Building Bridges: The Power of Internal Networking

Description: This episode dives deep into the world of internal networking groups. Industry expert, Amanda Mosteller, uncovers the power and impact of these groups within organizations. Explore success stories, best practices, and strategies for building effective networks. Whether you're a leader, employee, or simply curious, tune in for insightful conversations that unlock the potential of internal networks for professional growth and organizational success.

Resources:

Steps To Start And Run An Employee Network 

MRA Membership 

About MRA 

Let's Connect:

Guest Bio - Amanda Mosteller 

Guest LinkedIn Bio - Amanda Mosteller 

Host Bio - Sophie Boler 

Host LinkedIn Profile - Sophie Boler 

Transcript:

Transcripts are computer generated -- not 100% accurate word-for-word.

00:00:04:07 - 00:00:25:10
Unknown
Hello everybody and welcome to 30 minute Thrive, your go to podcast for anything and everything HR, powered by MRA, the Management Association. Looking to stay on top of the ever changing world of HR? MRA has got you covered. We'll be the first to tell you what's hot and what's not. I'm your host, Sophie Boler, and we are so glad you're here.

00:00:25:12 - 00:00:48:16
Unknown
Now it's time to thrive. Well, hello, everybody, and thanks for joining us today. I'm here with and excited to introduce to you a new face for our podcast. Amanda Mosteller, director of talent development here at MRA. She's in our Ohio division, but she's also an expert podcaster and has been a podcast host as well. So this should be fun.

00:00:48:17 - 00:01:20:07
Unknown
But Amanda's really passionate about talent development and growing the success of the individual as part of the organization. So today we're really going to be talking about internal networking groups. And before we do that, Amanda, I'm excited to bring you on the podcast and really bring MRA, Ohio on board and introduce the members to the Ohio division. But can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background just before we dive into some questions?

00:01:20:09 - 00:01:48:08
Unknown
Absolutely. Thank you for asking me to be a part of this. I enjoy podcasting a lot, so I'm really excited to do this with you all and excited to be a part of MRA. I am Amanda Mosteller. I am the director of Talent Development, as you said, for the MRA Ohio Division, and I am one of those weirdos that knew from high school that this was the path I wanted to go down.

00:01:48:08 - 00:02:17:22
Unknown
My aunt actually was in the talent recruitment space at P&G for her career, and I was always fascinated with the whole talent world. So when I was in high school, I knew I wanted to go into psychology and I went to Ohio University. Born and raised Cincinnati and born and raised the Ohio individual went for university, got my degree in psychology with an emphasis on organizational psychology.

00:02:17:24 - 00:02:39:15
Unknown
I always say, Don't let the hair dye fool you. I was in college before organizational leadership was a degree, both when I was in school. So organization psych was an emphasis not as on track. So I had a lot in the psychology space when I came out my whole career going on 18 years now has been in that space.

00:02:39:15 - 00:03:10:05
Unknown
So my first job was an internal coach for employees and different programs for a community service agency. I was there for ten years. I built talent development department. It didn't exist before. We just had coaches. And so I ended up building an internal department, building programing for all of our 23 different lines of service and those employees building leadership programing and doing some annual internal surveys and enhancements and improvements from those.

00:03:10:05 - 00:03:42:12
Unknown
So started dipping my toe into organizational development work right as I left that organization and moved over, the telecom space was in Telecom for five years, branched within that organization to the technology side of the business as well. While there is when I started gaining my experience of strategic growth through acquisition and incorporating new organizations into an existing organization, structure, culture, how do we make these two groups work?

00:03:42:12 - 00:04:07:08
Unknown
So we grew through acquisitions four times while I was there, and we went from a regional Ohio provider to an international provider operating in five different countries with over 5000 employees. So my strategy of developing folks in person in Cincinnati quit working overnight for a change. Lots of change and organizational development and coaching started becoming a lot of where I spent my time.

