You had a positive mid-year performance review with your manager. You have also been in a fair number of career conversations with him (or so you thought) and you clearly let him know (or so you thought) that although you really love your job and enjoy working on his team, you are ready and able to take on greater responsibility and would like to explore some other avenues for adding value to the organization. He said all the right things and made all the right noises when you were talking, but you just learned that someone else has been selected for a newly created position that could potentially have been a great fit for you, and you were not even aware that such a position was in the works or that other employees were in the queue for interviewing and consideration. The person who got the role might or might not be the optimal choice, but you had no chance to inquire about it nor interview with the new manager to showcase what you could contribute. It is demoralizing. And moreover (you know what I’m going to say here…) it is bad business.

You have also likely heard about situations in which a team was formed to address an interesting problem, to explore a new initiative or to update some aspect of an approach, system or process in technology, marketing, operations, finance, or other function relevant to your skill set, but you heard about it after the fact and were not given the opportunity to contribute or decline. Why does this happen and what can you do about it?

Despite the proliferation of internal protocols and written guidelines for internal staff movement, the hard cold facts are that managers are only human, they make mistakes, they are subject to making seemingly arbitrary decisions and, more than any other mitigating factor, humans are influenced by elements that are top of mind.

Behavioral scientists refer to this as the effects of Recency and Primacy: human beings tend to remember words (or people) at the end of a list (most recent) better than those at the beginning, followed by those at the beginning of a list (primary) while the words in the middle are most often forgotten. We owe this theory to a psychologist named Hermann Ebbinghaus who lived in the late 1800s and died in 1909. In layman’s terms one result of this is that human beings are highly influenced by the words (or person) with which they most recently interacted, or in New York parlance… whoever is (in a good way) in their face!

And the answer to what you can do about it? You guessed it –networking on the job. Sadly, it is not sufficient to do your job, even if you do it brilliantly. It is not sufficient to be known and respected by your manager and your work team. It is not sufficient to never miss a deadline and deliver quality results 100% of the time. And it is absolutely, positively not sufficient to work through every lunch hour and never find time to network with your peers, colleagues and influential employees and managers whenever feasible and appropriate.

So for those of you who are already cringing at this advice: start small. Make an effort to read the stuff that comes across your email-desk with updates on what other teams, departments and managers are doing and yes, send them an email with a comment that shows you appreciate their work and are interested in learning more (but only if you actually are) and you’ll be surprised how often they respond with pleasure. And… you will then be in their Recency and Primacy bucket. Aha, you have grasped the concept: it is an iterative process... repeat, repeat and repeat. When feasible, ask colleagues to have a cup of coffee, set up a Google Hangout to share information, schedule periodic touch base calls with others for your mutual benefit to provide updates, share information or brainstorm solutions to problems, respond to requests for assistance or new ideas, send congratulations on their promotions, and venture to be bold enough to schedule a lunch or after-work chat.

Importantly, do not keep your career interests a secret. You are not maligning your current role, manager or team by expressing interest in growing and contributing at a higher level to the goals and mission of your company. If you have a sincere interest in being a member of a certain type of task team, tell people. If you are genuinely drawn to another functional area and want to know what credentials to acquire to be a credible candidate for some role in the future, ask the specialists in that area. If you hear of an opening or a newly created position and you simply want to explore if it’s a fit, let your manager and human resources know.

Do not be too busy doing your job that you lose sight of the possibility of having a bigger, better, more fulfilling job. Networking on the job is part of your job. Networking on the job can make you more visible, more influential and can help ensure that you become more top of mind so that you can be aware of possible new opportunities within your organization and can leverage your connections to perhaps identify and be selected for the best next step in your career. What are you waiting for?