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  

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.