00:04:07:10 - 00:04:36:09
Unknown
So focusing on bringing everyone together and then identifying efficiencies, identifying enhancement opportunities and helping the organization implement those successfully is where I was before I found the opportunity at Mra Ohio. So joined MRA Ohio's I'm going to keep saying for a little over two years ago and have been here enjoying getting to know our members and doing the same type of work for organizations ever since.

00:04:36:10 - 00:05:03:23
Unknown
It's been an interesting path and one that has been my sole focus the entirety of my career. So really enjoying it. Sounds like you've done just about everything in your far always this fascinating. Hey, Amanda, we don't have this. Do you think you can do it? I'm like, Sure, I'll go figure it out, though. There is always it doesn't exist here.

00:05:03:23 - 00:05:27:05
Unknown
Amanda, can you go create it? I just kept seeing what I did, so I went in thinking I was going to be a coach solely and came out loving. Oh, do you work so excited to talk about internal networks as an odd kind of strategy for organizations to start thinking about? Yeah, well, it was fun kind of brainstorming what podcast topic we should come up with.

00:05:27:05 - 00:05:55:10
Unknown
And you brought up internal networking groups and it seems like a great concept for organizations to really embrace. But can you before we dive into that, can you explain just what is an internal networking group? Absolutely. So often when we think about development strategies, we go to structured learning programs which are wonderful. Don't get me wrong, I spend a lot of my time.

00:05:55:12 - 00:06:27:14
Unknown
But we also know that only 10% of development and profession developing individually help improve organizational success and achievement of strategic objectives and things like that. So if we're investing all of our time in something we know is only 10% of development, there's 90% still sitting there. So 70%, we know is through experiential learning. That's an impactful, intentional on the job training, but there's still 20% that we need to target to make the classroom and experiences connect and make them work.

00:06:27:16 - 00:06:56:02
Unknown
And that's where this strategy can come into play. 20% of development is through relationships. Who are your networks? Who are your peers? What are you all spending time talking about? How are you partner with your teams, with your leaders, with your organization? And often people don't know how to do that internally. They might find external networks, they might be a proactive network builder, and that's wonderful, but that's not everybody.

00:06:56:04 - 00:07:26:11
Unknown
So this is a strategy for organizations to be intentional about creating connectedness amongst individuals in their organization with similar job roles or similar levels within the organization or a similar length of service within an organization to be able to have connection and talk with somebody that really understands what it's like to be in this role at this organization or in this at this level, at this organization.

00:07:26:13 - 00:07:55:05
Unknown
I have a peer group now. We can meet regularly and really leverage and connect those two different areas of development together through helping people build these relationships and then leveraging those. So when I talk about internal networking group, that's what I mean. I mean creating these intentional connections between people that are connected in some form of similarity that you as an organization are setting up for them to join and be a part of.

00:07:55:10 - 00:08:27:00
Unknown
And I love that idea of internal networking because I feel like most people are. I mean, for me personally, I think of networking as something that has to be done outside of your organization. But there's so much that you can do with your own employees and your colleagues. So I love that we're talking about this. And you mentioned this briefly, but what are some of the other factors that would motivate an organization to really focus on starting a group like this or groups like this?

00:08:27:02 - 00:08:56:16
Unknown
Yeah. So in building on that 20% of development, we also know that individuals stay connected to organizations, that they feel they have relationships built. There is research that shows I will stay engaged and retained at an organization that I have at least one work friend where I feel really connected to them. I feel close to them, and not just colleagues, a colleague, but we interact potentially outside of work as well.

00:08:56:18 - 00:09:22:11
Unknown
So create a space like this not only for organizations where everybody work in the same office building. That's wonderful. Still, you'd be amazed how many organizations are all in the same brick and mortar or same office campus and yet still define themselves as siloed. So even that still is an opportunity to create connection organizations that are geographically dispersed.

00:09:22:13 - 00:09:57:08
Unknown
So we might have multiple sites or we might have remote employees, or we have members that are entirely remote with their employee base scattered all over the country. So this is another way to build connection and to learn from people who really understand the minutia of what is going on for you as an individual contributor or a team member of this organization in the same company, dealing with the same customers, living the same world, having the same expertise.

