Leadership: Less Is More: Why You Don’t Need To Network To Get Big Things Done…The Key to Getting Big Things Done is Not Contacts, it is Connection

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We’ve all heard it a thousand times: when it comes to getting ahead professionally, what matters is “who you know.” This phrase might be helpful to many, but I find it discouraging at best and paralyzing at worst. Having 10,000 contacts in my rolodex will not make me “go viral,” nor will it make me happier or more successful. I have a different theory about the key way that individuals can achieve big results, and it is accessible to everyone.

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So what do we really need to get big things done?  Not influencer status. Not a million Twitter TWTR -0.86% followers. Not even a connection to Richard Branson. All too often, we think affecting change requires amassing a bloated LinkedIn LNKD -0.03% profile, Twitter feed and Facebook fan page, but we’re overlooking an important point. Nothing has changed about our basic need to find value and meaning in our work. The difference today is how we combine our vision with our connections to achieving meaningful goals.

One problem is that many people think all young people are “social media obsessed” or “social media gurus” — which is not necessarily true and can create a dangerous expectation. For example, my friend who graduated from Columbia journalism school was told she needed more Twitter followers to be successful. She has now written over twenty pieces for the New York Times with only 151 followers on social media. Another friend, a young author, was told he needed to become a Linkedin Influencer to “make it.” He did not become an influencer but he did write a Wall Street Journal bestseller. There is no doubt that success is about making connections, but I do not believe that traditional networking is the key to getting big things done.

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Rather than get lost in the time we spend collecting business cards, we need a whole new way of thinking about the potential of our connections. In a world where connections are commonly defined as digital, social, and mobile, I think the conversation needs to shift back to how we use our human ingenuity, or better described as our “connectional intelligence.” Instead of 10,000 LinkedIn connections, we really only need the right five or seven smart, passionate individuals to start. We need a mastermind group, the coterie that Deresiewicz describes in his Atlantic article, “The Death of the Artist and The Rise of the Creative Entrepreneur.” Getting big things done truly can start at a dinner table if the right people are sitting around it.

Take the viral ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. As Mrs. Frates described in her TED talk, her son, Pete was a visionary. After he received his diagnosis, Pete declared to the family over dinner, “we’re not looking back, we’re looking forward. What an amazing opportunity we have to change the world.” Pete Frates certainly did not have 10,000 contacts.

Instead, Pete enlisted relatives to start building what Nancy Frates called “Team FrateTrain.” His uncle Dave became the webmaster, Uncle Artie became the accountant, and his aunt Dana was the graphic designer. Then Pete engaged friends and old baseball teammates to start the first Ice Bucket Challenge videos. What began as a mere handful of committed family members and select friends, eventually became a new voice that engaged people around a rare disease that nobody was talking about.

Focusing solely on networking is not only unnecessary but can be paralyzing to anyone who wants to get big things done. The magic of creation comes in combining people, ideas and resources in the right way. Frates’ ALS challenge did just that. He asked people to use resources they already had – ice, water and Youtube – to start and spread a conversation in an unprecedented way. Only after the challenge gained national media attention, did the big contacts, like Bill Gates and Justin Timberlake, show up. The Frates family is now projected to have raised over $160 million for ALS research.

The lessons from the Frates Family, and my journalist and author friends, could be applied to anyone creating something today, whether a campaign or a business. We all have the ability to become visionaries, seek solutions to unacceptable situations, and combine things in a new way to take action. The people who achieve today know that success is not about sheer numbers of contacts, but about what you do with the strong connections that you have. The key to getting big things done is not contacts, it is connection.

Erica Dhawan is the co-author of Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence by Erica Dhawan and Saj-nicole Joni. She is CEO of  Cotential. Follow her @edhawan