Integration of Project Management and Change Management Techniques

Griffith-Cooper, B. & King, K.  (2007, January).  The partnership between project management and organizational change:  Integrating change management with change leadership.  Performance Improvement, 46(1), 14-20. doi:  10.1002/pfi.034

Griffith-Cooper and King have worked to tie project management techniques with change leadership and change control methods in order to create a robust framework for managing change.  They contend that such an integration of disciplines is the real secret to a strong change management capability.  They arrive at this conclusion by weaving-together the work of Bridges; Kotter; LaMarsh; Ackerman, Anderson, and Anderson; and, Holt, Self, Thal, and Lo.  The key output of their research is a synthesis of ideas depicted in some tables which I found to be insightful.  Some highlights of these tables are noted below. 

The authors are both project managers in industry with about fifteen years of industry experience, supported by a PhD statistics colleague.  It’s not quite evident what that colleague did; this work is decidedly non-quantitative.  They published this work in a ProQuest publication, Performance Improvement.  That’s a plus, in that ProQuest certainly has a degree of editorial capability that is respected by professionals.

Of particular interest to me were the tables that provided the following.

1.  Deliverables from the six phases of a project, from pre-launch through post-project evaluation

2.  Integration change control elements, listing inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs

3.  Critical success factors for process change, transition change, and transformational change, along the dimensions of vision, roles, communication, and training.  (I found this one, due to the depth of its examples and length of its definitions, to be particularly helpful

Case studies outlining application of these frameworks would be a great value-added feature if they exemplified application.  But, the authors did write the article in such a manner that it should have broad appeal to those in both private and public sector organizations, and NGOs.  

Bibliography on Change Management

I recently assembled this list of current thinking on how to effect substantive change in any complex organization.

Battilana, J. & Casciaro, T. (2012). Change agents, networks, and institutions: A contingency theory of organizational change. Academy of Management Journal, 55(2), 381-398. doi: 10.5465/amj.2009.0891

Benjamin, R. I. & Levinson, E.  (1993, Summer).  A framework for managing IT-enabled change.  Sloan Management Review, 34(4).  23-33.  Retrieved from http://sloanreview.mit.edu/

By, R. T., Burnes, B., & Oswick, C.  (2011).  Change management:  The road ahead.  Journal of Change Management, 11(1), 1-6.  doi:  10.1080/14697017.2011.548936

Carr, A.  (2000).  Critical theory and the management of change in organizations.  Journal of Organizational change Management, 13(3).  208-220.  doi: 10.1108/09534810010330869

Carr, A. & Gabriel, Y.  (2001), The psychodynamics of organizational change management: An overview. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 14(5), 415-421.  doi: 10.1108/eum0000000005872

Cooney, R. & Sewell, G. (2008). Shaping the other:  Maintaining expert managerial status in a complex change management program.  Group & Organization Management, 33(6), 685-711.  doi: 10.1177/1059601108325699

Eisenbach, R., Watson, K., & Pillai, R. (1999). Transformational leadership in the context of organizational change.  Journal of Organizational Change Management, 12(2), 80-89.  doi: 10.1108/09534819910263631

Farais, G. & Johnson, H.  (2000).  Organizational development and change management: Setting the record straight.  Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 36, 376-379. doi: 10.1177/0021886300363007

Ford, M. W., & Evans, J. R. (2001). Baldrige assessment and Organizational learning:  The need for change management.  Quality Management Journal, 8(3), 9-25. doi: 10.1.1.196.2221

Gans, K. (2011, October). Should you change your thinking about change management? Strategic Finance, 48-50.   Retrieved from http://www.imanet.org/ resources_and_publications/strategic_finance_magazine/issues/ October_2011.aspx

Geppert, M., Matten, D., & Williams, K.  (2003).  Change management in MNCs:  How global convergence intertwines with national diversities.  Human Relations, 56(807), 807-838.  doi:  10.1177/00187267030567003

Gotsill, G. & Natchez, M.  (2007, November).  From resistance to acceptance:  How to implement change management.  T+D, 61(11), 24-27.  Retrieved from http://www.astd.org/Publications/Magazines/TD

Griffith-Cooper, B. & King, K.  (2007, January).  The partnership between project management and organizational change:  Integrating change management with change leadership.  Performance Improvement, 46(1), 14-20. doi:  10.1002/pfi.034

