BNI is a just a Game!

Article contributed by Mike Tennent.

Well, no, not exactly…

However BNI has a lot of similarity to a team sport.

Confused?

Well look at it this way, your BNI meeting is your team ‘training’, that Wednesday night you used to work away with your rugby or netball team to be better for Saturday. You learn about your team members, see how you all work together and members who don’t perform for the team soon get ‘dropped’. You are coached to learn the strengths and weaknesses of your fellow team members and how to use them in the game.

And like team sport, if you don’t turn up for training or just laze around and don’t make an effort, you don’t make the team.

Then occasionally you would ‘do a dance’ with a team member… “whoa” I hear you say, no dancing in my rugby team… but translate dance for a kick around with a team member, or a bit of one on one for a basketballer. Again, like team sport, those that make the effort to do extra ‘one to one’ training during the week, tend to get to the top faster.

Ok, so what about the game… well here’s the scary and yet exciting bit… the game is the rest of the week. Every minute we are ‘out there’ doing what we do. At work during the week, at play in the weekends. At a PTA meeting or Lions Club Meeting. Anytime we are around other people we are playing the game of BNI… because that’s where we need to use the training from our ‘team practice’ to identify opportunities for referrals and convert them.

It’s no coincidence that the more experienced BNI members tend to be better at getting external referrals… as famous South African golfer Gary Player once said “the harder I practice, the luckier I get.” Experience comes with time to hear and spot opportunity, where in the past we might only have seen the things that concern ourselves.

So don’t make the mistake of thinking BNI is about a meeting you have once a week to eat breakfast…

Commit yourself to be the best you can be at your new ‘Team Sport’….BNI!