00:09:57:11 - 00:10:29:17
Unknown
And there's so much similarity with your colleagues that external networks are wonderful and you get diverse ideas from them. But this internal networking group would have an understanding on a deeper level that you might not ever be able to get an external networking group to understand what you're saying. So we often talk about how we're organizations have those unwritten rules or those pieces of knowledge that you only learn by working here, and external networks are just never going to be able to provide you that internal network to help you do that.

00:10:29:17 - 00:11:06:00
Unknown
So from a motivating factor, a rationale as to why this might be something a group would want to invest in, do we know we have a culture that defines themselves as siloed, whether we're all in the same space or not? That could be a factor in how do we create bridges? Do we have retention issues? Where in exit interviews we're getting feedback about teams not feeling connected or people not feeling engaged and connected to anyone outside of their own team.

00:11:06:02 - 00:11:29:01
Unknown
That can be a reason. Are we geographically dispersed? And so maybe a region only has two or three individuals of the same type of job role in that region, But as a company we have 40 or 50 employees with that same job role. They're expanding their internal network to be able to learn from others with the same type of job role this way.

00:11:29:01 - 00:12:07:20
Unknown
So being intentional about leveraging that 20% building those relationships, creating that connection and allowing folks to learn from like peers is a really excellent, inexpensive strategy to be able to make some real change and drive some growth at your organization. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I'm glad you brought up the remote. Remote teams, too, just because I mean, I have some friends who who don't even know everybody on their team or a lot of colleagues in their organization who are in a remote position.

00:12:07:22 - 00:12:32:15
Unknown
And I feel like these internal working groups that would be so beneficial for them to not only get to know their peers and know their colleagues, but also like talk about what's top of mind in their line of business and other things like that. But I'm also curious, do you have any examples on specific internal networking teams that organizations kind of commonly establish?

00:12:32:15 - 00:12:57:15
Unknown
Like is it through a department or line of business or what are you seeing? Brief question. Yeah, I've seen organizations do new employee internal networks. So for the first year, here's a group of everyone else that has also started this year. And so we're all finding our footing together. Job role be darned where we're all finding our footing in this organization.

00:12:57:15 - 00:13:24:03
Unknown
And often when you think about systems thinking as an organization, you start to figure out, Oh, my team touches your team. Interesting. You all do that. Oh, we use that system too. When you do that thing, it takes a notification to me. I didn't know that was you all. So you start to understand the organism. Organism that is the organization as well as different folks figure out through these internal networking teams.

00:13:24:03 - 00:13:41:00
Unknown
A lot of if I'm in this new hire example for the first year, I don't know how to make sure to sign up for my benefits. Oh, I happen to be a new h.r. Team member. I actually know that answer. Or how what is their payroll? Oh, i happen to be connected to that system. Oh, i'm in accounting.

00:13:41:02 - 00:14:05:16
Unknown
So you start to connect with people that can get you the answers. And we know that adults like self-guided options as much as possible. I don't want to have to go searching and things like that. If I can have a person that I can go out, I'm going to go ask that person. They'll get me the answer quickly and I might not have to demonstrate to my new manager that I don't know the answer.

00:14:05:18 - 00:14:38:05
Unknown
Sometimes people tend to be a little bit productive to do that. So that's an example that I've seen used really well. I've also seen different internal networking groups centered around levels of leadership across an organization or new manager. So I was promoted this year and it doesn't have to be a cohort of structured learning programing. It's a cohort that comes together where they all share that characteristic organizationally about themselves.

00:14:38:05 - 00:15:11:24
Unknown
They're all new managers this year, and so we're all figuring out how to do this together now, talking about best strategies and Protip, I've also seen similar job roles sales, internal networking groups where all sales team members or office administrative team members. I've been executive assistant one for really large organizations. I have a lot of them. And so I've seen job roles and I've seen certain length of service and I've seen leadership level.

