Networking is not mere socializing--it is a vital personal and professional development skill. An effective network can make you more knowledgeable, help you address critical issues, accelerate your career, and even improve your health and well-being. It's just too important to be left to chance. With "The Connect Effect" you can take a conscious, systematic approach to networking. To begin with, Author Michael Dulworth helps you evaluate how network-savvy you are. Dulworth then identifies three distinct kinds of networks: personal, professional, and virtual, exploring their specific characteristics and offering strategies, tools, and resources for building up and making the best use of each one. Stories from Dulworth's over twenty years of experience running networks, as well as interviews with top executives, researchers, and thought leaders, provide insights and advice about how networks function in the real world.

Michael Dulworth is the chairman and CEO of Executive Networks, Inc. Executive Networks is a leading provider of executive peer-to-peer networks to large organizations world- wide (http://www.executivenetworks.com). Prior to his current position, Mike was vice president of learning services at the Concours Group and was a founder and CEO of Learning Technologies Group, Inc. Mike is the author, a coauthor, or a contributor to six books on executive development, learning, and high-performance organizations. His most recent books are Corporate Learning: Proven and Practical Guidelines for Building a Sustainable Learning Strategy (Pfeiffer, 2005) and Strategic Executive Development: The Five Essential Investments (Pfeiffer, 2005). Mike has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Michigan and a masters in public administration, with a concentration in organizational behavior, from the University of Southern California.