October 2, 2024 • 22 mins
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
Adam Grant, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Geri (00:05):
Welcome to Changing Academic Life.
I'm Geraldine Fitzpatrick and this isa podcast series where academics and
others share their stories, provideideas and provoke discussions about what
we can do individually and collectivelyto change academic life for the better.
(00:29):
Can I ask you a question?
Do you like networking?
And what is it that you think aboutwhen we talk about networking?
If you're like many people that I askthis question of in courses and workshops,
A surprising number of people will say,no, they really don't enjoy networking.
(00:51):
They'll talk about how difficultit is to approach people, not
knowing what to talk about or beingintimidated by huge numbers of people
or people with seniority and so on.
And then there are people who may notnecessarily like networking, but recognize
(01:11):
it as something that they need to doand can approach it quite strategically.
So, who do I need to speak to now?
Who's going to help me maximize my chancesof a job, or who's going to be able to
introduce me to someone I need to talk to.
Which is all fine.
(01:33):
But what I would like todo 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 myconversation recently with Liam Bannon.
(01:55):
And it's with great sadnessthat I can share that he died.
Sadly four days after the releaseof that conversation with him.
And three weeks after we recordedit from his hospital bed.
And I know from Liam that this episodewas really important for him to get out.
(02:17):
The messages in it were things thathe 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 heput into thinking about this and
sharing it with us, Even in the midstof all else, he was going through.
(02:43):
One of the reflections thathe shared about his own career
and looking back on his life.
Was that, he felt like he didn't alwaysprioritize personal relations with people
as much as he should have at times.
And I know that much of this wasmeant more in the sense of personal
relationships outside of work.
(03:04):
But this emphasis on people andpersonal relations is also there
when he talks about his work.
And this is reflected in a message.
He sent to a good friend andcolleague of his Gopi Kannabiran.
And I'm sharing this with you withhis permission where Liam shared a
(03:25):
message on Facebook with him thatsays, "There's so much more to life
than pursuing academic career goals.
As my time goes shorter.
I appreciate all the more out every dayand counters with strangers and friends.
And the enjoyment of the natural world."
And the question I wantto ask here though is.
(03:48):
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 mightbe able to have on other people
(04:11):
who do the academic work, whodo science, who do research.
And Liam is a wonderful example of someonewho through his personal relations.
With people internationally and allsorts of communities at all sorts
of levels in all sorts of countries.
(04:35):
Was able to have anenormous amount of impact.
On people.
And this was so evident.
In the outpouring of comments from peopleacross various social media platforms.
And the themes that we saw there againand again and again, and still see are
(05:01):
the ways that he was able to touch so manypeople's lives in such meaningful ways.
And he definitely made adifference for many, many people.
And I count myself among those.
And we can see from the comments that hedid this through those everyday encounters
and through very human connections.
(05:24):
People shared experiences aboutthe 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.
(05:46):
That he was generous.
And fun.
That he also challenged you out of yourcomfort zone to focus on what's important
as he did in our last conversations.
That he challenged us toput career in perspective.
And many people also just talkedabout counting him as a friend.
(06:09):
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 pointedto his intellectual contributions and
they were huge and there were lovelydescriptions of his contributions
(06:31):
in terms of bridge building acrossdisciplines and across ideas.
And yes, of course those ideaswill live on and have an impact.
But it's the very humanconnections and everyday small
impacts that really struck me.
This is a really timely reminder toreflect on the enormous opportunity that
(06:55):
we have within our academic communities.
Around networking.
And around buildingquality personal relations.
It's interesting that the performancemetrics in academia would make you
think that science and research isvery much an individual endeavor.
(07:17):
It's my name on a paper,albeit with co-authors.
I'm the PI on a grant.
It's my individualcontributions to knowledge.
At least that I have to argue inthe way that, uh, we need to for
making portfolios and cases forpromotion or getting new jobs.
(07:38):
It's me that I foreground onmy traditional list-based CV.
But science and research.