00:15:12:01 - 00:15:30:16
Unknown
All of them are excellent. What you might find out is that you're going to have more and more ideas come. You might start with three or four and then it might start to grow and the value always will be in. I know we can get to this in a bit, but the value will always be around. Is there value to time?

00:15:30:16 - 00:15:55:05
Unknown
Because this is different than an employee resource group. This isn't created by employees and run by employees. This is created by the organization intentionally. There's an intention behind it. And so it is a little bit different and it can run away from you if you don't stay in control, which we'll get to. But those are some examples that I've seen work really well.

00:15:55:07 - 00:16:26:21
Unknown
Yeah, and I feel like this could work well with interns now that it's internship season. I feel like you get a whole group of interns together. Absolutely. I mean, if only an organization like MRA is an intern thing, you've always it's all well. Part of also running an effective internal networking group means having the hot topics to facing the industry today for the group to kind of brainstorm and share ideas and resources on.

00:16:26:21 - 00:16:50:17
Unknown
So how how would that really apply to this approach? Absolutely. I mentioned it has to be intentional. This isn't created and running amuck. Not that CRT is run amok, but not running on their own by employees. Those are really excellent for a certain type of strategy. This is a different type of strategy. This is meeting that 20%, right.

00:16:50:17 - 00:17:19:00
Unknown
So part of the intentionality of structuring these to have control of what all is going on is having somebody that identifies they might volunteer. You might as an h.r. Leader or a leader in your organization. You might know this person is kind of an emerging leader. I think they'd be really good at those and identify networking group facilitators.

00:17:19:00 - 00:17:48:18
Unknown
So if you've ever been a part of an ira or an excuse me in MRA, Ohio roundtable, they have facilitators. So somebody that helps guide the discussion, that collects the topics that might bring their own if nobody knows. Let's talk about a similar concept here. We want a facilitator of the team to help guide the conversations during these structured whatever cadence makes sense for your organization.

00:17:48:20 - 00:18:21:19
Unknown
Get togethers, because it is meant to be not just about building networks and having deeper friendships and connections at your company, but really learning from one another. This is that 20% of growth your relationship for trying to create because we need to create some development focus. So we're going to lesions, identify your facilitators, send them through some development themselves, some some training around how to stay in control of a conversation.

00:18:21:21 - 00:18:49:18
Unknown
If you've ever been a part of a focus group or led a focus group, you know that you can have one kind of frustrated team member really derail the whole conversation. So giving them some strategies around how to do that and then having a collection of topic ideas So we know what makes these helpful is to talk about what we're truly facing today in our industry and our role within our organization.

00:18:49:21 - 00:19:15:15
Unknown
For organizations going through change or changes are hitting a certain type of job role. They might want to talk about that that session, but creating some sort of topic collection strategy that the facilitator gets the topic. So it can be you can do it through monthly SurveyMonkey, anonymous things or whatever type of collection you want, and you can do that in the facilitator, an email.

00:19:15:15 - 00:19:46:24
Unknown
The facilitator can say, Bring your topic to the session. Our next get together will write them all on the board and decide which ones we want to tackle. It can be as unsexy as that or as fancy as some anonymous topics. Submitter different organizations like different systems and create different things. If your organization uses Microsoft teams, you can have teams channels for your networking group to connect outside of just the session, but be dropping their topics in throughout the month.

00:19:46:24 - 00:20:05:16
Unknown
Hey, at our next session, I'd like to have us all sit down and talk about this. I'm facing this with a client right now, or a customer or we're dealing with this in our team as we've made this system change and all of the hear what everybody else is doing to overcome this obstacle. So lots of different ways.

00:20:05:18 - 00:20:26:21
Unknown
It doesn't have to be fancy, but can be. Depends on what bells and whistles your organization already has in place. This is not meant to be an expensive implementation of a strategy. This is meant to be. How can we just get intentional about getting our folks together and giving them opportunities to learn from one another? So that is a big thing.

