Connecting Networks

I encourage you to read what Habib Rose is writing about networking and how this relates to connecting volunteers and leaders of tutor/mentor programs with each other.

I attended a seminar this morning to hear Bob Herbold, former COO of Microsoft, talk about lessons he's learned about why successful businesses often become failures. It's part of his new book, Seduced by Success.

The session resonated with me because Herbold was talking about how business needs to be constantly alert to market changes, trends, and competition and how they need to stimulate innovation and speed the way decisions are made and ideas come to the market.

This is exactly the type of thinking and leadership we need form non profits, philanthropy and business leaders if we're to innovate new ways to connect with inner city kids and build habits of learning, problem solving and innovation, that make millions of under-prepared youth part of the 21st century work force.

Yet, it seems to be more difficult to get these leaders into the Tutor/Mentor network than it is to drag dinosaurs out of a pool of tar.

This is why what Habib is writing about is so important. We need to learn to network, and connect our networks, at the neighborhood level, and at the virtual level, where people from different places, who care about the same causes, can be meeting together daily to solve problems and innovate new ways of doing business.