Many situations can be overwhelming, frustrating, or stressful, and yet almost all can be resolved simply by reaching out to a colleague, friend, acquaintance, or wider network and making an ask.
Further, connections with others are vital for our mental and physical health and wellbeing. That’s why—in a time of social distancing—it’s important to be able to connect meaningfully with others in a virtual world.
Asking for help makes us better and less frustrated at our jobs. It helps us find new opportunities, new jobs, and new talent. Yet, we rarely give ourselves permission to ask. The sudden shift to virtual-only interactions has exacerbated this problem.
Luckily, the research shows that asking and getting what we need is much easier than we think, even in a suddenly virtual world—as long as we know what to do and how to do it.
In this ExecuNet Master Class session, Wayne Baker, author of All You Have to Do is Ask, highlights the learnings from his book and shares a few of the tools—used at companies like Google, GM, and IDEO—that individuals, teams, and leaders can use to make asking for help a personal and organizational habit, with an emphasis on how to use these tools in a virtual world. Topics include:
Obstacles to asking for what you need and how to overcome them
Methods for figuring out what you need
SMART criteria for making an ask
Tapping the full potential of your network
Crowdsourcing with technology, such as Givitas and other tools that allow people to tap into the giving power of a network.
Practical recommendations to make meaningful connections