Jorgensen, H. H., Owen, L., & Neus, A.  (2009).  Stop improvising change management.  Strategy & Leadership, 37(2), 38-44.  doi: 10.1108/10878570910941217

Karp, T. & Helgo, T. I. T. (2007). Reality revisited:  Leading people in chaotic change.  Journal of Management Development, 28(2), 81-93. doi: 10.1108/02621710910932052

Merell, P.  (2012, Summer).  Effective change management:  The simple truth.  Management Services, 20-23.  Retrieved from http://www.ism.ws/

Muayyad, J. (2004).  Team feedback based on dialogue:  Implications for change management.  The Journal of Management Development, 23(2), 141-151.  doi:  10.1108/02621710410517238

Newman, J. (2012). An organizational change management framework for sustainability.  Greener Management International, 57, 65-75.

Ragsdell, G. (2000). Engineering a paradigm shift?: An holistic approach to organizational change management. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 13(2), 104-120. doi: 10.1108/09534810010321436

Saka, A. (2003). Internal change agents' view of the management of change problem. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 16(5), 480-496.  doi:  10.1108/09534810310494892

Shanley, C. (2007). Managing change through management development:  An industry case study.  Journal of Management Development, 26(10), 962-979.  doi:  10.1108/02621710710833414

Siegal, W., Church, A. H., Javitch, M., Waclawski, J., Burd, S., Bazigos, M., Yang, T. F.,

Anderson-Rudolph, K., & Burke, W. W. (1996). Understanding the management of change: An overview of managers' perspectives and assumptions in the 1990s.  Journal of Organizational Change Management, 9(6), 54-80.  doi: 10.1108/09534819610150521

Sirkin, H. L., Keenan, P., & Jackson, A.  (2005, October).  The hard side of change management.  Harvard Business Review, 33-48.  Retrieved from http://www.hbr.org/

Stanleigh, M. (2008). Effecting successful change management initiatives. Industrial and Commercial Training, 40(1), 34-37.  doi: 10.1108/00197850810841620

Sturdy, A. & Grey, C.  (2003).  Beneath and beyond organizational change management:  Exploring alternatives.  Organization, 10(4), 651-662.  doi:  10.1177/13505084030104006

van de Ven & Poole, M. S.  (1995), Explaining development and change in organizations.  The Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 510-540.  doi: 10.2307/258786

Varkey, P. & Antonio, K. (2010). Change management for effective quality improvement:  A primer.  American Journal of Medical Quality, 25(4), 268-273. doi: 10.1177/1062860610361625

Waddell, D. & Sohal, A. S.  (1998).  Resistance: a constructive tool for change management.  Management Decision, 36(8), 543-548.  doi:  10.1108/00251749810232628

Worren, N. A. M., Ruddle, K., & Moore, K. (1999). Form organizational development to change management: The emergence of a new profession.  Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 35(3), 273-286. doi: 10.1177/0021886399353002

The Use of Wikipedia for Scholarly Resource

It’s incumbent upon any responsible research writer to not blindly accept a secondary source’s citations and references.  Even a newspaper reporter corroborates a story from at least two sources before going-to-print.  Some amount of quality assurance audit is to be expected as a researcher assembles a paper and cite sources.  (This could take the form of systematized random sampling, or checking the references from any suspect or lesser-known sources.)  This act of validation should be the gateway to the responsible use of Wikipedia as a reference-ready source.

That said, some influence upon Wikipedia to acknowledge the gap between what is widely-accepted as scholarly work and what is in the commonly-contributed content on their website could be addressed by a small designation on their articles denoting the ones that have earned a scholarly rating.  Authors of articles that posit that their work meets general academic standards could affix an icon (such as a diploma or mortar board or blue ribbon) to the article, giving researchers an added level of confidence that the article meets an higher standard.

Nonetheless, it is up to the research writer to know their sources and know their citations.  Added work, but no one ever said that research writing has to be made easier!

