On reframing networking: connections and impact

In this solo episode (S6 E3) I invite us to rethink the concept of networking within academia, inspired by what the late Liam Bannon shared with us in our recent conversation and the evident relational impact he had on people. I encourage us, myself included, to view networking as being about the other person, not about us, and see it as an opportunity for forming meaningful impactful social connections. 

I offer some practical ideas for making networking about giving and helping others, based on the value of generosity, curiosity, and everyday interactions. In the end our real impact and success in academia are measured by the quality of relationships and the human connections we build, not by the titles or metrics we collect.

Overview

00:00 Introduction to Changing Academic Life

00:29 The Challenges of Networking

01:33 Rethinking Networking: Social Connections

01:48 Tribute to Liam Bannon

02:43 Personal Relations in Academic Careers

03:44 The Importance of Human Connections

10:16 Networking for Others

10:50 Practical Networking Strategies

17:17 Maintaining Connections

21:38 Conclusion and Call to Action

22:58 End

Related links:

Recent episode with Liam Bannon 

Gopinaath Kannabiran

Adam Grant, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania  

Transcript
Geri:

Welcome to Changing Academic Life. I'm Geraldine Fitzpatrick and this is a podcast series where academics and others share their stories, provide ideas and provoke discussions about what we can do individually and collectively to change academic life for the better. Can I ask you a question? Do you like networking? And what is it that you think about when we talk about networking? If you're like many people that I ask this question of in courses and workshops, A surprising number of people will say, no, they really don't enjoy networking. They'll talk about how difficult it is to approach people, not knowing what to talk about or being intimidated by huge numbers of people or people with seniority and so on. And then there are people who may not necessarily like networking, but recognize it as something that they need to do and can approach it quite strategically. So, who do I need to speak to now? Who's going to help me maximize my chances of a job, or who's going to be able to introduce me to someone I need to talk to. Which is all fine. But what I would like to do in this solo episode. It's to invite us to think about. Networking in a very different way. In terms of social connections. And this is triggered by my conversation recently with Liam Bannon. And it's with great sadness that I can share that he died. Sadly four days after the release of that conversation with him. And three weeks after we recorded it from his hospital bed. And I know from Liam that this episode was really important for him to get out. The messages in it were things that he really wanted to share deeply. And from his heart. And I'm really grateful to him. That we have his words to carry with us. And that he, for the time that he put into thinking about this and sharing it with us, Even in the midst of all else, he was going through. One of the reflections that he shared about his own career and looking back on his life. Was that, he felt like he didn't always prioritize personal relations with people as much as he should have at times. And I know that much of this was meant more in the sense of personal relationships outside of work. But this emphasis on people and personal relations is also there when he talks about his work. And this is reflected in a message. He sent to a good friend and colleague of his Gopi Kannabiran. And I'm sharing this with you with his permission where Liam shared a message on Facebook with him that says, "There's so much more to life than pursuing academic career goals. As my time goes shorter. I appreciate all the more out every day and counters with strangers and friends. And the enjoyment of the natural world." And the question I want to ask here though is. What if our academic career goals. Included personal relations. Included connecting with people. And what if our emphasis on impact. Also included the impact we might be able to have on other people who do the academic work, who do science, who do research. And Liam is a wonderful example of someone who through his personal relations. With people internationally and all sorts of communities at all sorts of levels in all sorts of countries. Was able to have an enormous amount of impact. On people. And this was so evident. In the outpouring of comments from people across various social media platforms. And the themes that we saw there again and again and again, and still see are the ways that he was able to touch so many people's lives in such meaningful ways. And he definitely made a difference for many, many people. And I count myself among those. And we can see from the comments that he did this through those everyday encounters and through very human connections. People shared experiences about the ways that he encouraged them. Or reassured them. They talked about him being a Guide. Being a mentor. That he inspired people. That he was a role model. That he was a supporter of young people. That he was generous. And fun. That he also challenged you out of your comfort zone to focus on what's important as he did in our last conversations. That he challenged us to put career in perspective. And many people also just talked about counting him as a friend. And enjoying. Everyday conversations and chatting, not just about work and big ideas, but about the small things. It's really interesting. There were comments that obviously pointed to his intellectual contributions and they were huge and there were lovely