The State of Networking in the Northern Plains

By Robert Stanke, Northern Plains Bureau Chief      Robert's Bio      Email article    RSS feed  

Welcome to the Northern Plains, fellow networkers! Welcome to the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Home of the Sioux State, and Mount Rushmore (I am still a believer those four guys are up there because they were awesome networkers…). Land of Cornhusker and Hawkeye networkers, respectively. And believe it or not – networking is alive and well! It’s not just happening at the major hubs of business.

It is happening at professional networking meetings, on college campuses, in local city chamber of commerce meeting rooms, at small town coffee shops, in the stands of minor league ball parks, and the local corner diner. The best part of all this networking is everyone is doing it. Individuals of all professions and all walks of life are finding ways to make connections and help one another. Sure, most people might not think of it specifically as "networking" like perhaps you and I may, but that is exactly what it is. Here in the Northern Plains, we just put our own little twist on it.

I have lived in the upper Midwest all my life, but I am not so sure I believe in the whole "Minnesota Nice" concept. I think we are all great people up here, don’t get me wrong, but I believe it to just be a matter of our culture – from how we develop relationships to the way we do business. I wanted to take some time in this month’s column to give you a brief glimpse of how a small part of what we do in the Northern Plains – networking – makes us successful.

So when you think about the state of networking in this part of the United States, you can’t help but think of Nancy Giacomuzzi. Nancy is the Executive Director of BNI – Minnesota and actually introduced BNI to this state when she moved here from Utah over ten years ago. Nancy has been working hard setting the pieces in place to build a strong networking infrastructure throughout the state. I had a chance to have a conversation with Nancy about what she thinks the state of networking is in the upper Midwest.

"I have helped form 130 chapters in Minnesota," Nancy stated. "And I am barely scratching the surface of what can be done in terms of the BNI presence."

"I think networking works differently here because of the culture. It is warm and inviting, kind of like the whole ‘Minnesota Nice’ environment that most people know about us," Nancy added.

Nancy is right – it is our culture. It is a hard thing to explain to someone who works and lives outside of this Northern Plains region, but we very much believe in relationship building on a personal level before business. For example, it is not uncommon for me to meet someone for business and spend the first 30 minutes talking about family, hobbies, recreational activities, friends, and common interests. I was on the phone the other day with a gentleman who I spent 45 minutes with and 35 minutes of that was talking about our mutual love for the game of basketball. Time well spent? You betcha! (That is Minnesota slang you might be familiar with if you have ever seen the movie "Fargo"…) Even though no significant business came out of the conversation, I now have a relationship with him and will most likely always be able to call on him for future help and vice versa. Is that not what networking is all about? While some people might view this 30 minutes as a loss in productivity, that is how we do business in the Northern Plains. Sure, maybe in that 30 minutes someone could have fired off a dozen emails to clients and candidates, but we look at the future value instead.

So what is the future of networking in the Northern Plains? Nancy Giacomuzzi and others I talked to while preparing this article agree that we are still in growth stages. Formal networking groups are growing and expanding. Our process and the types of people who are networking are not changing, but we are definitely introducing the concept to more individuals. While there are still a large number of individuals who might not see the value of networking or think that it is "only for the business folks", they are learning fast that networking really benefits individuals in all areas of life.

I invite you to network with us here in the Northern Plains. We have a unique spin on how we network with each other and it may be a fresh change for how you currently interact with others in your own area. You can start by networking with me!
- Robert Stanke

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