One of my earliest memories of joining the public service, now over twenty years ago, was listening to a female senior executive bang on about the importance of networking.

As a brand new graduate recruit, I had no idea what she was on about, and I clearly remember thinking: “Networking?  What on earth is networking?  Should I know what she is talking about?”

She was so excited about the concept that she made it sound like there was some magic formula that was very important to follow.  By the end of her talk, she had me convinced that without this mysterious skill of networking, I had absolutely no chance of succeeding in this scary new world of the public service.

Fast forward a couple of decades and I’ve recently left the APS after a very successful career…and I finally realise why she was raving on about the importance of establishing networks.  Mainly because I have lost all of mine!

It’s a classic case of taking for granted something you have until you have lost it.

The public service is perfect for establishing networks.  While I know there are some operators in the public service who are very territorial, or may resist sharing information, on the whole my experience was that establishing networks is a highly rewarding exercise both personally and professionally.

And there is no magic formula to follow.  I built up my networks by simply picking up the phone, and talking.

Often it would be to bounce ideas off someone, or more often to ask questions: how do you do this in your work area?  Do you know anyone who has more information?  Is there some sort of whole-of-government policy I should know about?

I would choose people that I trusted and who worked in similar areas.  Generally people at the same level as me, but not always – sometimes higher in the hierarchy, sometimes lower.

I gained more than can be imagined from this approach.  Professionally, it injected new ideas, new ways of approaching a task, or I found out about resources that I was unaware of.

Generally people are very happy to help, although it is a good idea for your first question to always be “have you got a few minutes for me to ask you something?” – this is just simple courtesy, and will mean that if you get a positive response, then you will have their full attention for the next few minutes.

And personally, I developed some very strong friendships this way.  In some of the best working relationships I developed, we would regularly call eachother to ask eachother questions, or to brainstorm an issue.  In fact, in one work area, it resulted in me setting up a formal structure which saw people across several departments working on similar issues coming together once a month to discuss our work agendas, and agree on common solutions.

And now that I have left the public service, I have found myself starting all over again. But this is the best part of a job – meeting new people, sharing ideas, learning new things.

So pick up the phone, what have you got to lose?

Are you a little mystified about networking? Ask Kate your questions. And if you’ve got tips of your own to share, simply leave a comment below!

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]http://hercanberra.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/kate.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Kate Neser previously worked across a number of ACT public sector agencies, including four years successfully working part-time in a senior executive role. She has recently left the public service to pursue a career as an Executive Coach with the Centre for Public Management. Kate has two kids in primary school, and now lives her dream of working in a job that still allows time to pick the kids up every day to get them to soccer, and cricket and dance and piano and tennis…. (you get the picture)[/author_info] [/author]