Ethics in Research

Hatcher, T. (2011).  Becoming an Ethical Scholarly Writer.  Journal of Scholarly Writing, 142-159. doi: 10.3138/jsp.42.2.142

Hatcher changed my view of writing ethics.  Whereas I earlier embraced the notion of a codified list of ‘dos and don’ts,’ I came to appreciate the evolving differences and diversity of opinions on what is and is not acceptable behavior in writing.  An ethical guideline may keep those that are ethical in-line, but it is a means for the unethical to find rules to circumnavigate the written rules.   The self-regulatory approach, as he calls it, does have merit because it is self-policing and kept current by a population of peers.

A few interesting points he surfaces—

- There is a dearth of writing on ethical behavior in research today

- Existing ethical codes are too western and too masculine; They are biased

- Key ethical dilemmas include plagiarism, confidentiality, and trust and conflicts of interest

The key is that individuals create their own moral identity, influenced by their peers, and kept current by the evolution and changes in their environment.  Ethics, therefore, is dynamic and varied, not static.

Change Management in a Technical Organization

Ragsdell, G. (2000). Engineering a paradigm shift?: An holistic approach to organizational change management. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 13 (2), 104-120.

Central to Ragsdell’s (2000) research objective is that different members of an organization will have different views of forthcoming change. In any organization there will be some that stand to benefit from change intended for improvement, even when others in the organization may interpret the changes negatively. A key success factor, then, is to actively manage the changes so that they do not become a distraction to overall improvement efforts and so that the change effort is able to stay on-track.

            Ragsdell (2000) worked with three engineering organizations over a three-year period and based her research upon that experience in the business sector.  As a foundation for her research she establishes a useful model of systems tools for change, and then selectively draws two tools which she feels would be most useful to the technical, analytical approach employed by engineers in the engineering services firms with which she worked.  The two systems tools used in her work are referred to as “rich pictures” and “metaphors.”  Both are chosen for these research purposes because Ragsdell (2000) believes that the constructs of these tools are quite different from the more formulaic problem-solving approaches traditionally used by those in a technical field such as engineering.  Their use, Ragsdell (2000) asserts, provokes novel discussion among the participants; places a third-party into the change mediation process; promotes team-building among the participants; and, encourages the participants to take responsibility for their future organizational design. 

Ragsdell (2000) posits that the success in using these two tools with the engineering firms suggests that other such systems tools may be a valuable means for managing the change process in technical organizations.

Critique

This article is highly instructive as it provides a framework for the grouping and application of a portfolio of tools to manage organizational change. The hierarchy of systems tools pyramid, which she includes in her article, may particularly be useful to those responsible for managing and leading change efforts.  Once the framework and the general characteristics of the landscape of tools are discussed the author falls short in justifying the selection of the two tools which she chose, rich pictures and metaphors, other than to fully describe their characteristics in detail and the methods of implementing them with a group in the organization.  This proves to be a major shortcoming as it does not answer the question as to why the tools are superior to others, and therefore best-suited for use by change managers.  A study in which a broader array of tools are utilized and compared could prove to be valuable research.  Ragsdell (2000) selected the tools based upon her interpretation of the learning style and needs of technical workers rather than basing it upon previous research.  Consequently, she acknowledges that further research with a variety of systems tools could prove to be insightful.

This research was published in the Journal of Organizational Change Management, which has been published since 1988.  Published by Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., its home base is the United Kingdom, yet its articles span issues of a global nature.  In each of the past five years there have been more than 200,000 article downloads, which does indicate the relevance of the journal and its subject matter (Emerald Journals, n.d.). A double-blind review process is used by the journal’s editorial staff.  Article topics typically include change strategy, organizational leadership, and implementation planning for change.  As organizational change techniques addressed in its articles span both the public and private sectors, organizations of differing size, and addresses interdisciplinary approaches such as organization and ecology (RAC Library, 2012),  its audience tends to be diverse:  business managers, government agencies, consultants, academics, and training specialists.  Given the research intent of the article under review and the journal’s profile and placement in the change management literature, the journal appears to have been a good vehicle for publication of the article.  The pioneering efforts of Ragsdell (2000) in experimenting with systems tools for change, along with the need in industrial circles to move beyond the traditional change tools of training and communication, combine to justify her very practical approach to finding what is effective in a change situation with actual business enterprises, and getting it into use in industry.  Industrial practitioners can likely appreciate her work with the engineering firms as it may resonate with the some of the same situations which they face in their businesses.

