Put the I in the Network: The New York M.I.N.I.T.

Moving along in our NewYork MINIT networking plan....approach th I. Put yourself fully into making connections! INVITE CONNECTIVITY THROUGH RAPPORT!!!

My colleague tells me this is the part of the framework that is like TURBO, HIGH SPEED DATING!!! This part of the framework is about building rapport quickly. Whe you are on your feet in a room full of strangers, you must act quickly and seamlessly to meet and develop rapport with new contacts. You can do this with immediate eye contact, posture, the right interesting question.

Immediate eye contact: Work to reinforce the eye contact you made when you first spoke, but let your eye break contact so not to intimidate. This also allows you to survey the room for solo individuals who may become part of your conversation. Without turning away from your conversations and without a lot of head turning, allow you eye to casually survey the room briefly, but always come back into direct eye contact!

Posture: Resarch shows that getting into Rapport means showing physical signs of mirroring your partner. Observe the stance and mirror closely. Tilt your head if your partner has this in play. Fold your arms, nod....don't treat this as SImon Says so much as quickly and ever so subltly sending a message: we are alike!

The Right Question: Be a good listener asnd ask a genuine question: "What brings you to this event?" " Are you a regular at these sessions?" Can start the ball rolling. Listen. Pause breifly and gegin to paraphrase by saying..."So...." So is a great connecting word, especially if you are going to paraphrase, " So, this is your first session?" for example...works!

As you engage in the Connectivity of I...find another solo who is without a person with whom to talk who is nearby. Invite them in with connectivity: " Are you looking for someone, or would you like to join us? " is genuine and works. The power of three for you is that you can always graciously excuse yourself if the connection proves to be a mismatch. You will be able to leave two people talking more easily than when you are one on one!


Putting the I in connectivity means quickly establishing a winning casual rapport that you could continue to draw upon later in the session after you have networked with others!