Tool 2: Curriculum and Instruction BUILDING AND STRENGTHENING YOUR CONNECTIONS
ACTIVITY 1: UNDERSTANDING NETWORKING & WHY IT’S KEY TO GETTING WHAT YOU WANT Note to Activity Facilitator: Networking is a key theme and task in the MyBestBets platform (in the “Prepare” section, see the “Who Do You Know” tasks). While the platform covers a few aspects of the following activity, the questions below dig more deeply into the topic and encourage group analysis, reflection, and discussion. This activity introduces the concept of making connections with people and its benefits. Through it, students provide an example of how they’ve networked to get something they wanted; reflect on their own level of comfort in connecting with people they’ve just met; describe some of the characteristics of strong networkers; define networking in their own words; discuss the role of connections in finding/getting jobs; and explore the importance of networking with people of different backgrounds/walks of life. Suggestion: Assign the following questions as homework, then discuss them as a group in class (approximately 30-­‐45 minutes). Introductory questions/ideas: 1. Describe a time you found/got something you needed (a product, a service, information, etc.) through someone you know – or someone they know. Example 1: Desmond found his barber through his friend, Roberto, who recommended him. Example 2: David called his sister-­‐in-­‐law, Sydney, to ask about the pros and cons of being a dental hygienist. 2. Do you find talking with a person you just met easy or hard? Why? (Does it depend on the person’s age, background, personality, accomplishments, experiences, etc.?) 3. Think of people you know who find it easy to talk with people they just met. What characteristics do they tend to have? What networking is and why it’s important: 4. Briefly describe what networking is in your own words. 1 5. When it comes to getting a job, there’s a saying, “It’s not only what you know, but also who you know.” Explain what this means. 6. When you think about networking, remember, “It’s not just who you know, it’s who they know.” What does this mean? 7. Check out these statistics, then answer the question below them: •
A Bureau of Labor Statistics survey showed that at least 80 percent of jobs are found through networking. Many jobs that are filled are never advertised to the public; they are filled internally or through referrals. •
A 2014 CareerXroads survey showed that a job seeker who is referred is at least three to four times more likely to be hired (some studies have found that a job seeker with a referral is 14 times more likely to be hired). •
The same survey showed that only 15 percent of positions were filled by applying online through job boards (e.g., Indeed, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, and Monster). Why do you think so many employers prefer to hire people they know – or people who know people they know? 8. Making the effort to meet people of different ages and from different racial/ethnic, cultural, or socioeconomic backgrounds than yours is key to building your network. Explain why. Tool 2: Curriculum and Instruction ACTIVITY 2: MAPPING YOUR NETWORK Note to Activity Facilitator: The “Prepare” section of the MyBestBets platform includes a set of tasks under the header “Who Do You Know?” The “List Your Connections” task asks students to list people they know from home, school, work, their neighborhood, etc. to start thinking about the various connections in their network. The following activity enables students to construct and visualize a diagram of these connections. It also asks them to think more deeply and strategically about the kinds of connections they do and don’t have, how their classmates/others can help them expand their network (and vice versa), and new ways to think about the importance of networking. This activity takes at least 45 minutes to complete (in one or two sessions). It is designed to be a classroom exercise with discussion questions for a group of students to answer, as opposed to an individual homework assignment. The key tool for this activity is “My Community Map” on the next page – you can use it as is, but it is ideal to enlarge it for each student. In your introduction to the activity, inform students that they should fill out their map as much as possible during class, but that they are encouraged to add more names to it over time. The next page offers extensions of/variations on the activity for students and program/school staff. Suggestion: Facilitators are encouraged to participate in this activity with students by filling out their own maps before or during the activity. 