I Need You - Just 5 Minutes

[Frode Heimen]

"We Need You - Just 5 Minutes"
David Zinger PortraitContribute 5 minutes - Connect with 1 person, forum, or blog. Give 5 minutes of your time to develop the network before July begins!

- Got this e-mail from David today and I followed his lead. I chose to read more about Mike Henry Sr, and found his blog at: http://leadchangegroup.com/ - I enjoyed reading it, and decided to follow his blog with RSS.

Please do follow David's advice, it is fun to find new interesting people and blogs.

Have a great day!

Frode H. - Quietly hoping someone will spend 5 minutes in my world: http://www.nevermindthemanager.com

[David Zinger]

Salvatore:
Indeed networking is old. I was in Nipawin Saskatchewan 1 month ago. Went for a run at 6:30 a.m. I passed Carla's dinner and outside there were 14 pick up trucks parked. Inside the farmers were having coffee and conversation. I bet it was a lot like twitter as no one could say much more than one sentence before his friend interrupted with something else.
David

[salvatore rasa]

Not been around lately, but always willing to join the conversation. Net working is an ancient activity when you think about it. What technology offers us -- is the ability to carry out our intentions. Someone smarter then me, taught me that.

One important lesson I continually learn -- today's networking allows for greater inclusion. It's possible to hear from the quiet innovators. That's a great thing.

Sal Rasa

[Doug Shaw]

This is really cool, so many useful things. Frode your guide is really excellent. Joining the right network(s....may I add that 's') does matter. I quite like doing a bit of drifting before settling though, things aren't always what they seem @ first glance. The greeting idea is powerful. I first saw it being regularly practised here, and with ack to Daivd, I've pinched it and use that simple, welcoming method on my linkedin group.

Participation - like it.

[Frode Heimen]

CV and Roy, thank you for your minutes. This is one of the most interesting discussions about online networking I have ever participated in. I hope you all come back for further engagements. The EEN is really a great place to be if you decide to use it. Here you will meet interesting people, find a lot of inspiration and have interesting discussion with intelligent people.

[Roy Saunderson]

It was a long scroll down to the bottom to read everything but well worth the thoughtleadership insight.

Thank you Frode.

Roy

[CV Harquail]

Usually I skip the EE emails... too busy. But today, for whatever reason, i clicked thru to this conversation. It is proof positive that 5 minutes can make a difference!
I don't have a good insight about how to get over the initial resistance and get into a 5 minute habit... but now I'll pay more attention to the emails and invite myself to come on in. Frode & Craig (and of course David) thank you!

[Frode Heimen]

Thank you for your great support and feedback. I have published the post now. You can read it here

David: Happy to provide some sunshine. It is plenty of it here, with 90 Farenheit in the shadow the last few days. :)

[David Zinger]

Frode and Craig:

What an absolute inspiration and encouragement to read all the both of you have written here. If nothing else happened on this network until October, I would consider my work here an incredible success. Frode I believe you should publish what you wrote just as it is. You could add some commentary from here is you desired.

I guarantee this. The next email on Thursday from the network will be with a pointer here to encourage people to read the dialogue, contribute if they desire, and reflect upon engagement.

The two of you have brought sunshine into a rainy Friday in Winnipeg.

David

[Craig Althof]

First, Frode-excellent stuff. It's YOURS, don't change it! Egad, you do NOT want to read my Norwegian-do not worry about your English. I am humbled. But I do know all about lutefisk. It killed King Henry II.
And yes, friend, you can link me or drop my name, but only if wearing steel-toed shoes. Honored and engaged by the request.

Folks, this is what networking, and engagement, is all about. There has been a connection made here, and some good exchange of ideas. And, to be very honest, the very simple recognition from David and Frode of thoughts shared has given me a nice dose of fuzzy / feelgood. That is something we all crave, and it doesn't take much. And, it encourages me to contribute more.
Translated: very engaging. The power of recognition in triggering heightened engagement has been discussed here.

David's five minute formula is strong medicine. It is a very good start to get folks leaning toward deeper engagement here, and elsewhere as well. In spite of the fact that enagement and what triggers it in individuals is highly personal (my opinion) engagement is contagious and it carriers over from the original environment too. The enthusiasm and energy an engaged person emanates begets the same in others."What if" the 1% fully engaged that David referenced earlier were doubled? Then doubled again?

