The people, dots and ideas connector. What does that mean?

 ‘There are Victoria Maskells in every organisation. They’re creative, curious and inventive, and they thrive if their habits, instincts and behaviours are allowed to flow naturally. That, in essence, is what a culture of innovation is all about.‘  Eat Sleep Innovate, by Scott Anthony.

Introduction to Eat, Sleep, Innovate by Scott Anthony

A Connector or a Maven... or both?

It’s not every day you get written about in a Harvard Business Review Press book, but my ability to see opportunity, to link up the sometimes disparate dots, and to find the people needed to make it happen makes me a connector. Though unlike the three distinct archetypes in Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point I think I’ve got quite a bit of Maven in me too. I explore ideas, I push them, I test them, and I link up the people who can help delve into them further.

What does this mean for business? It means that I think big picture. I thrive when thinking how multiple moving parts interact with each other and have an ability to zoom in and out and back in again to help an organisation do what it needs to. I can hold a lot of information in my head, and I can twist and turn it, to think through what the unintended consequences might be of an action. I like reframing problems too, finding new approaches to describe the issue, as that will unlock new solutions too.

And fundamentally I’m good with people. I joke that I keep in touch with everyone I’ve ever met, and to be honest, that’s probably only a 1% lie. I enjoy what different people bring to the table, their cultures, their nuances. And I like to help. Linking people up who I think can tackle a challenge together, or who, might simply, just quite enjoy a chat over a pint.

Strategic communications and engagement is about people and things. It’s about being able to anticipate what people will think and do, based on an understanding of their views, beliefs and behaviours. It’s about considering risk, not just in a communications and reputation sense, but organisation wide, knowing that what you do speaks much louder than what you say.

So being able to connect ideas, dots and people means that I am good at what I do. It means I can get to the nub of the problem, and I find strength in working with others to find and iterate the best possible solutions.