On reframing networking: connections and impact

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Welcome to Changing Academic Life.

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I'm Geraldine Fitzpatrick and this is

a podcast series where academics and

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others share their stories, provide

ideas and provoke discussions about what

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we can do individually and collectively

to change academic life for the better.

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Can I ask you a question?

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Do you like networking?

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And what is it that you think about

when we talk about networking?

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If you're like many people that I ask

this question of in courses and workshops,

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A surprising number of people will say,

no, they really don't enjoy networking.

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They'll talk about how difficult

it is to approach people, not

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knowing what to talk about or being

intimidated by huge numbers of people

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or people with seniority and so on.

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And then there are people who may not

necessarily like networking, but recognize

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it as something that they need to do

and can approach it quite strategically.

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So, who do I need to speak to now?

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Who's going to help me maximize my chances

of a job, or who's going to be able to

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introduce me to someone I need to talk to.

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Which is all fine.

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But what I would like to

do in this solo episode.

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It's to invite us to think about.

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Networking in a very different way.

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In terms of social connections.

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And this is triggered by my

conversation recently with Liam Bannon.

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And it's with great sadness

that I can share that he died.

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Sadly four days after the release

of that conversation with him.

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And three weeks after we recorded

it from his hospital bed.

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And I know from Liam that this episode

was really important for him to get out.

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The messages in it were things that

he really wanted to share deeply.

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And from his heart.

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And I'm really grateful to him.

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That we have his words to carry with us.

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And that he, for the time that he

put into thinking about this and

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sharing it with us, Even in the midst

of all else, he was going through.

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One of the reflections that

he shared about his own career

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and looking back on his life.

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Was that, he felt like he didn't always

prioritize personal relations with people

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as much as he should have at times.

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And I know that much of this was

meant more in the sense of personal

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relationships outside of work.

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But this emphasis on people and

personal relations is also there

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when he talks about his work.

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And this is reflected in a message.

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He sent to a good friend and

colleague of his Gopi Kannabiran.

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And I'm sharing this with you with

his permission where Liam shared a

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message on Facebook with him that

says, "There's so much more to life

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than pursuing academic career goals.

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As my time goes shorter.

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I appreciate all the more out every day

and counters with strangers and friends.

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And the enjoyment of the natural world."

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And the question I want

to ask here though is.

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What if our academic career goals.

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Included personal relations.

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Included connecting with people.

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And what if our emphasis on impact.

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Also included the impact we might

be able to have on other people

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who do the academic work, who

do science, who do research.

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And Liam is a wonderful example of someone

who through his personal relations.

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With people internationally and all

sorts of communities at all sorts

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of levels in all sorts of countries.

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Was able to have an

enormous amount of impact.

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On people.

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And this was so evident.

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In the outpouring of comments from people

across various social media platforms.

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And the themes that we saw there again

and again and again, and still see are

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the ways that he was able to touch so many

people's lives in such meaningful ways.

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And he definitely made a

difference for many, many people.

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And I count myself among those.

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And we can see from the comments that he

did this through those everyday encounters

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and through very human connections.

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People shared experiences about

the ways that he encouraged them.

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Or reassured them.

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They talked about him being a Guide.

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Being a mentor.

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That he inspired people.

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That he was a role model.

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That he was a supporter of young people.

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That he was generous.

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And fun.

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That he also challenged you out of your

comfort zone to focus on what's important

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as he did in our last conversations.

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That he challenged us to

put career in perspective.

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And many people also just talked

about counting him as a friend.

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And enjoying.

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Everyday conversations and chatting,

not just about work and big

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ideas, but about the small things.

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It's really interesting.

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There were comments that obviously pointed

to his intellectual contributions and

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they were huge and there were lovely

descriptions of his contributions

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in terms of bridge building across

disciplines and across ideas.

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And yes, of course those ideas

will live on and have an impact.

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But it's the very human

connections and everyday small

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impacts that really struck me.

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This is a really timely reminder to

reflect on the enormous opportunity that

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we have within our academic communities.

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Around networking.

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And around building

quality personal relations.

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It's interesting that the performance

metrics in academia would make you

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think that science and research is

very much an individual endeavor.

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It's my name on a paper,

albeit with co-authors.

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I'm the PI on a grant.

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It's my individual

contributions to knowledge.

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At least that I have to argue in

the way that, uh, we need to for

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making portfolios and cases for

promotion or getting new jobs.

