How would you document your personal network? How far back would you go: college, high school, nursery school? How would you indicate who knows whom and in which context? How would you get this out of your head so that you could analyze the network?

These and other questions came up as I started to think about documenting my personal network. I immediately noticed that the information relating to my personal network was just “stuff” in the GTD sense. Some information was in my head. Some information was also spread across multiple sources such as numerous phone books, planners, business cards, software such as Outlook, hardware such as cell phones, computers, old Palm PDAs, my new PocketPC PDA etc. I used the In-Basket to Empty process followed my a quick
MindSweep to get a fairly detailed listing.

In my last article I presented one of the key take aways from a presentation on Social Capital, namely that we have to open ourselves to ask for assistance.

In the past, prior to the creation of the “electronic frontier” or “cyberspace” (whatever the correct moniker should be), we were relegated to seeking such assistance from people that we were colocated with in face to face conversations. We now have the ability to seek assistance electronically as well.

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a local conference where someone was speaking about  one’s “Social Capital”: who you know and what they know, as well as what people in that network are willing to do for each other. She started the presentation by asking us if we knew who we could count on in the event of an emergency: maybe a family member, a neighbor, a co-worker. As soon as she asked the question you could see the thought process playing out in the minds of the attendees as they mentally sorted
a list of potentials and rank ordered them. America is a nation on the move, and even with the advent of instant communication channels the threads of our personal networks continue to fray. Her point is it doesn’t need to be this way. The threads can be repaired and strengthened. Doing so is easier than one might imagine, but it takes time and some dedication on one’s part. The payoff according to James M. Kouzes[1] can be: