Team networking requires members to go through stages of forming, storming, norming and performing to develop coordination and agreement. As members join and leave, the team must repeat this bonding process. Consulting work requires collaboration to achieve constrained goals and meet client demands. Team roles and responsibilities will change over time, requiring adaptability. Misunderstandings risk damaging trust, while familiarity could cause lower awareness and errors. Virtual teams now face challenges of changing scopes, reliance on external support and gaps in expertise.

1. Team Networking Teams and groups will have physical proximity, a common goal. Effective teams will have gone through the forming, storming, norming and performing phases to achieve a level of coordination and agreement. This bonding process will be repeated as members join and leave the team and as the goals and context of the assignment alter.

2. Collaboration and Coordination Consulting requires a level of working together to achieve goals in a limited time. Consulting tends to be resource constrained and time constrained as clients gradually want more for less. The roles within the team will be ambiguous, the responsibilities will change over time and each team member must be prepared to adapt for the sake of the team. Otherwise…

3. Lack of Agreement and Understanding The consequences of a misunderstanding are rarely fatal in a Consulting engagement but will result in a lack of trust and confidence going forward between the team members and management. Monotony, the repetitive nature of the work, over familiarity with the process or subject may lower the levels of awareness between the team and errors will creep in.

4. New Challenges for Consulting Teams The challenges are geographical, the changing scope and roles of team, reliance on external support, gaps in expertise, changes to external environment accelerating, better solutions to old problems but unknown to team, increased client aware of consulting. Teams are more ‘virtual’ than ever before. The client expects us to be their concierge, guide or agent in this environment.

5. Untapped Expertise Within The Group In one group we can total… (15+11+20+20+7+25+4+9+12+10+30…) Years in FS (17+4+7+24+5+20+3.5+2+16+2+25…)Years in Consulting (20+12+10+20+2+50+1+6+33+2+15…) No. of Clients More than 200 years of FS experience AND More than 220 years of Consulting experience WITH More than 200 different clients CIB Prithpal Babra RFS Stephen Keane RFS John Harvie RFS Thomas Townson RFS Rowan Taylor RFS Peter Richardson ET Benjamin Lloyd ET Serge Eaton ET Richard Boyce ET Nigel Thorley ET Ling Wong ET Julian Hodgson ET Derek Cummings CIB Alexia Heap CIB Stephen Folan Home Group Name

6. Networking through our Engagements Some examples of our clients…

8. How else can we connect to deal with constant change Geography, changing scope and roles of team, reliance on external support, gaps in expertise, changes to external environment accelerating, better solutions to old problems but unknown to team, increased client aware of consulting. Teams are more ‘virtual’ than ever before.

9. Entrepreneurs have come to realize that social networks are enablers of other compelling consumer experiences. Thus, social networks are becoming an important ingredient of all sorts of consumer experiences. Social networks inform the conversations that take place among friends such as Twitter. Social networks enable the discovery of new music Social networks now empower recruiting on LinkedIn. Dozens of new social networks are emerging to enable specific, valuable consumer experiences that are enhanced by the underpinnings of the network. Technology Support for Social Networks

10. An informal social network - Twittervision

11. How the Network Effect Increases It is acknowledged that informal networks are a powerful learning and support tool and that most organisations ignore them in favour of their own rigid and formal hierarchy. The more people who join the network the more the value of the network increases. Social network analysis can be used to document information flows

12. Your Personal Network Personal Contacts Acquaintances, Friends and Associates

13. Your Personal Network Increases If You Maintain It Personal Contacts Acquaintances, Friends and Associates You need close ties with direct contacts at the centre but you also need to grow acquaintances at the same time. They will provide more diversity of opinion compared to the day-to-day contacts. The more closely you work with people the more aligned your views are likely to become.

14. Social Network Analysis – Increase Links, Consider Diversity, What Else?

16. Ask the Expert or ask the Network You need to understand how to use the power of the network properly. Certain questions are better answered by large groups of people rather than so called ‘experts’ Sir Francis Galton’s guess the weight of the pig is a n example of the power of networks. Predictive networks are being used by Google, Microsoft and Eli Lilley amongst others By the Power of the Network! I demand an answer!

17. Effective Questioning Use open questions? How do I? Is it possible? Do you know if we can? Use it to broaden the question and add value to the answer by providing perspective or colour. Find out what it is that we don’t know and may need further investigation. Where are the areas of the answer that may change? Is there a different question that should be asked. .

18. Active Looking and Active Listening Are we able to pick up any undercurrents or trends from the network. Have we cast our net wide enough and then have we pursued the best, relevant and most interesting answers? This will require tenacity and curiosity and not merely accepting the ‘right’ answer. How much ambiguity can you deal with?.