1. Everyone has a network. Your community map will help you visualize yours. Use it to see your connections – people who are potential sources of information, knowledge, and opportunities for you. Fill out your map by writing your name in the green circle, then fill out the remaining shapes with names of people you know in each category. You don’t have to know these people well; you just have to know how to get in touch with them (by phone, email, in person, etc.). They don’t have to have a direct connection to a career that interests you; remember that networking is not just whom you know, but whom they know. Some of the people in your map may be able to connect you to other people who know about jobs/careers and workplaces that interest you. 2. a) Looking at your completed map, which categories have the most names? b) Why do you think that is? 3. a) Which categories have the fewest names – or no names? b) Why do you think that is? c) How can you make new/more connections in these categories? 3 4. Circle the people who are your highest priority connections on your map – the people you’d start contacting first to learn (more) about college/job training programs and jobs/careers that interest you. 5. a) Did you include the names of any of the people doing this activity with you in your map (e.g., your teacher or counselor/advisor, other students)? b) Why or why not? 6. Look at other students’ community maps. What are the similarities and differences (e.g., same names, some categories have more names than others)? 7. Would your classmates or teachers/advisors be willing to share any of their contacts with you, especially in categories where you don’t have any or many connections? 8. How has this activity changed – or contributed to – how you think about networking? Extensions of Activity 2: • FILLING IN YOUR GROUP’S COMMUNITY MAP – Enlarge the group community map on page six to poster size. Write in a name for the group/class in the blue circle. Next, have everyone in the room work together to fill out the map, including you and any other program/school staff. (If students already filled out individual maps, tell them to use them to help fill out the group map.) Discuss where your strongest and weakest connections are as a group, and strategize how to build new ones. If you’re not already familiar, it’s helpful to look up the names of your local Workforce Investment Board (or Workforce Development Board), One-­‐Stop Career Center, and your local Chamber of Commerce to add to the group map. They can be tremendously helpful in connecting your group to employer/industry contacts. • REACHING OUT TO A HIGH-­‐PRIORITY CONNECTION: Instruct students to reach out to one of the people they circled in their individual map (see #4). The goal of the conversation is to say hello and learn about college/job training programs or careers of interest. If the contact person is a postsecondary program contact or an employer, the interview questions in the “Interview Your Postsecondary Contact” and “Interview Your Employer Contact” tasks in the “Research & Verify” section of MyBestBets can be helpful. Variation on Activity 2: • PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY FOR PROGRAM/SCHOOL STAFF: Have staff from your program/school (e.g., counselors/advisors, teachers) complete their own individual community maps and/or a group community map. Adapt the questions in this activity to facilitate group discussion. MY COMMUNITY MAP
Tool 2: Curriculum and Instruction People from Community Colleges, Four-­‐Year Colleges, and Other Higher EducaUon InsUtuUons (e.g., students, professors, advisors, other staff): People from Your School, HSE Program, or Community OrganizaUons/Centers (e.g., staff, students, volunteers): Work and Business ConnecUons (people from your current or Family & Friends (and Their Family & Friends): People from Your Extracurricular AcUviUes, Hobbies, Volunteer AcUviUes, or Religious/Spiritual Groups (e.g., past jobs, including supervisors and co-­‐workers, and people from different kinds of businesses in your neighborhood, city, and beyond): people from your gym, place of worship, dance/singing group): Other Kinds of ConnecUons (e.g., neighbors, mentors, people you know who work in your dream career or who know someone who does ‒ include names not already listed in other parts of this diagram): 5 OUR
Postsecondary Connections GROUP’S
(to community colleges, 4-­‐year colleges, job training programs, etc.): Employer/Industry Connections: COMMUNITY
MAP
Workforce Development Connections (e.g., to the local Workforce Investment/Development Board, One-­‐Stop Career Center, local Chamber of Commerce): Connections w ith Community-­‐Based Organizations: Government & State Agency Connections: Tool 2: Curriculum and Instruction ACTIVITY 3: LEARNING FROM SIX DEGREES OF LOIS WEISBERG Note to Activity Facilitator: The following activity is based on student analysis of sociologist Malcolm Gladwell’s essay “Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg,” which was originally published in The New Yorker magazine. Gladwell’s writing is usually appropropriate for a grade 9-­‐10 reading level. Tell your students to go to http://gladwell.com/six-­‐degrees-­‐of-­‐lois-­‐weisberg/ to read the essay or print it out for them. The essay focuses on Lois Weisberg, a Chicago grandmother who does not hold political office or have tons of wealth, as possibly one of the most powerful women in the city due to her social power as a “connector.” Below is a wide range of questions you can use to guide group discussion about some of the main themes and assertions in Gladwell’s essay – select the ones