and asking them, hey what are your plans? What are you going to do in retirement? Have you been thinking about it? Have you built a social network? Do you have hobbies? Do you have things that you're going to go volunteer with? Do you have a board you want to it? Have you built a social network? Do you have hobbies? Do you have things that you're going to go volunteer with? Do you have a board you want to do? Do you want to stay engaged with a company and come back twice a year as a mentor for some of our new employees? There are lots of different ways that you can do that and support that engagement.

But we have the loneliness epidemic and the connection crisis. So that's impacting everybody, especially when you're making these big life transitions. So it's really important. And I think companies, if you focus on how do we help our people build those networks, early career, and then how do we help them throughout and manage those networks and how they change and shift a little bit throughout their career and life and give them that support as they're exiting too, I think is really, really important to help that thriving. Are there any stages or phases or particular events

among the clients and organizations and people that you've worked with that seem to create a more significant challenge to the value of networks? I'm thinking of like, moving to a different place geographically or switching positions or careers in a major way, switching to a different company. Do any of those things create particularly large challenges for people that you've had to work harder to help them overcome? I think it's, I think it's all of them. It depends on what's going out in life, right?

So that's why we need to think about building our net versus our professional network and break that out of how are we building our networks personally, professionally and in the community? So if we can help people develop those skills and they'll be able to thrive throughout life, right? How do we build those relationships? How do we encourage you to go gain comfort with discomfort and try new places to go?

So I think it all depends, right? You can have the loss of a loved one that completely throws you off and your needs from your network are going to be very different. Sometimes you might find that support, surprisingly, through your professional network. Sometimes you find it through your closest friends or your family members, but if your family members are also grieving, they're not going to be able to provide that support to you. Right? So it's, sometimes it's somebody that you've built a friendship with in your company or your organization, or it's the fact that the HR person or your VP noticed that you've been struggling,

organization or it's the fact that the HR person or your VP noticed that you've been struggling and they they spent a little bit of time and Provided that space they saw where you were and and helped you develop So I don't I don't think there's any one thing because everybody's life is different sure right, but it's being able to ask people How they are Honor them and and helping them build those networks of support across their life. So I think it's, we're missing providing those skills to our employees at every stage. We do a lot about professional networks, right? Go join this association, that association, but recognizing that people can have different needs of their network throughout their life stages,

and how your network can value you and build those social relationships I think is really important. And if we start when people first start in the company and they're young, they're going to stay with us longer because, wow, this is cool. I've got all these relationships and my company really likes me. They're investing in me. But if we're giving them the skills early, we're helping them solve that problem as they go through their career. Right now we have to fix the problem and teach everybody at all these different stages. But if we build that pipeline around

how do you build your network, and then also emphasize it in early career, then we don't have to do as much in the future. Yeah. So speaking of coming back to the start, you have the networking wheel, which is a tool that you use to help teach these principles. The first thing on there is actually reconnect.

You actually can start with your past, especially if you don't really know where to start, if you're trying to develop a network, you reconnect. Can you elaborate on that and explain where one might search in their history for connections? Yeah, I did that again because I'm the nauseous network. So it's, you know, it's intimidating to go to some new spaces, connections? Yeah, I did that again because I'm the nauseous network. So it's, you know, it's intimidating to go to some new spaces.

But if you think, I like to tell people, think about three people that bring a smile to your face. Right? Why? Take a moment, write down some ideas, who it is. It could be the teacher that saw your potential. It could be a coach. It could be a former cowork it could be a former co-worker, a former boss.

It doesn't matter where you met them or at what stage in your life or anywhere in your life, but just write them down and figure out what is the memory that you would like to share? What's the memory that brought that smile to your face? What did they empower you to do? How did they help you get to where you are right now? And then find a way to reconnect. Write a handwritten thank you note and that process brings you back into that memory. It brings you back into that feeling and you're you're feeling the the love and the respect and and sort of the energy of that relationship. Send them a note when they get it. They're gonna smile, they're gonna be excited and they're gonna be like, wow I didn't even know I

had that that impact on on you, right? And so you're creating that lift with somebody. And then if you have a phone call, it's a beautiful, amazing phone call, and it's filled with so much love and laughter and energy. And then you just get to build on that momentum as you go into your other networking activities. So it's

it's creating that sense of comfort and joy and reminding you that you know amazing people. Right? There are amazing people in your life and you're more loved and connected than you ever imagined. And if you start with that reconnection then it brings all those those feelings back and you can take that into these new relationships. But one of the outcomes of that is also you're reigniting your champions. So you're having this phone call with people and they get excited and you're curious about them. The call is really about them and being curious, generous, and grateful for everything that they've done. But that sparks kind of like this virtuous cycle and they

want to know about you. Hey, Tyler, tell me more. What are you doing? And you can say, oh, I've got this podcast and oh, you know what? That's fabulous. I have a couple of potential guests for you and it doesn't matter. You're thinking about a new opportunity or you're exploring and they might know somebody and they're just going to be generous and share. So it's one of the things that just kind of spontaneously or organically happens through that reconnection exercise.

But reconnection is the way that you build and sustain those relationships that really are meaningful to you. I love that as a closing message. You know amazing people. You do and it's worth it to reach out to them. So everybody listening, take that into consideration as we sign off here. KJ, before I let you go, I'd love for you to just kind of leave a closing message

about what it is that you are offering to the world right now, what your goals are, and then if anybody wants to reach out to you or work with you, how they can reach you and where they can find you online. I have a new mission. It's just the last few months, but it's all about networking. So thank you for having me on to talk about this. But it's to bring the transformative power of networks built on love, curiosity, generosity, and gratitude to 100 million people. And after we get to 100 million people,

we're gonna go for eight. And it's really to help people build the skills and the relationships that they need so they can thrive and flourish in life. And if listeners wanna learn more about you or even reach out to you, where can they go? LinkedIn is probably the easiest. So it's Kimberly Jeter.

So Kimberly with an I, Jeter. You can find me on LinkedIn and then I'll also be putting out more content and stuff. And I've also done a couple of blogs and things with the Association for Talent Development so people can find some content there as well. Awesome. All right, KJ, thank you for joining me.

For everybody listening at home, we will catch you on the next episode. Cheers. You've been listening to L&D in Action, a show from Get Abstract. Subscribe to the show and your favorite podcast player to make sure you never miss an episode. And don't forget to give us a rating,

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