be differentially rewarded over those who do not share. Further-
more, frequent social interaction and cross-team assignments will
further encourage the social connections that enhance trust and
engender sharing. This prescription for assertive corporate social
engineering presumes that cross-boundary connections are not left
to chance. Someone should consciously organize interactions
among individuals from different groups so as to promote such con-
nections. Someone should take on the role of matchmaker or
connections sponsor. That person should introduce knowledge
sources to knowledge seekers. Malcolm Gladwell calls these types
of people “connectors.”^1
In our organization, we are committed to creating opportuni-
ties for our people to meet informally and formally to share best
practices. Since the inception of Russell Reynolds Associates in
1969, our recruiters and researchers have gathered together in each
office of the firm every Monday to share status and stories about
new projects, business development, and the outcome of each proj-
ect. In addition, there are annual practice group meetings and
monthly conference calls in which we discuss client assignments
and potential work. We also have face-to-face training sessions for
new employees and advanced associates. In the strong economy of
the late 1990s, this was an important aspect of our growth and
development as a global firm. It enabled us to assimilate new
employees, fueling growth with people who were fired up with firm
culture and trained by our best and brightest managing directors.
We were able to assimilate new people and grow our business and
our staff in part because we were so committed to having frequent
meetings of various communities of practice.
In addition, we established what we call the Best Practices
Committee to identify and promulgate best practices in search exe-
cution, client communication, and business development. This
committee meets frequently, either in person or by phone, to
discuss exemplars of best practices and to identify ways to teach
others how to conduct searches and serve clients better. We have
made and released videos, published guidebooks and albums of best
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