Is not an individual endeavor.
At its very core science and researchare fundamentally about people.
(07:59):
It's not about ideasor 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.
(08:22):
It's people we work with.
In producing that work incollaborating together.
And it's not just people who wemay be directly collaborating with.
But it's people we share ourworkplaces with who make it fun
to come into work every day.
(08:42):
Who see us and support us bylistening to us who talk to us
about our ideas and challenges.
Who read our drafts and so on.
It's people who justencourage us more generally.
And it's the army of people whovolunteered their valuable time.
(09:03):
To create the venues, whether they'reconferences or journals or workshops.
In which we get to meet and connectwith people outside of our institutions.
And where we can share our ideas.
And our academic publicationsand our intellectual discussions.
(09:28):
People and connections and socialrelations are at the very heart
of all that we do as academics.
In order to produce our ideas, toproduce our artifacts, to produce
our contributions to knowledge.
I know, use the word heart here very verydeliberately to reflect the importance
(09:53):
of those heartfelt every day, humanconnections and interactions that Liam
talked about and that people reflectedon in their experiences with Liam.
And it's this space is fromwhich I think we might be able to
reframe our notions of networking.
(10:16):
What if networking wasnot about you or me?
About whether we're feeling uncomfortableor not, or needing to be strategic
or not about what we get out ofit, or what's good for our career.
But what if networking wasfirst and foremost about others?
And what we can give to people.
(10:38):
How we might connect with people, how wemight help them feel seen and heard.
And how we can support people.
So in the remainder of theshort episode, I just want to
offer up some practical ideas.
And you may already be very goodat networking and connecting.
(11:03):
So maybe some of these ideas might inviteyou to think about what else you can do.
How you can do thingseven more deliberately.
And if you're one of the peoplewho are challenged with the idea of
networking, They may be invitationsfor you to think about what's one
small thing you could start with.
(11:26):
One small connection you can make.
So I'm not going to focus here so muchon our social relations within our
workplaces, within our research groups.
I think I might like to doa different episode, just
focusing on these in particular.
So my emphasis here will be more onour broader social networks and social
(11:49):
relations within our peer communities.
For example.
And an obvious place to start with thisis that there are classic conferences.
I often think about networkingsomehow as you know, the whole room
and needing to to work the roomor network with lots of people.
(12:11):
And that's when we can findit really intimidating.
Well, what if we rethoughtthis as just about.
Who's just one person.
That we can make a connection with.
And you might want to thinkabout if we take that stance of.
(12:32):
It's about others and not about us.
We might look around and look at.
Who is that person standing alone?
And probably feeling justas uncomfortable as you are.
What if we just connectedwith that one person?
(12:52):
We don't have to come withscintillating conversation.
What's better to come withis 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?
(13:13):
What's been most interesting so far.
What's been most usefulfor 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.
(13:34):
At conferences, we might also haveexperiences of small groups of people
talking together and you'll often see thatperson hovering outside of the circle,
feeling uncomfortable, wanting to come in.
What if we just attuned ourselves tobeing more aware of who else was around.
And maybe just deliberatelywidening the circle to include
(13:57):
them so that they can see.
And be seen.
Or deliberately invite them in byturning and asking their opinion on the
topic that we were just talking about.
We shouldn't underestimate thepower of just using someone's name.
So they can be just really simpleways that we can make small
(14:22):
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 andasking a question also points to a second
set of strategies, which are about.
What if we focus on being a giver.
(14:44):
Not a taker.
This is reflecting some great researchby Adam Grant and his collaborators.
Adams an organizational psychologist.
And his research points to a keypart of the success of many high
achievers is not just takingactions to achieve their own goals.
(15:05):
But really looking at howthey can actively contribute
to the success of others.
So his high achievers are givers.
They're generous with their time and withtheir expertise and in helping others,
looking out for ways they can help others.
So questions we could askourselves then are about.
(15:28):
What might we have to offer to thisperson that could be useful for them.