that you think will spark the most interesting discussion. Discussion will enable students to: • Identify connectors in their own networks and reflect on how they themselves can become (better) connectors; • Explore and challenge images of power and powerful people in mainstream media; • Explore what connects people to each other and the different “worlds” that constitute a network; • Understand the “power of the acquaintance” and its implications for how people find opportunities including jobs; • Identify what they like and dislike about the essay and debate some of its author’s key assertions; and • Explain how the essay contributes to their ideas about networking. In addition, this activity allows students to exercise a number of reading comprehension skills, such as locating information that answers specific questions; using context clues to determine the meaning of words; recalling personal experiences and connecting them to ideas in a reading selection; and drawing conclusions and forming opinions in response to a reading selection. Suggestion: Students will need at least 30 minutes to read the essay, therefore it is best to assign it as homework prior to any class discussion – or to read it in sections in class. It is divided in eight sections. Depending on how many questions you choose to cover, a fruitful class discussion should take at least 40 minutes. If time is an issue, you can select a few sections of the essay for students to read, then choose a handful of the questions below to guide class discussion. Note that these questions correspond to specific sections of the essay, so choose ones that apply to the sections you select. 1. Do you know anyone like Lois Weisberg – a “connector” – someone who seems to know everyone? If yes, how can you take advantage of having this kind of person in your network? If no, how can you find someone like her to be part of your network? 7 2. Does Lois fit the traditional/popular image of what a “most powerful person” or “ultimate networker” tends to look, dress, or sound like? If yes, how? If no, how not? 3. Explain what you can do to become more of a “connector” over time. 4. Gladwell’s essay describes a University of Utah study that found that “we’re friends with people we do things with, not necessarily the people we resemble.” Do you find this to be true in your own life? If yes, how? If no, how not? 5. Explain why not all degrees are equal in the “six degrees of separation” concept. 6. Lois is the kind of person who “knows everyone” not only because she knows a lot of people, but also because she belongs to lots of different worlds: the actors, the writers, the doctors, the lawyers, the park lovers, the politicians, the railroad buffs, and the flea-­‐market aficionados. Name two different worlds to which you belong. 7. What is the difference between strong and weak ties? 8. Why are weak ties often more helpful than strong ties during a job search? (Hint: What is the “power of the acquaintance”?) © 2012 CHESS MEDIA GROUP Tool 2: Curriculum and Instruction 9. What do you like about Gladwell’s essay? 10. Is there anything you dislike about the essay? If so, what and why? 11. In part 6 of the essay, Gladwell writes: When we're faced with an eighteen-­‐year old high-­‐school dropout whose only career option is making five dollars and fifty cents an hour in front of the deep fryer at Burger King, we usually talk about the importance of rebuilding inner-­‐city communities, attracting new jobs to depressed areas, and reinvesting in neglected neighborhoods. We want to give that kid the option of another, better-­‐paying job, right down the street. But does that really solve his problem? Surely what that eighteen-­‐year-­‐old really needs is not another marginal inducement to stay in his neighborhood but a way to get out of his neighborhood altogether. He needs a school system that provides him with the skills to compete for jobs with middle-­‐class kids. He needs a mass-­‐transit system to take him to the suburbs, where the real employment opportunities are. And, most of all, he needs to know someone who knows someone who knows where all those good jobs are. a) Use context to briefly explain what “marginal inducement” means in the paragraph. b) Do you agree with Gladwell’s assertion that “Surely what that eighteen-­‐year-­‐old really needs is not another marginal inducement to stay in his neighborhood but a way to get out of his neighborhood altogether.” Why or why not? c) When he mentions “getting out of the neighborhood altogether,” do you think he means never coming back? d) Imagine that you move out of your neighborhood for school, a job, or some other reason. Would you feel a desire or responsibility to return – for example, to volunteer, invest in a house or business there, etc.? Why or why not? 12. Gladwell states that “Poverty is not deprivation. It is isolation.” Do you agree? Why or why not? 13. Whether you agree or disagree with some of a writer’s assertions, you can always learn something valuable from having read his/her work. Describe two things you learned from reading Gladwell’s essay – your answers to this question should not repeat answers to previous questions here. 9 KEY POINTS ABOUT NETWORKING TO SHARE WITH STUDENTS: Note to Activity Facilitator: The following is a quick reference for facilitators, or students about the what and why of networking. Feel free to mix and match what you show to students, or put these tips/reminders in areas where students learn and/or socialize. •