00:20:26:21 - 00:20:56:10
Unknown
On hot topics and sticking to them and collecting them in the first place. Yeah, I was just going to ask two and how do you recommend finding hot topics? I know there's just typical day to day business talk where you probably know what's relevant, but do you recommend articles or just scrolling on LinkedIn or news? Or what are some other than you're going to hate this, you're going to hate this answer for a week?

00:20:56:11 - 00:21:25:22
Unknown
Yes. Yeah. All right. There you go. It depends on your industry. Also, I, I know a lot about hot topics and talent development and organizational development and effectiveness. I don't know a lot about compensation than what's going on in that world right now. I don't really don't know a lot about what's going on in the sales world or the manufacturing space outside of the fact that all of us have headcount nightmares right now.

00:21:25:22 - 00:21:47:19
Unknown
But I think the facilitator and those in the team that are accepting and coming to these invitations to these networking groups, they're going to have their own avenues. They might have networking teams they're connected to outside of work. And it's something they were talking about. They want to bring to the team internally. They might see things on LinkedIn.

00:21:47:21 - 00:22:11:05
Unknown
They might have I mean, we talked about in the beginning, I love podcasting, I love listening to podcasts. That is how I learn when I'm at the gym. I'm not listening to music. I can promise you. I'm listening to a podcast and I am learning this time, to my mind is so open when I'm at the gym. The podcasts are perfect for me for that.

00:22:11:07 - 00:22:34:07
Unknown
Whatever avenue people like to connect to is going to be what helps them bring things in addition to. Like I said internally, we all know this is going on. Here's how I'm trying to manage through it as everybody else does. I know we made this change. I know we're launching this new product. I know we acquired this company and went from regional to international overnight.

00:22:34:07 - 00:23:01:17
Unknown
Surprised How are you picking success? So those are the various avenues I can think of. Yeah, those are all great ideas. Well, conceptually, this sounds like a great way to meld many of the recommended recommended engagement strategies like mentoring, relationship building, peer development, coaching. But logistically, how would you really recommend putting something like this into full on practice?

00:23:01:19 - 00:23:31:13
Unknown
Absolutely. My first recommendation, anytime an organization is interested in launching something like this is start small. I mentioned it. You can run wild thinking about every type of job role we have or we want to have a collection of second shift employees and have a second shift in a third shift and a first shift team. Just talk about what things are dealing with or learning things on that ship.

00:23:31:15 - 00:23:53:15
Unknown
You can run wild. So I highly encourage step one start small, let it grow organically the way it makes sense for your organization to grow organically. So don't make it a big thing if it doesn't need to be a big thing yet. I think your best starters are new employee is always going to be a great one to start new leader.

00:23:53:21 - 00:24:11:12
Unknown
I've been a great one to start or front line leader, whether you're new or not might be a great one to start depending on how often you have promotions and things like that in your organization as well as any of the main job roles that you have a lot of folks connected to could be a great way to start as well.

00:24:11:14 - 00:24:38:23
Unknown
But start small with a few that you think are going to be the most impactful. Create your policy. Create your your guardrails around how these groups function, how they are organized, how often they should meet, who if there is a job description, impact to a team member that's coordinating because remember, this is not driven solely by the employees.

00:24:39:00 - 00:25:06:03
Unknown
This is driven as an intention, all organizational efficiency and effectiveness strategies. So it's okay to own scheduling. It's okay to have a job role where that is part of their job is managing the internal networking groups, but create a cadence that makes sense. I won't be prescriptive as to what makes sense. I don't know everybody's business structure. I don't know how often folks hobnob in the break room together anyway.

00:25:06:03 - 00:25:40:10
Unknown
So something that makes sense for your business to drive that connectivity, to build that camaraderie and create that cohort avenue of peer learning, create your expectations of what a facilitator would do, identify what that looks like. These are all that pre-work logistically, identify your volunteers, talk to them about how to maintain conversations, and then create your recommendations around submitting hot topics.