And that might require us to be.
a little bit more aware of what are thestrengths that we have that we could
draw on that we could contribute from.
And interestingly, if we're ableto give from aspects that are
(15:51):
connected to our strengths, They'reactually things that we'll enjoy
doing that we'll feel energized by.
And we've all got unique set ofstrengths and things to give.
So even when we're being strategicabout who we want to connect with,
where it may be something that we wouldwant, that could be useful for us.
(16:11):
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.
(16:33):
talents that we can contribute.
We may have networks of ourown that we could contribute.
This might be anintroduction to someone else.
Where we recognize that they might reallyget value out of talking to someone that
we know and making those introductions.
Or it could be contributingsome knowledge area that could
(16:56):
complement what they're working on.
You know, so a different setof perspectives and insights.
There can be multiple ways thatwe can think about what we can
contribute, what we can give.
And how we can.
How we can contribute tothe success of others.
(17:17):
And when we have made connections.
Another set of practical strategiescan be just thinking about what are the
every day interactions that we mightdo that help keep connections going?
And that can help peoplefeel seen and heard.
(17:39):
And, and this is just so criticalto to us feeling like we belong and
that's a really core, fundamentalneed that we all share belonging.
So practical things you could lookfor triggers or excuses to connect.
You may come across a paper or an idea, ora newspaper article or magazine article.
(18:02):
That reminds you of someone and workthat they're interested in or what
or research that they may be doing.
And you can use this as a triggeror an excuse to, to ping them an
email and just say, I'm saw thisarticle and just thought of you.
It doesn't have to takea lot of time or effort.
Or just thinking of people anyway.
(18:25):
And not just thinking of them, butletting them know you're thinking of them.
And so that might just besending them a quick email to
check in and say, how you going?
Especially if you know that they have beengoing through some difficult times lately.
It may be inviting them for a coffee,if you happen to be around or meeting
(18:48):
up or, or just having an online chat.
Or just the email that says thinkingof you no obligation to reply.
Just thinking of you.
And the other aspect that I thinkis really important at a practical
level is to be real when we connect.
(19:09):
That we just, one of the, one of thepieces of feedback that I get all the
time from the podcast conversationsor from workshops that we hold.
Is how important it has been for peopleto realize they're not the only one.
Dealing with an issue or thinkingabout an issue or having a bad day.
(19:36):
And so the value of when we doconnect, being real and just
being who we are and just sharing.
The, this is the bread andbutter of our social connections.
Adam's great research would also it'sclearly indicate that we still get back.
(19:58):
We still get, we still getto make useful connections.
We still get to reapall sorts of benefits.
These may be obvious things like.
I don't know, being asked to co organizesomething that you want to do or
invited to participate in something.
Or making new connections that, thatbenefit you in, in other sorts of ways.
(20:23):
But the key differences where we'recoming from, what's driving us.
So I want to invite us to make our driverfor, for networking and for you know,
taking care of our social relations.
It's about giving.
And having a real human impact on others.
(20:46):
In the way that Liam's lifehas, has done has demonstrated.
And anything that comes out of usin terms of what we get from it.
They're coincidental additionalbenefits from it, but they're
not a primary motivator.
And the interesting thing aboutfocusing on what we can do for others
(21:10):
and how we can connect to others.
Is that we will benefit and ourscience and our work will benefit
and science and academia will benefitbecause science is primarily about
people and people do better workwhen they feel like they belong.
When they feel seen and heard.
And when we are actually able toconnect with the the expertise and
(21:35):
the value of everyone else around us.
At the end of the day.
At the end of a life.
Meaning and impact and notmeasured by H indexes or titles.
But by relationships and connectionsand every day interactions.
(21:56):
This is the real impactwill 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
(22:17):
links for this podcast on www.
changingacademiclife.
com.
You can also subscribe toChanging Academic Life on iTunes,
Spotify, and Google Podcasts.
And I'm really hoping that we canwiden the conversation about how
we can do academia differently.
And you can contribute to this by ratingthe podcast and also giving feedback.
