Document Networking

Do you have a governmental issue? Have to open a bank account? Go to the Doctor? Get into a new school? For sure you will need some papers, and think about what happen when you don´t carry them. Here I'll share some tips for you.

One of my sons will make an abroad trip, so I have to make some immigration affairs and some bank affairs. Here in Mexico this type of errands are somethings you should be prepared to deal with.

The first thing to do is to have the permit that allow my kid to get out of the country without his parents. There is a document you should fill out with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I believe this is not available in Monterrey because other times I had to go to a Notary to make the request.

When you have to make this things it's better to do it by yourself. For more information please visit: 

http://www.inm.gob.mx/index.php/page/autorizacion_menores

At the end I went to the immigration office and when they review my application, it happened to have some mistakes and I had to print again my document. So my first tip: 

Tip 1: Look for the Internet Coffee closer to the place you are making the application, maybe they will charge you a little extra per hour, but probably they will know about the procedure, had the proper technology and are aware of the different things when people make mistakes.

At the end I get the immigration permit without many setbacks and the expense of some little pesos. For sure I learn something and the next time I will probably get my application correctly filled out.

Next I have to get a Bank Account for my son, so to the bank I went and ask about some of their services. I had to wait in line about 1 hour. By the time I get the information, I didn't carry with me any documents so I started to think:

1.- Waiting in line: 1 hour

2.- Receive information: 5 minutes

3.- Getting documents: 1 day, you have to go home and take some copies. 

4.- Time for application: 10 minutes

So I start thinking again, and I think I could manage it in some kind of way, I believe networking is my signature, isn't it?

First I look in my phone and remembered all the documents I have sent to me at some point. Perfect, I had pictures, pdf's, emails with the most of the papers I need. I ask the manager his email account and send them to him. So my number 2 tip:

Tip 2: Always have some documents at the cloud for sure you will make hand of some of them in some stressful situations that you probably will have.

Finally there was one last document I needed, and unfortunately I didn't have a copy with me. So I remember the girl that helps me with  my home cleaning, luckily she was at my house at that point. So I asked her to take a picture of the receipt and send it to me via Whatsapp. 

Tip 3: Calmly think who could offer you some help, some people that you know may be near the information you need and without making so much trouble you may get the information and the application done.

The next time I go to the bank, I will probably make the next things:

Tip 4: Ask in advance for an appointment

Tip 5: Make some previous research on which documents I will need to make my application.

Tip 6: Carefully review the filling of my own documents to get better results the first time.

I wish you the best luck of all on your next application procedure. Would you like to share some thoughts?

Networking Spaces

How you decide on the space you will need for your networking event?

On my personal point of view, networking is not that difficult or complicated, somehow it has to have attitude and interest. Meeting a new person, get interested on his needs, establish some agreement points and follow up. This can be done at any place, but there are some spaces that make easier this task.

The past week I participate on the inauguration of the learning commons. This event make me think about the possibilities of networking that could be done depending on the spaces.

Here I share a recommendation list to consider and have a networking event:

a) Food and beberage accesibility. It can be a restaurant or a coffeshop, if there are some awkward moments at some point, you can always speak about food and drinks and there you go.

b) Connectivity and technology access. A lot of business conversations are made from information that we have on the cloud, a USB or a presentation. Make sure you can expose the information.

c) Whiteboards, flipcharts or white paper to write down your ideas. A lot of people can take notes on the presentations, the posibility to make a scheme, outline, drawing or doodle, make the process of thinking a little bit easier.

d) Last but not least, comfortable furniture. Maybe the meeting take only 15 minutes, but if you are going to be there for more than one hour, you'll be grateful to have some ergonomic furniture that make your networking easier.

Antinetworking

How to make an entire team work in a few minutes?

I have to collaborate at some events each other day, among some activities that I participate are the attention at events, conferences, lunch, simposiums. The starting moments at these events use to be stressful for the organizers, and a lot of things could go wrong: Information, Presents, Spaces, Microphones, Guest Attention, Materials.

Some people work a complete year to get the event done and they make an effort and collaborate to achieve the goal that on the inauguration day everything runs smooth. Somehow the boss came in and with only a word, or the lack of it, the enthusiasm passed away and the people demoralizes.

Other kind of attitudes that "kill" the support spirit include: don't stop to greet the people, ignore the personal, talk in a rude way, give incomprehensible orders, think that people understand without giving the proper training, criticize the decision making without proposing different alternatives.

This attitudes are called the "anti networking" events. Walt Disney should explain it: "What happens off stage, is shown on stage". So to avoid this attitudes I recommend:

a) If you aren't aware on what your personal is feeling about an event, collaborate on one or two activities that you were not supposed to make, like welcome the guests or pass the microphones at a conference, so you can feel the stressful moments and you have the feeling on how to improve the performance.

b) Even if you are tired, control your voice and intonation with your member team. You can improve the team spirit with a good attitude, but if you have bad temper, the consequences could be a disaster.

c) Give some kind of attention, congratulation or applause for the well performed actions. Seize the moment and tell your collaborators what they have performed well, this little details can help you on your next project.