00:25:40:10 - 00:26:04:06
Unknown
And then you're going to start communicating. So you have to do a lot of the ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure legwork upfront to get everything established. We all know in the effectiveness world, get your policies nailed down first, get your guardrails nailed down for that. It's not written down. You might have folks running rampant, but get all of that set up.

00:26:04:08 - 00:26:34:06
Unknown
Get what those expectations look like. This is a fantastic stretch assignment. Experiential learning opportunity for emerging leaders in your organization. For it to be facilitators that aren't quite that just aren't job openings, we could only create so many jobs. So having this as an opportunity is really beneficial. Create all those guardrails, create those recommendations, create the schedule for the folks, have that set up.

00:26:34:06 - 00:26:54:17
Unknown
And then as people volunteer or want to be a part of it, invite everybody, see who comes, keep it on their calendars, keep it going for them so that this becomes embedded in your culture. If you leave it up to the employees to run on their own, it very well likely will die on the vine because they have other competing priorities.

00:26:54:19 - 00:27:29:14
Unknown
And from an organizational perspective, management, upper management. If we don't see the organization investing their time and energy around having this become part of how we operate, they'll say, Yeah, you could go to that, or we have this other priority and that's going to take precedence. So it is important to be owned by h.r. Or B or whomever owns organizational effectiveness and development for your organization to kind of also put that stamp on this as a intentional strategy the business is using.

00:27:29:16 - 00:28:05:15
Unknown
So we need it supported from the top down. Logistically, i think those are great, great ways to start. And then yeah, i like how you and i'm glad you mention that the organization has to be fully invested in this because I want to bring this to a full circle moment as we kind of wrap up. So how can organizations use the information that's talked about in these internal networking groups, kind of use it for the organization as a whole and gather feedback and insights to kind of drive that organizational success?

00:28:05:17 - 00:28:32:08
Unknown
Absolutely. You have to create a trusting partnership with your facilitators, and that's part of kind of creating those expectations upfront and helping those that step into the facilitator of this networking group role. Understand is this is if there are things that people are frustrated about and they're struggling to overcome it and that comes up, let us know. Our goal is to create improvements through this.

00:28:32:08 - 00:29:03:05
Unknown
So a two way communication strategy that also is communicated to the group. You don't want the facilitator to let the networking team feel like we're in Vegas. Whatever happens here stays here. Talk about whatever, because that's part of the goal. The goal is we're learning goals are improving. If there is a obstacle that is really difficult for the group to overcome, we want to know about that so that we can either create development opportunities for them or make changes as needed.

00:29:03:05 - 00:29:32:02
Unknown
So part of that structure, that expectation and that development of the facilitators and that early communications of the guardrails is to set that up as one of the intentions behind this strategy, because engagement surveys are wonderful and I don't knock them. I think they are a fantastic way to have more people give feedback. That's anonymous. This is not just sitting there with your face saying what you're saying.

00:29:32:02 - 00:30:02:16
Unknown
So we know that they are going to be aware of what group is talking about this. But even on engagement surveys, we get that information and that often we're looking at it kind of scratching our heads like, what is driving that rating? What is driving those comments? So we end up trying to do focus groups anyway. This is a consistent, intentional focus group for your business, for specific areas that you will get that information.

00:30:02:18 - 00:30:36:20
Unknown
So establish that relationship understanding early and then it's really important for those professional taking the information to share it with whomever. And the organization needs to know what we're learning for development opportunities to create that discretion area. Because while the group's going to let me know, I'm not going to walk up to the sales executives and say, Hey, so I want you to know sales.

00:30:36:22 - 00:30:58:23
Unknown
This guy, this lady really pressured, I'm not going to do that. Right? So that's on our side to remain ethical and with our professionalism to say, hey, we're hearing through the networking team that the new CRM is pretty difficult for folks to utilize. Maybe we need to have some refresher training. Can we work to schedule that? Just making it all about, Here's what we're hearing.