The researcher of this study is Dr. Gillian Ragsdell, the Director of Research in the Degree Programme and Senior Lecturer in Knowledge Management in the Department of Information Science at Loughborough University, United Kingdom.  (Loughborough University, n.d.).  At the time of this research she was associated with the University of Paisley, also in the United Kingdom.  She has merged her experience in industry with her academic interests to leverage the relationships between theory and practice in knowledge management.    Her five other publications have been in the knowledge management field and have all been published in the past three years.  She has been a visiting professor or guest lecturer at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya in Barcelona and the University of Technology in Sydney, as well as an invited speaker at events at the University of Sheffield, Kuwait University, Lille University, and other institutions.  These foundations in knowledge management and her recent, active work in presenting research provide a good basis for her work in this study on affecting change management in an organizational setting.

An initial observation on the referenced research articles provided by Ragsdell (2000) was that they were limited, especially in light of the large amount of  research attention which change management generates.  Only nine other authors with citations of thirteen studies were referenced.  However, this apparent limitation was likely to have been a product of the experimental work which she undertook in the evaluation of systems tools for change.  Previous research in that very specific dimension of change management may be somewhat limited.  Further, the audience targeted for this particular article, industry practitioners, is likely to be more keenly interested in practical outcomes in a business setting, than they are with earlier research.    Creativity was the underlying theme in nine of these articles, which, though useful in the study, should have been eclipsed by more relevant systems and problem-solving techniques related to managing change.  Nonetheless, it is work like that of Ragsdell (2000) which attempts to bridge that gap and provide new tools and approaches to change management which can be readily embraced by industry practitioners and change managers, alike.  

Change Management Frameworks

Stanleigh, M. (2008). Effecting successful change management initiatives. Industrial and Commercial Training, 40(1), 34-37.  doi: 10.1108/00197850810841620

In any review of thinking and research on a topic, some representation of articles from trade periodicals is important as they often contain articles that while not particularly scholarly, have a value through their framing of a topic and pricing an outline for methods and actions.  The caveat is that the author should be a recognized practitioner or academic, and the periodical should be one that is accepted as reputable and critical (and not just a vehicle for self-promotion).

Stanleigh’s article may fit this criteria and be worth a reading.  His credentials are that of business writer, consultant to an impressive list of international business and governmental clients (listed at www.bia.ca), and university academic at Memorial University.  Industrial and Commercial Training is an Emerald Insight publication, and I would accept that as an indication of some editorial responsibility.

Stanleigh lists change drivers and modes of failure across change initiatives.  When exploring change failures, the “secret sauce” emerges that genuine engagement of organizational members and a patient reliance on time for individuals to grow to accept change are vital ingredients.  Among the ten measures Stanleigh sets-forth to apply to a change situation, I found that the several that I need to be watchful for in other readings—to verify that they withstand the test of rigorous research—are incremental change; a guiding leadership coalition; shared vision; communication; capture of short-term wins; and, institutionalization of new approaches.  Again, a good list to watch-out for to see if they are more than just intuitive, but research-verifiable.

This is a helpful outline.  But, again, I recognize the shortcomings of this article:  it is experiential, not research-based; contains no primary research and no bibliography; and, does not comprehensively leverage others’ research but contains only the briefest of mentions of work by John Kotter and Peter Senge, and that of McKinsey and Arthur D. Little on change management.  Nonetheless, it was a useful outline to help frame current thinking on the change management topic.

Stakeholders and Roles in Project Management

Padar, K., Pataki, B., Sebestyen, Z. (2011). A comparative analysis of stakeholder and role theories in project management and change management. International Journal of Management Cases, 13(4), 252-260.

The authors have recognized something that is part of the constructs of my client work:  project management is a focused, somewhat short-term initiative to bring about a desired improvement, while change management is a longer-term, often dynamic—or at least adaptive—approach to effect an new behavior in an organization.  There is certainly overlap between the two, the authors point-out, and in my experience the project work spawns the need for the change work , so that, too, fits with my experience. 

Where the authors assess that overlap is in roles:  the people that do the work through projects and change initiatives.  They arrive at the conclusion that the principle roles in project management and change management have very similar “ job requirements,” (my term) and that these individuals can learn much from one another’s disciplines.