descriptions of his contributions in terms of bridge building across disciplines and across ideas. And yes, of course those ideas will live on and have an impact. But it's the very human connections and everyday small impacts that really struck me. This is a really timely reminder to reflect on the enormous opportunity that we have within our academic communities. Around networking. And around building quality personal relations. It's interesting that the performance metrics in academia would make you think that science and research is very much an individual endeavor. It's my name on a paper, albeit with co-authors. I'm the PI on a grant. It's my individual contributions to knowledge. At least that I have to argue in the way that, uh, we need to for making portfolios and cases for promotion or getting new jobs. It's me that I foreground on my traditional list-based CV. But science and research. Is not an individual endeavor. At its very core science and research are fundamentally about people. It's not about ideas or things or artifacts. It's people who do the thinking. It's people who do the research work, the building work, the designing work. It's people. Whose work we build on to do our own work. It's people we work with. In producing that work in collaborating together. And it's not just people who we may be directly collaborating with. But it's people we share our workplaces with who make it fun to come into work every day. Who see us and support us by listening to us who talk to us about our ideas and challenges. Who read our drafts and so on. It's people who just encourage us more generally. And it's the army of people who volunteered their valuable time. To create the venues, whether they're conferences or journals or workshops. In which we get to meet and connect with people outside of our institutions. And where we can share our ideas. And our academic publications and our intellectual discussions. People and connections and social relations are at the very heart of all that we do as academics. In order to produce our ideas, to produce our artifacts, to produce our contributions to knowledge. I know, use the word heart here very very deliberately to reflect the importance of those heartfelt every day, human connections and interactions that Liam talked about and that people reflected on in their experiences with Liam. And it's this space is from which I think we might be able to reframe our notions of networking. What if networking was not about you or me? About whether we're feeling uncomfortable or not, or needing to be strategic or not about what we get out of it, or what's good for our career. But what if networking was first and foremost about others? And what we can give to people. How we might connect with people, how we might help them feel seen and heard. And how we can support people. So in the remainder of the short episode, I just want to offer up some practical ideas. And you may already be very good at networking and connecting. So maybe some of these ideas might invite you to think about what else you can do. How you can do things even more deliberately. And if you're one of the people who are challenged with the idea of networking, They may be invitations for you to think about what's one small thing you could start with. One small connection you can make. So I'm not going to focus here so much on our social relations within our workplaces, within our research groups. I think I might like to do a different episode, just focusing on these in particular. So my emphasis here will be more on our broader social networks and social relations within our peer communities. For example. And an obvious place to start with this is that there are classic conferences. I often think about networking somehow as you know, the whole room and needing to to work the room or network with lots of people. And that's when we can find it really intimidating. Well, what if we rethought this as just about. Who's just one person. That we can make a connection with. And you might want to think about if we take that stance of. It's about others and not about us. We might look around and look at. Who is that person standing alone? And probably feeling just as uncomfortable as you are. What if we just connected with that one person? We don't have to come with scintillating conversation. What's better to come with is a curious question. Just practice being curious. Practice asking one question. And that question could just be. What did you just see in the last session? What's been most interesting so far. What's been most useful for you in your work. What are you working on? All you have to do is ask one question. Be curious. And that's a connection. At conferences, we might also have experiences of small groups of people talking together and you'll often see that person hovering outside of the circle, feeling uncomfortable, wanting to come in. What if we just attuned ourselves to being more aware of who else was around. And maybe just deliberately widening the circle to include them so that they can see. And be seen. Or deliberately invite them in by turning and asking their opinion on the topic that we were just talking about. We shouldn't underestimate the power of just using someone's name. So they can be just really simple ways that we can make small connections that can matter. Even when we're in a big audience, in a big room with lots of people, just with one person. And the notion of being curious and asking a question also points to a second set of strategies, which are about. What if we focus on being a giver. Not a taker. This is reflecting some great research by Adam Grant and his collaborators. Adams an organizational psychologist. And his research points to a key part of the success