00:30:58:23 - 00:31:20:21
Unknown
Let's remove that obstacle. Here's what we're learning. Let's figure that change out. I hear there's this new innovation. Seems like our business is falling behind, going to the executives. Do we have a plan in our strategic roadmap? Can we have some conversations? Because we've learned some stuff from boots on the ground over there telling us that we should probably be working this way.

00:31:20:23 - 00:31:44:23
Unknown
That's going to really help connect all of the dots for everybody. And the more the networking teams learn from one another and grow, they'll see the value and they'll start word of mouth marketing to their colleagues and to their peers. Hey, you should join the networking group because I started learning all kinds of things that are super helpful because, you know, Chad or Cindy do these things.

00:31:45:00 - 00:32:09:15
Unknown
And I tried it. I learned it while we were all talking about X, Y, and Z, and it worked. Super helpful. You should come join this as well as you know, you know that CRM refresher training that came because the sales networking team was talking about it. I'm just saying I should come because really driving impact for the company we work for and we know that's another engagement strategy, right?

00:32:09:17 - 00:32:36:15
Unknown
When people share what their ideas are and see those ideas impact business operations for the better of themselves and their colleagues, they're more invested in a company that listens to them. So making it intentional about learning for both the employees and for the business to operate effectively is going to continue to ingrain this into part of your organization's culture for how everybody works together.

00:32:36:17 - 00:33:01:07
Unknown
Now, that's all great advice and great examples, so thank you for that. Any other final thoughts before we wrap up the episode? Well, I just I know it sounds like it could be a lot like, how often would I have them meet? What would I do when I was part of the organization that went from regional to international.

00:33:01:09 - 00:33:34:16
Unknown
So we grew through acquisition initially regionally, and then we had a couple of large acquisitions that were outside of our lovely Midwestern area for the Cincinnati of around there. We went from out of the tri state area into the state up north and then into international, and it became the way that helped us maintain the elements of each company that came together, like about their culture and engage and retain people.

00:33:34:16 - 00:34:03:19
Unknown
It was the strategy singly that worked everything else we did all the great change management processes. You follow. Those are all wonderful. There's a lot of research behind why you do certain things. There's a lot of research behind preparing for the productivity and things like that. But what we heard about what helped people stay and feel retained was I got connected quickly with people across the business.

00:34:03:21 - 00:34:33:00
Unknown
I started feeling instantly like I was part of this new organization and we started growing and I was learning from people that are doing the same type of role in a different country, maybe to a different region. But I was learning some things really quickly, so we know that these strategies, that ounce of prevention of setting things up and writing some policies and identifying who's going to help it in the beginning it's like, Oh, maybe I can do that.

00:34:33:00 - 00:34:58:22
Unknown
Q1 of 2024, That's great planning for Q1 of 2024, start three, see what happened. But there is a lot of feedback around this being one of those things that helps engage and retain people and then help develop folks through a very natural way that we know has impactful development techniques. Yeah, that's good to know how. I really wanted to end that.

00:34:58:24 - 00:35:28:14
Unknown
As you say, that's really good that we could hear your personal experience with internal networking groups and hear your success stories from it too. So that's cool. But Amanda a thank you for all the great content today and welcome to the show. You'll be seeing a lot more of Amanda but to thank you if you liked our chat and topic today, I'd urge you to common something new that you learned today or anything that you want to add to the conversation.

00:35:28:14 - 00:35:51:00
Unknown
Just add it to the comments and don't forget to share this episode. Consider joining MRA as a member if you aren't already. We have all the resources you need in the show Notes below, including resources from our topic today. Otherwise, thank you for tuning in and we will see you all next week. And that wraps up our content for this episode.

00:35:51:02 - 00:36:09:09
Unknown
Be sure to reference the show notes where you can sign them to connect. For more podcast updates, check out other MRA episodes on your favorite podcast platform. And as always, make sure to follow MRA's 30 minute Thrive so you don't miss out. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next Wednesday to carry on the conversation.