(22:39):
And if something connected with you,please consider sharing this podcast
with your colleagues together.
We can make change happen.
Welcome to Changing Academic Life.
I'm Geraldine Fitzpatrick and this isa podcast series where academics and
others share their stories, provideideas and provoke discussions about what
we can do individually and collectivelyto change academic life for the better.
(00:29):
Can I ask you a question?
Do you like networking?
And what is it that you think aboutwhen we talk about networking?
If you're like many people that I askthis question of in courses and workshops,
A surprising number of people will say,no, they really don't enjoy networking.
(00:51):
They'll talk about how difficultit is to approach people, not
knowing what to talk about or beingintimidated by huge numbers of people
or people with seniority and so on.
And then there are people who may notnecessarily like networking, but recognize
(01:11):
it as something that they need to doand can approach it quite strategically.
So, who do I need to speak to now?
Who's going to help me maximize my chancesof a job, or who's going to be able to
introduce me to someone I need to talk to.
Which is all fine.
(01:33):
But what I would like todo 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 myconversation recently with Liam Bannon.
(01:55):
And it's with great sadnessthat I can share that he died.
Sadly four days after the releaseof that conversation with him.
And three weeks after we recordedit from his hospital bed.
And I know from Liam that this episodewas really important for him to get out.
(02:17):
The messages in it were things thathe 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 heput into thinking about this and
sharing it with us, Even in the midstof all else, he was going through.
(02:43):
One of the reflections thathe shared about his own career
and looking back on his life.
Was that, he felt like he didn't alwaysprioritize personal relations with people
as much as he should have at times.
And I know that much of this wasmeant more in the sense of personal
relationships outside of work.
(03:04):
But this emphasis on people andpersonal relations is also there
when he talks about his work.
And this is reflected in a message.
He sent to a good friend andcolleague of his Gopi Kannabiran.
And I'm sharing this with you withhis permission where Liam shared a
(03:25):
message on Facebook with him thatsays, "There's so much more to life
than pursuing academic career goals.
As my time goes shorter.
I appreciate all the more out every dayand counters with strangers and friends.
And the enjoyment of the natural world."
And the question I wantto ask here though is.
(03:48):
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 mightbe able to have on other people
(04:11):
who do the academic work, whodo science, who do research.
And Liam is a wonderful example of someonewho through his personal relations.
With people internationally and allsorts of communities at all sorts
of levels in all sorts of countries.
(04:35):
Was able to have anenormous amount of impact.
On people.
And this was so evident.
In the outpouring of comments from peopleacross various social media platforms.
And the themes that we saw there againand again and again, and still see are
(05:01):
the ways that he was able to touch so manypeople's lives in such meaningful ways.
And he definitely made adifference for many, many people.
And I count myself among those.
And we can see from the comments that hedid this through those everyday encounters
and through very human connections.
(05:24):
People shared experiences aboutthe 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.
(05:46):
That he was generous.
And fun.
That he also challenged you out of yourcomfort zone to focus on what's important
as he did in our last conversations.
That he challenged us toput career in perspective.
And many people also just talkedabout counting him as a friend.
(06:09):
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 pointedto his intellectual contributions and
they were huge and there were lovelydescriptions of his contributions
(06:31):
in terms of bridge building acrossdisciplines and across ideas.
And yes, of course those ideaswill live on and have an impact.
But it's the very humanconnections and everyday small
impacts that really struck me.
This is a really timely reminder toreflect on the enormous opportunity that
(06:55):
we have within our academic communities.
Around networking.
And around buildingquality personal relations.
It's interesting that the performancemetrics in academia would make you
think that science and research isvery much an individual endeavor.
(07:17):
It's my name on a paper,albeit with co-authors.
I'm the PI on a grant.
It's my individualcontributions to knowledge.
At least that I have to argue inthe way that, uh, we need to for
making portfolios and cases forpromotion or getting new jobs.
(07:38):
It's me that I foreground onmy traditional list-based CV.