of many high achievers is not just taking actions to achieve their own goals. But really looking at how they can actively contribute to the success of others. So his high achievers are givers. They're generous with their time and with their expertise and in helping others, looking out for ways they can help others. So questions we could ask ourselves then are about. What might we have to offer to this person that could be useful for them. And that might require us to be. a little bit more aware of what are the strengths that we have that we could draw on that we could contribute from. And interestingly, if we're able to give from aspects that are connected to our strengths, They're actually things that we'll enjoy doing that we'll feel energized by. And we've all got unique set of strengths and things to give. So even when we're being strategic about who we want to connect with, where it may be something that we would want, that could be useful for us. Starting from the position of, 'and what could we give for them that would be useful for them' can be really, really useful. And we may just be able to offer time. Or a listening ear. We may have a particular set of skills. talents that we can contribute. We may have networks of our own that we could contribute. This might be an introduction to someone else. Where we recognize that they might really get value out of talking to someone that we know and making those introductions. Or it could be contributing some knowledge area that could complement what they're working on. You know, so a different set of perspectives and insights. There can be multiple ways that we can think about what we can contribute, what we can give. And how we can. How we can contribute to the success of others. And when we have made connections. Another set of practical strategies can be just thinking about what are the every day interactions that we might do that help keep connections going? And that can help people feel seen and heard. And, and this is just so critical to to us feeling like we belong and that's a really core, fundamental need that we all share belonging. So practical things you could look for triggers or excuses to connect. You may come across a paper or an idea, or a newspaper article or magazine article. That reminds you of someone and work that they're interested in or what or research that they may be doing. And you can use this as a trigger or an excuse to, to ping them an email and just say, I'm saw this article and just thought of you. It doesn't have to take a lot of time or effort. Or just thinking of people anyway. And not just thinking of them, but letting them know you're thinking of them. And so that might just be sending them a quick email to check in and say, how you going? Especially if you know that they have been going through some difficult times lately. It may be inviting them for a coffee, if you happen to be around or meeting up or, or just having an online chat. Or just the email that says thinking of you no obligation to reply. Just thinking of you. And the other aspect that I think is really important at a practical level is to be real when we connect. That we just, one of the, one of the pieces of feedback that I get all the time from the podcast conversations or from workshops that we hold. Is how important it has been for people to realize they're not the only one. Dealing with an issue or thinking about an issue or having a bad day. And so the value of when we do connect, being real and just being who we are and just sharing. The, this is the bread and butter of our social connections. Adam's great research would also it's clearly indicate that we still get back. We still get, we still get to make useful connections. We still get to reap all sorts of benefits. These may be obvious things like. I don't know, being asked to co organize something that you want to do or invited to participate in something. Or making new connections that, that benefit you in, in other sorts of ways. But the key differences where we're coming from, what's driving us. So I want to invite us to make our driver for, for networking and for you know, taking care of our social relations. It's about giving. And having a real human impact on others. In the way that Liam's life has, has done has demonstrated. And anything that comes out of us in terms of what we get from it. They're coincidental additional benefits from it, but they're not a primary motivator. And the interesting thing about focusing on what we can do for others and how we can connect to others. Is that we will benefit and our science and our work will benefit and science and academia will benefit because science is primarily about people and people do better work when they feel like they belong. When they feel seen and heard. And when we are actually able to connect with the the expertise and the value of everyone else around us. At the end of the day. At the end of a life. Meaning and impact and not measured by H indexes or titles. But by relationships and connections and every day interactions. This is the real impact will be able to have. And it's the impact that matters. Thank you Liam, for reminding us of this. You can find the summary notes, a transcript, and related links for this podcast on www. changingacademiclife. com. You can also subscribe to Changing Academic Life on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. And I'm really hoping that we can widen the conversation about how we can do academia differently. And you can contribute to this by rating the podcast and also giving feedback. And if something connected with you, please consider sharing this podcast with your colleagues together. We can make change happen.

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