Networking has a strange reputation. It’s consistently talked about as one of those things successful ambitious people should be doing. Build your network. Increase your visibility. Make connections. Get out there. But in truth one of the top things which gets business people stuck is building their network
So mention the word to many of the smart, successful people we work with and the response is often remarkably similar, "Please, anything but networking"
Because somewhere along the way, networking became synonymous with collecting contacts, working rooms, making small talk, and cultivating people who might one day prove “useful”. A soulless chore with a spreadsheet mentality

“Just because you are speaking in my direction does not mean that we are communicating”
That, for us, captures the problem rather insightfully...