I remember when my brother discovered “networking.” He was in college, and “networking” was suddenly the key to success. It made no sense to me – watching him, networking was about being popular and knowing the most people. I never imagined that networking would be a skill of value.

Fast forward 25 years. ASTD, LinkedIn, Twitter and more. I’m constantly networking, and my “networking” brother has less than 10 connections on LinkedIn. Some of his reasons for holding back from social media are sound. However, it is clear that the brand of “networking” he professed during my childhood and the networking I stumbled into as an adult are two different things. And it has led me to wonder recently how networking became such a critical part of my professional life.

In their blog article, Networking Reconsidered, John Hagel III and John Seely Brown talk about networking. Specifically, they describe the difference between my brother’s and my networking style. And this makes sense: my brother networked to gain power. He sought prestige, leverage and allies. I network to learn. That’s it. My life is about learning.

“Much can be learned simply by exploring the experiences of the other person, but even more can be learned by finding common ground — identifying common issues that you both face. This provides a context to work collaboratively in addressing particular challenges or opportunities that draw out the experiences and knowledge that you both have and end up creating new knowledge. Now we are beginning to tap into not just flows of existing tacit knowledge, but generating flows of new knowledge.” (Hagel & Brown, Jan 2010)

Thank you for networking with me and allowing me to share with you my learning. Now go read and learn, and together, we will create new knowledge!