OK, how about making a real leap here? The power of engagement is such that, whatever the source, the other elements of the engaged person benefit as well. If I am engaged at work (or on the EEN) it will "spill over" into the other areas of my life.

Soapbox in closing....society is, generally speaking, a mess. A heaping helping of engagement would do wonders. So Mr. Zinger, by providing this paltform to grow engagement, is impacting society. Whew!

"Hey Pres Obama...where's my emotional stimulus check???"

Have a great weekend, all!

[Frode Heimen]

I have been trying to write a blog post for my blog today about this topic.
I would love your feedback on it befoe I publish it. I hope I can use your name Craig, please do give me feedback if this is ok by you.

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A short guide to Online Networking, it’s more than just 500 friends on facebook.

I have been lucky enough to experience an “a-ha moment” lately. I did know it from before, but I have not been aware enough to put the knowledge into good use. A while back I joined David Zinger’s Online community; The Employee Engagement Network. All I did was to register and create a profile. I was hoping that it would create more readers to my blog. But I was wrong, deadly wrong, until I had an eye-opening dialogue with Craig Althof about online networking. He said:”The more I think about it, the more participation / contribution on the EEN and other forums is a classic manifestation of engagement. People must feel motivated to contribute, which involves setting aside a portion of their scarce discretionary time. They must put forth extra effort, but must also get something out of the effort—personal satisfaction.” – A valuable lesson suddenly landed in my lap. In order to get something out of a network, you need to contribute and participate, It makes logic sense.

500 Baseball Cards or 5 friends for life?
“There are a lot of joiners who collect network and group affiliations and “personal” connections like they were cheap baseball cards” – Craig Althof. This is also an interesting view. The size of your network is not important at all. So why do you want to network in the first place? This is a question that you need to answer, what are you looking for? What can you do for them? And what people do you need to interact with and why? If you can define this you can be more specific when looking for online buddies. I for one would love to find, fellow leaders with passion for writing, a leadership mentor or other call center managers.

1. Join an online network where you are most likely to meet peers.
Spend some time to search for your favorite network. You do not need to be in ten different networks, as it would be impossible to be equally engaged in all of them. You might ask around if someone knows of any specific network where you can find matching interests with a group of people.

2. Read the contribution from others and engage.
Start by reading what other people are writing, if you find someone with similar interests you might find your first friend. Or you can posts your interests in the “Here I am” – post. A lot of networks have designated areas where you can introduce yourself. Why not put the poster up right away.

3. Do not go maniac friending everybody.
Yes I am guilty as charged, this is one of the mistakes I have done so far, but it stops here. In every network there is someone that adds everybody to their friend list, most likely because they think it will drive traffic to their blog or web service. I thought people would be curious about who is this bugger, friending me for no reason at all. Resulting in them visiting my blog to fall in love with my amazing content. Well here is the stone cold fact: This method does not work! A while back the numbers of visitors became unimportant anyway. I would rather write for five people that get something out of my writing and give me feedback, then to write for 1000 people marking my e-mail as spam.

4. You can just read
There is no rule stating the obligation to contribute with writing. You might learn a lot from a many great ongoing discussions. You do not need to write if you do not feel that you want to or have anything to contribute with. But sure it is a great benefit to write for a bunch of other reasons, not needed to be mentioned here.

5. Greet your friends.
I got a personal note from my first interacting friend on The Employee Engagement Network, and it made me smile. I felt that I was accepted for real. You should also great your friends. Maybe it is a good idea to create a two way interview, to get to know each other.

So to fully enjoy an online community or network, you need to participate. You need to step forward beyond just adding a friend. Start caring about the person and the people. Create friendship and dialogue. Engage and interact and you will be spending many good quality moments in front of your computer, and even in real life.

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I would love feeback. Is the headline ok, anybody have better ideas?
I am going to put in links to the people and network before publishing.
Do anybody have other points I should include in my list?

David: Would you mind if I publish this on my blog, with a link to EEN and Craig, would you mind if I use your name and if I give you a link to your profile on EEN and to your blog?

Is the language ok? I am afterall norwegian :)