Networking

Through collaboration, interpersonal relationships can evolve into a working group which can, in turn, collaborate with other groups. This process, often called networking, is at once an ideal and essential outcome of collaboration.

The metaphor of the net is apt. By itself, a strand of twine can do little more than bind, attach, or draw. In interlocking connection with 176 other strands of twine, however, it becomes capable of catching and holding things which might otherwise slip by.

By themselves, people can do little more than survive, put in an honest day's work, and dream. It is only when we "connect" with others that we are able to combine our physical and creative energies into more productive and worthwhile endeavors. The greatest legacy a development worker can leave is a network of interdependent groups of host country nationals actively engaged in the ongoing process of educational development. By collaborating with others, we can catch more fish than we ever dreamed possible -- enough, perhaps, to eat for a lifetime. Ambitious? Certainly. Yet, in the end, it is a worthwhile goal.