But science and research.
Is not an individual endeavor.
At its very core science and researchare fundamentally about people.
(07:59):
It's not about ideasor 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.
(08:22):
It's people we work with.
In producing that work incollaborating together.
And it's not just people who wemay be directly collaborating with.
But it's people we share ourworkplaces with who make it fun
to come into work every day.
(08:42):
Who see us and support us bylistening to us who talk to us
about our ideas and challenges.
Who read our drafts and so on.
It's people who justencourage us more generally.
And it's the army of people whovolunteered their valuable time.
(09:03):
To create the venues, whether they'reconferences or journals or workshops.
In which we get to meet and connectwith people outside of our institutions.
And where we can share our ideas.
And our academic publicationsand our intellectual discussions.
(09:28):
People and connections and socialrelations are at the very heart
of all that we do as academics.
In order to produce our ideas, toproduce our artifacts, to produce
our contributions to knowledge.
I know, use the word heart here very verydeliberately to reflect the importance
(09:53):
of those heartfelt every day, humanconnections and interactions that Liam
talked about and that people reflectedon in their experiences with Liam.
And it's this space is fromwhich I think we might be able to
reframe our notions of networking.
(10:16):
What if networking wasnot about you or me?
About whether we're feeling uncomfortableor not, or needing to be strategic
or not about what we get out ofit, or what's good for our career.
But what if networking wasfirst and foremost about others?
And what we can give to people.
(10:38):
How we might connect with people, how wemight help them feel seen and heard.
And how we can support people.
So in the remainder of theshort episode, I just want to
offer up some practical ideas.
And you may already be very goodat networking and connecting.
(11:03):
So maybe some of these ideas might inviteyou to think about what else you can do.
How you can do thingseven more deliberately.
And if you're one of the peoplewho are challenged with the idea of
networking, They may be invitationsfor you to think about what's one
small thing you could start with.
(11:26):
One small connection you can make.
So I'm not going to focus here so muchon our social relations within our
workplaces, within our research groups.
I think I might like to doa different episode, just
focusing on these in particular.
So my emphasis here will be more onour broader social networks and social
(11:49):
relations within our peer communities.
For example.
And an obvious place to start with thisis that there are classic conferences.
I often think about networkingsomehow as you know, the whole room
and needing to to work the roomor network with lots of people.
(12:11):
And that's when we can findit really intimidating.
Well, what if we rethoughtthis as just about.
Who's just one person.
That we can make a connection with.
And you might want to thinkabout if we take that stance of.
(12:32):
It's about others and not about us.
We might look around and look at.
Who is that person standing alone?
And probably feeling justas uncomfortable as you are.
What if we just connectedwith that one person?
(12:52):
We don't have to come withscintillating conversation.
What's better to come withis 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?
(13:13):
What's been most interesting so far.
What's been most usefulfor 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.
(13:34):
At conferences, we might also haveexperiences of small groups of people
talking together and you'll often see thatperson hovering outside of the circle,
feeling uncomfortable, wanting to come in.
What if we just attuned ourselves tobeing more aware of who else was around.
And maybe just deliberatelywidening the circle to include
(13:57):
them so that they can see.
And be seen.
Or deliberately invite them in byturning and asking their opinion on the
topic that we were just talking about.
We shouldn't underestimate thepower of just using someone's name.
So they can be just really simpleways that we can make small
(14:22):
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 andasking a question also points to a second
set of strategies, which are about.
What if we focus on being a giver.
(14:44):
Not a taker.
This is reflecting some great researchby Adam Grant and his collaborators.
Adams an organizational psychologist.
And his research points to a keypart of the success of many high
achievers is not just takingactions to achieve their own goals.
(15:05):
But really looking at howthey can actively contribute
to the success of others.
So his high achievers are givers.
They're generous with their time and withtheir expertise and in helping others,
looking out for ways they can help others.
So questions we could askourselves then are about.
(15:28):
What might we have to offer to thisperson that could be useful for them.
