How is Tango related to Networking?

Skrevet den 17. jan, 2012 af Redaktionen i Internationalt, Lokalt, Uncategorized

“Some people are crazy!”

At least that’s what I thought when I first laid eyes on the invitation to the first chapter meeting of the year for JCI Copenhagen International. The invitation to the event “Learn and Trust your Network” claimed, that dancing argentinian tango was somehow related to networking. It claimed that the way tango is danced is similar to the way we network and the way we use our network to achieve our goals.

Adela and Benjamin demonstrate some serious tango

I was highly skeptical of the idea, but decided to go the event after all – perhaps in part because the event promised “delicious argentinian tapas”.

So on a Wednesday night in January, in a small, dark restaurant behind the royal theater in Copenhagen, I found myself with 17 other members and guests of Copenhagen International ready for tango dancing and a presentation on networking. The tango lessons were given by Adela Michea and Benjamin Boysen, who are both experienced tango dancers. They taught us how to dance 8 steps of tango, and we understood that we had to trust in our dancing partner in order to perform the dance.

How does this relate to networking? I asked Ali Jamili, who conceived the idea of the unusual event, and he explains: ”Tango as well as networking is about controlling the activity, both yourself and the people around you, and knowing what you want. It is not random. You must know what you want, and strive towards that goal, and you must trust that it will work. Trust you partner and trust your network.” He is himself a very active networker, and he gave many examples from both his own experience and from others, of for instance how networking is helping people find the dream job.

But networking doesn’t just mean adding as many people as possible to a bloated list of LinkedIn connections. A network must be maintained, and one should try to keep in touch with those in your network – even if it just means sending a quick “Congratulations” to someone who gets a new job. One very simple advice Ali gives to networkers is this: “Be a nice person! Help those in your network when you can. People will appreciate that you help them, and they will not forget”.

Networking in JCI Copenhagen International

The event made us all think a lot about how we network, and whether we use and trust our network or not. Rikke, a first time guest of the chapter, said: “It makes good sense to talk about tango in relation to networking. In both cases, you have to trust each other”.

The meeting was a great start to 2012 for our JCI chapter. Not least because the evening ended with delicious tapas and wonderful, argentinian wine.

That’s not crazy at all!

By Rune Lind, JCI Copenhagen International

Share on Facebook