At NRG we recently surveyed our members to find out what our members got out of the NRG relationship. I was (pleasantly) surprised to find that over half our members were actively collaborating with other members.
Then one of our more mature and wordly-wise members sat me down and explained things to me.
"You make a big thing about developing relationships don't you" he said.
"Absolutely, it is fundamental to successful networking" I said.
"Well, think about it - if your members do spend time getting to know other members in depth surely you shouldn't be surprise when a lot of them want to work together, share projects, jointly go to market - in other words, collaborate!"
Silly me - why didn't I think that through!
Martin Davies
NRG Business Networks