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Synopsis

It’s not the anchor that holds a ship in place during a storm, but the length of chain connecting it. The captain watches the first mate to see where he needs to lay the chain to counter the winds.

This is a metaphor for BNI. How many links are there in your chain of relationships? Can you extend your chain in times when the economic winds are blowing against you? Have a one-on-one meeting with everyone in your chapter at least once a year.

Your BNI director is like the first mate on the ship, watching to see which way the wind blows and signaling which adjustments need to be made for the welfare of the group.

What are you doing to lengthen and strengthen your chain? Leave your comments here.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 122 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast which is brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables.

I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I am joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. Where are you and how are you?

Ivan:
I am doing great, Priscilla. This week I am in New Hampshire and Maine visiting BNI groups and doing presentations. There are some great groups up here, and I am really pleased to be here.

Priscilla:
Great. Well, what do you have to share with us?

Ivan:
Today I have a topic that I have written a little bit about; it is called “The Strength of the Anchor.” This summer my family took a several-day small ship tour of the Great Barrier Reef. The first night we noticed the anchor being used to secure the ship in the middle of the Coral Sea was really small compared to the size of the ship. It was a pretty decent sized ship, and the anchor was pretty small.

The second night we were anchored off of Hope Island in the Great Barrier Reef, and some really strong winds came up and our captain started the engines, and he backed the ship up, letting out more length of chain to the anchor. I am really curious, maybe a little bit concerned, so I asked him, “How is it possible that such a small anchor will hold the ship in place when the wind is blowing against it so strongly?”

And he said, “It is the chain that is holding the ship, not the anchor.”

After the anchor is lowered, the captain looks to the first mate, who signals from the prow which direction the chain is laying on the bottom of the sea. The captain then maneuvers into the right position and lets out the necessary amount of chain to hold the ship in a particular place and at particular time. This night, with the winds growing stronger, he recognized that he needed to let out more chain, and I began to see how this dynamic was really relevant to BNI.

Our anchor is the system, the process of doing business the BNI way. But it is not the system or the process that has the strength at all, or not completely. Clearly, it is a powerful process. It is the length of the chain holding the chapter, or the ship in the metaphor, in place that makes it all come together.

If you take a look at your chapter, members that are listening to this podcast, think about the links or relationships you have formed with the individual members in your group. How many links does your chain have? Do you have strong relationships with all the other members in the chapter, or are you closely linked with some but disconnected and detached from others in your group, for whatever reason? How do you go about letting out more chains during times when the economic winds have strengthened against our business?

I submit that it is time to get serious about developing strong relationships with each and every member in your chapter, even the ones you don’t think you have contact with that might run a business that is not exactly symbiotic with yours.

We talk about forming power teams with those businesses which are closely related to yours, but what you do about those members whose businesses are totally out of sync with yours or members who seem to be unable to provide quality referrals to you? Have you done one-to-ones with those members? Spending time to do the one-to-ones with each and every member of your chapter helps you to develop a longer and stronger chain. Each person in your chapter is one of the links that lengthens and strengthens that chain. The wisdom of laying down a longer chain to strengthen the ability of the anchor to hold strong is critical for the success of your chapter.

Another aspect of this anchoring process is watching the first mate. I thought that was really interesting. Your BNI director is trained and qualified to signal your chapter of the direction the chain is lying as the dynamic in your chapter changes. This is really important. The first mate signals where the change is going for the captain, and without him, the captain would really, really struggle. That is your BNI director; they can signal the direction of your chapter and help you if you take their advice.

The chapter president is basically the captain of the chapter, the ship in this metaphor. He or she watches the director for guidance and what adjustments to make to ensure the chapter is pointed in the right direction. At one point in the anchoring process, you see the first mate literally, literally dove into the water…

Priscilla:
Wow.

Ivan:
…to loosen the chain where it had become hooked on some coral formation. Your director cares about your chapter. As we travel around the world meeting with BNI directors and conducting trainings and conferences, we’re both gratified to see the heart of our BNI directors and our presidents and leadership team people and chapter members. And we encourage chapter members to keep their eyes, particularly the chapter president to keep their eyes on the director as he or she signals which adjustments need to be made so that the system works well for the BNI group.

I love this metaphor, and I wanted to share it with BNI members today.

Priscilla:
It is interesting, especially the idea that the chain, rather than the anchor, being the most important part, which is just counter intuitive.

Ivan:
I had no idea, no idea at all. I guess when winds really pick up is when they need to lay more chain down, because when I was on the ship the first night, there was not much wind, and it was no big deal. As the winds really kicked in, they laid more chain down, and they said that is what really helped to grip the bottom. I am listening to that and thinking about BNI, and I put these two things together. I talked about it with my wife, Beth, who helped me to create this visualization. I think it is very relevant to BNI, and I would love education coordinators to share it at BNI meetings.

Priscilla:
I just want to make one more comment in terms of the actual group. If you have been in a group for a while, as I have, and you develop a certain number of relationships with people and then you don’t renew them by doing one-on-ones in a fresh way, or more often than you would have thought to do them, I think you put yourself at a disadvantage.

Ivan:
Definitely. I think you should probably do a one-to-one with those people, certainly all new people, and all of the people that you want to maintain a strong relationship with, no less than once a year. Most people say, “Well, it’s not that much.” But you have a chapter of 30 members, that can be a lot of one-to-ones. And I am saying that is a minimum not a maximum; that is a minimum. You have to meet with those people if you want to create those relationships, if you want to maintain those relationships with them.

Priscilla:
Yeah.

Ivan:
No less than once a year for one-to-ones.

Priscilla:
Do you think a party counts?!

Ivan:
No, I don’t think that is a good one-to-one! But that is a good way of staying in touch with people, absolutely.

Priscilla:
Okay, great. Well, do you have anything else you would like to share?

Ivan:
No, that is everything today, and I would love for those of you who listened to this podcast to leave a message, leave a note what you think. Particularly if you take this back to your chapter, I would love to hear what your chapter thought.

Thanks, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Great. Thank you, Dr. Misner.

Well I just want remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.