The authors provide some perspective on earlier research which delves into why people become willing to change, arriving at the conclusion that people change when they feel that they are losing control over their environment.  They cite (Conner, 1993) and (Mink et al, 1993) on this topic.

I find it helpful that they have given thought to roles in change management, and not just to the strategies and tactics which need to be employed.  Similar to a RACI (responsible, accountable, consulting, and informed) matrix, the change roles are defined as sponsors, agents, targets, and advocates.  They then define each of these roles.  They work-through a similar exercise for project management, and provide a table which matches the project and change roles using roles terms from earlier researchers.  That is helpful.

The three authors teach at the Budapest [Hungary] University of Technology and Economics, and, as noted above, richly cite earlier research work to draw their conclusions.  It is novel that there is no case study in the article, though it was published in the International Journal of Management Cases.  I would certainly have benefited from seeing an application or theoretical case of how these overlapping roles could truly benefit a change management initiative.

Lewin's Seminal Work in Change Management

Lewin, K. (1947). Frontiers in group dynamics:  Concept, method and reality in social science; social equilibria and social change. Human Relations, 1(5). doi: 10.1177/001872674700100103

In a review of change management literature Dr Feder-Lewis directed me to the writings of Kurt Lewin, Edgar Schein, Peter Senge, and Chris Argyris.  Noting that Lewin was evidently the pioneer in this discipline I sought to find his seminal writings which might give me a glimpse into the research and academic origins of change management, which I could contrast with some of my current, applied work in change with large corporations.  Frontiers in Group Dynamics appeared as a two-part article in Human Relations in 1947, and became something of a classic; that is, a launch pad for further thought and debate.  This first article dealt with “social equilibria” and change, while the second article, which I will tackle soon, focuses on social channels and feedback processes. The research is rich enough that I had to create a separate outline just to map my way through the content.  What stood-out, firstly, was the notion that change management is new.  After all, we’re looking back at work that was done 65 years ago, and Lewin’s language and use of terms—learning curves, analytics, social value, social habits—sounds current, even today, because it has endured. 

Lewin’s article pivots on a robust set of research of social phenomena  to support his theses.  These studies include interaction styles among boys, which he refers to as a tracking of “aggression actions”; group decisions in a factory setting; and, social forces that bring about change, combined with group decisions, that led to changes in milk and orange juice consumption and food (bread) preferences.  References to others’ research is frequent throughout this work.  His models which I find particularly insightful and useable in an organizational setting today are the [1] social fields with “locomotion” direction and predictive response; [2] force gradients given different environmental conditions and group pressures or styles; and, [3] the three steps of change:  unfreezing, moving, and [re]freezing.  This third model is quite provocative.  Lewin writes, “To break open the shell of complacency and self-righteousness it is sometimes necessary to bring about deliberately an emotional stir-up.”  (That’s like what Peter Arnett reported during the Viet Nam war, quoting an American officer as saying something like, “We had to destroy the village to save it.”)  Very thought provoking.

Days could be spent with this one, rich article, especially since it is, I believe, the origins of so much of what we now know as change management.

Recent Approaches to Talent Management in Professional Services Firms

Accounting for Good People
The Economist
July 21, 2007, p68

Talent management is the key with a professional services firm, and there’s some sound, collective advice from the Big Four accounting firms, and a few others.

- make people-related goals one-third of the partners’ annual evaluation
- put programs in place to stay in touch with former employees to maintain ‘emotional allegiance’, enabling them to ‘boomerang’ back to the firm, or at least to be a positive advocate in the marketplace
- make career breaks, sabbaticals, leaves, flex-time, home-officing, and part-time work an acceptable norm within the firm, for those on non-linear career paths
- to attract new MBAs it’s likely necessary to ensure an international assignment supplemented by language instruction; also, show evidence of high ethical standards
- many that join consulting and accounting firms do so with a plan to leave in about 3 years; to combat this, more in the firm need to be involved in identifying top talent so that they may be more effectively encouraged to stay; that is, have the partners help coach less experienced staff
- solid performers may be retained if the ‘up or out’ policy is dropped and a new senior role is created to enable those that are not destined to be partners to contribute, nonetheless
- consider expanding the ranks of [equity-holding] partners, as owners are best inclined to encourage networking and cooperative behavior