Remember, networking is not just about building connections to find jobs. It’s about surrounding yourself with people who can give you advice and support you as you make small and big life decisions. •
You don’t have to know people really well for them to be connections in your network; you just need to have met/spoken with them at some point (even if briefly), and know how to find them if you need to contact them again. •
Remember, anyone and everyone you know is an important part of your network – this includes everyone from your family members to: o your teachers or advisors/counselors o your neighbors o convenience store/bodega owners in your neighborhood o people you frequently see at your bus or train stop •
o sales associates or managers at your local clothing or shoe stores o construction workers you see working in your neighborhood or city o cafeteria workers or custodians at your school/program o your classmates o coaches of your neighborhood sports teams o your co-­‐workers Just like anything else, you get better at networking the more you practice. If it seems challenging to you, practice connecting with – and through – the people you see most regularly. For example: o When you go to the supermarket or corner store, say hello to the cashier/manager/owner and ask how his/her day is going (“Busy day today?” or “Good day today?”). Or, you could comment on something interesting you heard about or saw in your neighborhood (“I noticed a pizza shop just opened up across the street – have you eaten there or heard good things about the food?” OR “I noticed that you painted the storefront. It looks nice!”) You can close out your conversation by saying goodbye and adding a comment about the weather (e.g., “Stay warm – I heard it’s going to get really cold tonight.”). TIP: It’s best to stay away from any political or religious talk since it can be touchy for some people. NOTE TO TEACHERS/COUNSELORS: Have your students practice how to make small talk as a classroom activity. o When you see a maintenance worker in your building or at your job, say hello and ask if he/she has had a chance to take any time off recently to relax – then mention that you appreciate what he/she does. Acknowledging people’s hard work not only makes them feel appreciated, but also opens you up to a more meaningful connection. Tool 2: Curriculum and Instruction •
Effective networking is as much about being a good listener as it is about being a good conversationalist. To make meaningful connections with people, learn about who they are, what they do, and what makes them tick. As you listen, make eye contact, nod your head, stay off your phone, and always look like you’re interested in what the person is saying (even if you’re not). Paraphrase what you’ve heard and ask clarifying or follow-­‐up questions (e.g., “You mentioned that you go to Los Angeles a few times a year for work. I’ve never been. How do you like it?”) •
Come up with interesting, not standard and non-­‐specific, answers to questions. How do you usually respond to the question "How are you"? Instead of responding with "Fine" or "OK,” say something positive like “I’ve had a good week – I just started a new job and it’s been fun to learn new things and meet new people.” Even if you haven’t had a good week, you can say something to put a positive spin on things, such as “It’s been a tough week because I’ve had a back-­‐to-­‐back tests in school, but I prepared for them so I have a good feeling about them.” •
Compliments go a long way and can be good conversation starters if you feel stuck. Give sincere, specific compliments (e.g., “Your shoes look sharp! They really complement your style.” or “The tips you gave in your presentation were really helpful. Will you tell me more about _________?” or “I love getting advice from women entrepreneurs. What you’re doing with your business inspires me to _________.”) •
Finding connections to a job is not just about talking with people you know directly. Many times, you’ll have to talk with someone you know who will then refer you to other people to get information about a job. Remember, people don’t usually find jobs through close friends; they find them through friends of friends and loose acquaintances. Since friends are usually in the same social and professional circles, they tend to know about the same people, places, events, and job opportunities you already know about. On the other hand, your acquaintances often have access to totally different networks and the advantages of knowing them. •
If you don’t ask, you won’t get. The most successful people in the world are good at asking for help and finding the right people to help them. They also aren’t afraid of the word “no,” rejection, or putting themselves out there. All these things are part of life. 11