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Assignment 7: Revised Network Assessment Exercise

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Revised Network Assessment Exercise
By James Saliagas

Introduction

As I completed this assignment, I realized some very important things. First off, having a good, complete network is a must if you want to accomplish your goals. In other words, relationships hold the key to a person’s future success. These networks keep you informed, teach you new things, make you more innovative, give you a sounding board to help you flesh out ideas with others and help you get things done when you are in a hurry and you need a favor. The other thing I learned is, just because I know that a network is important for my success, that does not mean that I am devoting sufficient time and energy to making it useful and strong. Connectivity, breadth and dynamism …show more content…

My network density score was .14, which is fairly low. In other words, not a lot of people in my network know each other. While this means I won’t fall into the trap of information getting stuck within the same office, which can limit value since nothing unique is being brought to the table, my network connectivity may be too sparse. If your network connectivity is too sparse, you are like a tourist to many networks but you can’t call a specific one your home. I may have access to a lot of ideas and people but it may be hard for me to put them to use inside my organization. This would be because I lack inside information on how to pitch my ideas or about those in my company who are opposed to them. Another problem of having sparse network connectivity is it makes me less influential. Having more overlapping ties in my social network can serve as a form of social verification and increase the likelihood my ideas will be …show more content…

One of my biggest problems was not having a good mix of diverse contacts. To fix this, I am going to make a list of ten people I need to get to know better in my organization. They will be junior members of the organization, peers, females and people of different ethnic backgrounds. My target will be mostly junior members of the organization as well as a few from the other categories. I will spend three months trying to get to know these individuals better by talking to them more, running ideas by them and going to lunch. For example, I may spend a day with a millennial in my company and learn how they use social media. Another thing I will do is slightly increase my network density so more people in my network know each other. One way I plan on doing this is by gaining more contacts within the company for which I work. I will go to more town hall meetings that we have set up for the government group employees. I will talk to these employees at the social hour of these events and build up more contacts within my organization. I will also ask coworkers who attend SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) conferences to introduce me to others at the conference so I can build more contacts that know each other. And finally, to build up my dynamics in my network I will start connecting with those from my network I don’t talk to as much. I plan on reconnecting and building a better relationship

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