More on these topics might be found in “Mobilizing Minds’ by Lowell Bryan

Summer '07 Reading List

- Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger, ISBN 0-671-51099-1
- Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, ISBN 0-684-82490-6
- Journeying Far and Wide by Philip M. Kaiser, ISBN 0-684-19350-7
- Kissinger by Walter Isaacson, ISBN 0-7432-8697-9

Spring '07 Reading LList

- The McKinsey Way by Ethan M. Raisel, ISBN 0-07-053448-9 (a good re-read)
- Faith and Politics by John Danforth, ISBN 0-670-03787-7
- Thomas Jefferson by Fawn M. Brodie, ISBN 0-393-31752-8
- Woodrow Wilson by H. W. Brands, ISBN 0-8050-6955-0

Winter '07 Reading List

- How to Think Like da Vinci by Michael J. Gelb, ISBN 0-440-50827-4
- Memoirs by David Rockefeller, ISBN 0-679-40588-7
- 1776 by David McCullough, ISBN 0-7432-2671-2

Kennedy Sees Big Growth in BPO

Kennedy Information Research Group, a leading analyst of the consulting sector, estimates that worldwide business process outsourcing will grow at a CAGR of 11.6%, from $2.5 billion this year to $7.5 billion in 2009. Further, it is to grow at an increasing rate in coming years. Cost savings is a key reason given by 70% of companies to outsource, and 57% of responding companies say best practices and innovation are another key reason. But Deloitte and DiamondCluster indicate that outsourcing's anticipated benefits are simply falling short of expectations. It's a very complex business construct, particularly in an area that has not been heavily outsourced thus far like commodity purchasing. And, whoever figures it out first is going to win big.

Forrester's Work in System Dynamics

The Prophet of Unintended Consequences
by Fisher
Strategy+Business
Fall 2005, p 78

Though certainly not a replacement for more academically-oriented reading on system dynamics constructs, Fisher provides plenty of context around the thinking and influences which shaped Jay Forrester’s work at MIT over the decades. One colleague that Forrester mentored, John Sterman, taught a 3-day course in system dynamics which I attended a few years ago in London, and I was struck by its applicability to the understanding of price movement in price-volatile commodities. That said, what I was actually engaged in back then was ‘systems thinking’ versus system dynamics, about which Forrester has said, “The trouble with systems thinking is it allows you to misjudge a system. You have this high-order, nonlinear, dynamic system in front of you as a diagram on the page. You presume you can understand its behavior by looking at it, and there’s simply nobody who can do that”.

A few more thoughts from Fisher’s article:
- system dynamics, defined: a methodology that uses computer-based models to simulate and study the interplay of growth and equilibrium over time
- when one part of a system is changed it can push back and influence other parts of the system in unpredictable and extreme ways; this is why some problems can be fixed by changing a small but consequential practice that is influencing all the other factors in the system
- most industrial activity can be represented by five networks: materials, orders, money, capital equipment, and people
- a ‘must read’ is Forrester’s Industrial Dynamics, a 1961 classic; in it he posits that most business problems are not caused by competition of market trends, but are a direct result of company practices or policy
- advanced systems dynamics software to examine would include Vensim (Ventana Systems Inc of Harvard, MA), while a simpler tool is Stella (Isee Systems of Lebanon, NH)

Building One's Professional Network

How to Build Your Network
By Uzzi and Dunlap
Harvard Business Review
December 2005, p 53
A means by which to think-through and plan one’s professional network is presented in this article.  The key thoughts are:

• Sharing knowledge, not hording it, actually increases the value of it


• “The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas”—Linus Pauling;  individual success is tied to being able to think in an interdisciplinary manner; diverse network ties are therefore vital to being innovative and competitive


• Most personal networks are highly clustered around one’s friends and associates, with many in the network already knowing one another; this is the self-similarity principle


• Create a table of who you know, who introduced you, and who you introduced them to; this will show you whether you have diversity in your network, and who your network brokers [see below] are


• The proximity principle, which holds that people tend to populate their network with those that they spend the most time with, may be overcome by applying the shared activities principle, leading one to thoughtfully join community, voluntary, service, sports, boards, charitable organizations, etc., so as to expand the circles of networking


• Identify your brokers or superconnectors—those who tend to introduce you to many others—and nurture those very key relationships