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It's me that I foreground on

my traditional list-based CV.

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But science and research.

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Is not an individual endeavor.

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At its very core science and research

are fundamentally about people.

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It's not about ideas

or things or artifacts.

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It's people who do the thinking.

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It's people who do the research work,

the building work, the designing work.

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It's people.

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Whose work we build on to do our own work.

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It's people we work with.

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In producing that work in

collaborating together.

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And it's not just people who we

may be directly collaborating with.

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But it's people we share our

workplaces with who make it fun

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to come into work every day.

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Who see us and support us by

listening to us who talk to us

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about our ideas and challenges.

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Who read our drafts and so on.

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It's people who just

encourage us more generally.

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And it's the army of people who

volunteered their valuable time.

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To create the venues, whether they're

conferences or journals or workshops.

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In which we get to meet and connect

with people outside of our institutions.

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And where we can share our ideas.

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And our academic publications

and our intellectual discussions.

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People and connections and social

relations are at the very heart

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of all that we do as academics.

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In order to produce our ideas, to

produce our artifacts, to produce

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our contributions to knowledge.

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I know, use the word heart here very very

deliberately to reflect the importance

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of those heartfelt every day, human

connections and interactions that Liam

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talked about and that people reflected

on in their experiences with Liam.

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And it's this space is from

which I think we might be able to

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reframe our notions of networking.

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What if networking was

not about you or me?

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About whether we're feeling uncomfortable

or not, or needing to be strategic

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or not about what we get out of

it, or what's good for our career.

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But what if networking was

first and foremost about others?

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And what we can give to people.

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How we might connect with people, how we

might help them feel seen and heard.

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And how we can support people.

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So in the remainder of the

short episode, I just want to

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offer up some practical ideas.

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And you may already be very good

at networking and connecting.

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So maybe some of these ideas might invite

you to think about what else you can do.

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How you can do things

even more deliberately.

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And if you're one of the people

who are challenged with the idea of

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networking, They may be invitations

for you to think about what's one

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small thing you could start with.

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One small connection you can make.

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So I'm not going to focus here so much

on our social relations within our

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workplaces, within our research groups.

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I think I might like to do

a different episode, just

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focusing on these in particular.

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So my emphasis here will be more on

our broader social networks and social

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relations within our peer communities.

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For example.

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And an obvious place to start with this

is that there are classic conferences.

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I often think about networking

somehow as you know, the whole room

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and needing to to work the room

or network with lots of people.

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And that's when we can find

it really intimidating.

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Well, what if we rethought

this as just about.

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Who's just one person.

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That we can make a connection with.

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And you might want to think

about if we take that stance of.

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It's about others and not about us.

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We might look around and look at.

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Who is that person standing alone?

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And probably feeling just

as uncomfortable as you are.

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What if we just connected

with that one person?

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We don't have to come with

scintillating conversation.

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What's better to come with

is a curious question.

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Just practice being curious.

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Practice asking one question.

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And that question could just be.

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What did you just see in the last session?

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What's been most interesting so far.

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What's been most useful

for you in your work.

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What are you working on?

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All you have to do is ask one question.

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Be curious.

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And that's a connection.

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At conferences, we might also have

experiences of small groups of people

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talking together and you'll often see that

person hovering outside of the circle,

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feeling uncomfortable, wanting to come in.

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What if we just attuned ourselves to

being more aware of who else was around.

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And maybe just deliberately

widening the circle to include

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them so that they can see.

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And be seen.

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Or deliberately invite them in by

turning and asking their opinion on the

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topic that we were just talking about.

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We shouldn't underestimate the

power of just using someone's name.

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So they can be just really simple

ways that we can make small

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connections that can matter.

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Even when we're in a big audience,

in a big room with lots of

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people, just with one person.

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And the notion of being curious and

asking a question also points to a second

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set of strategies, which are about.

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What if we focus on being a giver.

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Not a taker.

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This is reflecting some great research

by Adam Grant and his collaborators.

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Adams an organizational psychologist.

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And his research points to a key

part of the success of many high

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achievers is not just taking

actions to achieve their own goals.

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But really looking at how

they can actively contribute

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to the success of others.

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So his high achievers are givers.

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They're generous with their time and with

their expertise and in helping others,

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looking out for ways they can help others.

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So questions we could ask

ourselves then are about.

