Conversational NET-working

This may be a stretch in the tennis analogy - but being strategic in conversation will add significantly to your personal NET-work.   So in this case you want to capture all conversations you have with people in your personal network.

Why is this important?  Well, one of my Accenture partners once told me that your greatest asset in a job and career (and life) is your personal network.  You can measure this by the number of business cards you collect or the number of Linkedin contacts (and here I mean ...... meaningful contacts) you have. Other social networks also apply (e.g. Facebook, Pinterest etc.) But remember these are conversational physical networks not computer passive virtual networks.
 

When you are in conversation with someone, you will want to create a memory of that person and a category (e.g. where they work, their interests, their expertise, etc.) to file away in your personal network memory file.  That way should a need arise you can call upon them for help or advice.  In fact, you might even be able to help them someday with a need they described to you.  Finally, you might even be able to connect two strangers unknown to each other - because you put "one and one" together by matching their need which you discovered in your independent conversations with them.

If you think about trying to find a meaningful category in which to "file" that person into your personal network, it can help you with the ease (and less stressful) conversational flow.  It's fun to be a conversational detective and find out interesting facts about someone else.

SO .......  In tennis you want to always hit the ball over the net.  But in Conversational tennis you want to end the conversation ball in the NET -----  your personal NETWORK!