Keep in touch

You are visiting a city or a friend of yours came to visit, what do you do? How do you contact him?...

As I have told before, I have the opportunity to have friends that travel a lot and what I consider really interesting is the way we keep in touch. For this reason, my friends know that if they look up for me, they will find me. Skype, email, Facebook, Whatssapp, Linkedin, any social media is good enough.

One of the most important things related to Networking is the availability, when I have needed information from some people, I like to get answers really soon, and because I like to have this type of fast response, I always, always, always try to do my best and answer really fast too.

Innovación

 When I have traveled to Monterrey, if I have some spare time between events, I find the way to visit my former neighbors, the past 2 times I have commited with a friend to go for lunch to catch up, and the second one I visited my Innovation friends and get an invitation to a congress.

 Some of my former students know where my new office is and they had make some time between events to visit my office, or send me messages to meet at some spot in this city. It's very flatering to know they remember you and that they get some minutes to catch up.

Aldo

Viaje a Xochimilco

Another way to keep in touch with your friends and colleagues is given by the different events and promotional tours we have. The past week I was promoting at the MBA Tour and in my 5 minute break, I identified the stand of a different institution. I went by to say hello, take some pictures, and send greetings to our common contacts. Because of this fast track meeting I got some other invitations to different events at this city, this means more networking.

Jeff

So, here come my advice to get better and maintain your Networking:

1.- Make sure you know where to find your friends, and if possible visit them at their working places, a fast hello visit is always well recieved.
2.- If you have more spare time, make plans to have lunch or dinner, the people like to have special attentions from their friends, and also this little things can make you get forward on your personal proyects.
3.- If possible, make arrangements with time, so you won't surprise your friends and the contact will get better.

United Nations Networking

King's Pub

I had a closer encounter of the third kind with people from different nations, so I had to seize the cultural diversity that emerge here and try to maintain contact with them.

I'm recently living in Mexico city, and my long time social network are supporting my arrival to this place by making it warm enough. I think it has to be with my friends personalities and their willing to maintain closer relationships besides the distances.

The past week, my Peruvian-Miami alumni Omar visited the city. He contacted some of his friends to tell them about his job visit and explain that he was with some peers from other countries. The girls that are really well organized decided to have the meeting on Thursday, before everyone get back to their homes.

Peru, Guadalajara, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Monterrey and Mexico city

And because Lily from Guadalajara and Me from Monterrey were here, we had representation from different national cultures. This "reunion" make us meet at an English Pub with live music. As I have told before, when the people didn't know each other very well, the music became important, because it allows sharing different themes or learn something new.

At the Pub we had the privilege to meet Ermias from Ethiopia and Angel from Dominican Republic. That's how the group call the reunion the United Nations Assembly.

Tapatio Toast

We share a lot of information about our countries and share different toasting ways, that was one of the learning outcomes from the group. We had a "Padre" evening as in México will be called, "Chevere" Central and South America Style or "Arif" the Ethiopian way.

Other important aspect to tell is about the music as group integrator, even some of the songs were not well known from everyone, the mayority of them were hummed from the most of us. By the end of the evening, we had our personal contacts and planned to continue with the friendship via email.

So here I share some recommendations to make networking with personalities from different countries:

a) Consider that music and toasting are grouping elements, as always with modesty and following the integration rules.
b) Have oppeness to meet people, religions and manners, what constitutes disrispect for someone maybe in a different culture consitutes just a social way.
c) Get advantage and obtain your new friends contact data, maybe you can contact them when at their countries, your new friends will be an important documentation data.

Distance Networking

Hello!

I have some friends asking me how to manage and keep in good terms a working team that lives abroad; that wants to keep communicated, and share their experiences among its peers. So this post is related to a strategy we applied to improve our team confidence.

On past December we wanted to have a Christmas party, but we were just 4 people on Monterrey, the rest of the team was on different cities: Mexico City, Guadalajara, Panama, Lima, Bogota and Miami

We had limited budget to make the trip and have personal contact, so we better organize a virtual video call, that means we had to use our cameras and microphones on the computer, connect using an operative system and start the communication.

There are several systems that allow virtual video calling, some of them are private, other have cost, other are 100% free and public, it depends on the needs for communication, handling confidential information or other needs.

We decided to use Skype, because it has good rates on the cities where the personnel lived. We organized previously the event agenda and share the information. The general idea was to learn a little bit more about the personal issues of the rest of the team.

We started and participated by turns, everyone can ask questions on specific matters on the personal presentation of each one. Some of the themes that were mentioned included, hobbies, trips, family and pets. Skype allows to share audio and video material so we shared pictures, videos and songs.

By the end of the party, the team told me that the experience was really motivating, and even though they where far apart, the possibility they had to share make them feel confident with their peers.

The following video includes a general description on how you can use this type of technology so you can learn on the advantages of it and try to keep your family, friends and peers closer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qulggXtg00

Enterprise Social: Work like a network