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What might we have to offer to this

person that could be useful for them.

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And that might require us to be.

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a little bit more aware of what are the

strengths that we have that we could

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draw on that we could contribute from.

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And interestingly, if we're able

to give from aspects that are

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connected to our strengths, They're

actually things that we'll enjoy

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doing that we'll feel energized by.

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And we've all got unique set of

strengths and things to give.

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So even when we're being strategic

about who we want to connect with,

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where it may be something that we would

want, that could be useful for us.

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Starting from the position of,

'and what could we give for them

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that would be useful for them'

can be really, really useful.

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And we may just be able to offer time.

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Or a listening ear.

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We may have a particular set of skills.

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talents that we can contribute.

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We may have networks of our

own that we could contribute.

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This might be an

introduction to someone else.

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Where we recognize that they might really

get value out of talking to someone that

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we know and making those introductions.

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Or it could be contributing

some knowledge area that could

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complement what they're working on.

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You know, so a different set

of perspectives and insights.

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There can be multiple ways that

we can think about what we can

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contribute, what we can give.

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And how we can.

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How we can contribute to

the success of others.

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And when we have made connections.

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Another set of practical strategies

can be just thinking about what are the

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every day interactions that we might

do that help keep connections going?

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And that can help people

feel seen and heard.

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And, and this is just so critical

to to us feeling like we belong and

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that's a really core, fundamental

need that we all share belonging.

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So practical things you could look

for triggers or excuses to connect.

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You may come across a paper or an idea, or

a newspaper article or magazine article.

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That reminds you of someone and work

that they're interested in or what

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or research that they may be doing.

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And you can use this as a trigger

or an excuse to, to ping them an

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email and just say, I'm saw this

article and just thought of you.

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It doesn't have to take

a lot of time or effort.

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Or just thinking of people anyway.

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And not just thinking of them, but

letting them know you're thinking of them.

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And so that might just be

sending them a quick email to

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check in and say, how you going?

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Especially if you know that they have been

going through some difficult times lately.

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It may be inviting them for a coffee,

if you happen to be around or meeting

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up or, or just having an online chat.

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Or just the email that says thinking

of you no obligation to reply.

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Just thinking of you.

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And the other aspect that I think

is really important at a practical

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level is to be real when we connect.

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That we just, one of the, one of the

pieces of feedback that I get all the

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time from the podcast conversations

or from workshops that we hold.

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Is how important it has been for people

to realize they're not the only one.

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Dealing with an issue or thinking

about an issue or having a bad day.

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And so the value of when we do

connect, being real and just

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being who we are and just sharing.

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The, this is the bread and

butter of our social connections.

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Adam's great research would also it's

clearly indicate that we still get back.

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We still get, we still get

to make useful connections.

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We still get to reap

all sorts of benefits.

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These may be obvious things like.

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I don't know, being asked to co organize

something that you want to do or

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invited to participate in something.

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Or making new connections that, that

benefit you in, in other sorts of ways.

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But the key differences where we're

coming from, what's driving us.

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So I want to invite us to make our driver

for, for networking and for you know,

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taking care of our social relations.

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It's about giving.

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And having a real human impact on others.

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In the way that Liam's life

has, has done has demonstrated.

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And anything that comes out of us

in terms of what we get from it.

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They're coincidental additional

benefits from it, but they're

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not a primary motivator.

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And the interesting thing about

focusing on what we can do for others

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and how we can connect to others.

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Is that we will benefit and our

science and our work will benefit

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and science and academia will benefit

because science is primarily about

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people and people do better work

when they feel like they belong.

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When they feel seen and heard.

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And when we are actually able to

connect with the the expertise and

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the value of everyone else around us.

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At the end of the day.

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At the end of a life.

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Meaning and impact and not

measured by H indexes or titles.

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But by relationships and connections

and every day interactions.

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This is the real impact

will be able to have.

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And it's the impact that matters.

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Thank you Liam, for reminding us of this.

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You can find the summary notes,

a transcript, and related

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links for this podcast on www.

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changingacademiclife.

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com.

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You can also subscribe to

Changing Academic Life on iTunes,

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Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

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And I'm really hoping that we can

widen the conversation about how

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we can do academia differently.

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And you can contribute to this by rating

the podcast and also giving feedback.

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And if something connected with you,

please consider sharing this podcast

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with your colleagues together.

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We can make change happen.