And that might require us to be.
a little bit more aware of what are thestrengths that we have that we could
draw on that we could contribute from.
And interestingly, if we're ableto give from aspects that are
(15:51):
connected to our strengths, They'reactually things that we'll enjoy
doing that we'll feel energized by.
And we've all got unique set ofstrengths and things to give.
So even when we're being strategicabout who we want to connect with,
where it may be something that we wouldwant, that could be useful for us.
(16:11):
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.
(16:33):
talents that we can contribute.
We may have networks of ourown that we could contribute.
This might be anintroduction to someone else.
Where we recognize that they might reallyget value out of talking to someone that
we know and making those introductions.
Or it could be contributingsome knowledge area that could
(16:56):
complement what they're working on.
You know, so a different setof perspectives and insights.
There can be multiple ways thatwe can think about what we can
contribute, what we can give.
And how we can.
How we can contribute tothe success of others.
(17:17):
And when we have made connections.
Another set of practical strategiescan be just thinking about what are the
every day interactions that we mightdo that help keep connections going?
And that can help peoplefeel seen and heard.
(17:39):
And, and this is just so criticalto to us feeling like we belong and
that's a really core, fundamentalneed that we all share belonging.
So practical things you could lookfor triggers or excuses to connect.
You may come across a paper or an idea, ora newspaper article or magazine article.
(18:02):
That reminds you of someone and workthat they're interested in or what
or research that they may be doing.
And you can use this as a triggeror an excuse to, to ping them an
email and just say, I'm saw thisarticle and just thought of you.
It doesn't have to takea lot of time or effort.
Or just thinking of people anyway.
(18:25):
And not just thinking of them, butletting them know you're thinking of them.
And so that might just besending them a quick email to
check in and say, how you going?
Especially if you know that they have beengoing through some difficult times lately.
It may be inviting them for a coffee,if you happen to be around or meeting
(18:48):
up or, or just having an online chat.
Or just the email that says thinkingof you no obligation to reply.
Just thinking of you.
And the other aspect that I thinkis really important at a practical
level is to be real when we connect.
(19:09):
That we just, one of the, one of thepieces of feedback that I get all the
time from the podcast conversationsor from workshops that we hold.
Is how important it has been for peopleto realize they're not the only one.
Dealing with an issue or thinkingabout an issue or having a bad day.
(19:36):
And so the value of when we doconnect, being real and just
being who we are and just sharing.
The, this is the bread andbutter of our social connections.
Adam's great research would also it'sclearly indicate that we still get back.
(19:58):
We still get, we still getto make useful connections.
We still get to reapall sorts of benefits.
These may be obvious things like.
I don't know, being asked to co organizesomething that you want to do or
invited to participate in something.
Or making new connections that, thatbenefit you in, in other sorts of ways.
(20:23):
But the key differences where we'recoming from, what's driving us.
So I want to invite us to make our driverfor, for networking and for you know,
taking care of our social relations.
It's about giving.
And having a real human impact on others.
(20:46):
In the way that Liam's lifehas, has done has demonstrated.
And anything that comes out of usin terms of what we get from it.
They're coincidental additionalbenefits from it, but they're
not a primary motivator.
And the interesting thing aboutfocusing on what we can do for others
(21:10):
and how we can connect to others.
Is that we will benefit and ourscience and our work will benefit
and science and academia will benefitbecause science is primarily about
people and people do better workwhen they feel like they belong.
When they feel seen and heard.
And when we are actually able toconnect with the the expertise and
(21:35):
the value of everyone else around us.
At the end of the day.
At the end of a life.
Meaning and impact and notmeasured by H indexes or titles.
But by relationships and connectionsand every day interactions.
(21:56):
This is the real impactwill 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
(22:17):
links for this podcast on www.
changingacademiclife.
com.
You can also subscribe toChanging Academic Life on iTunes,
Spotify, and Google Podcasts.
And I'm really hoping that we canwiden the conversation about how
we can do academia differently.
And you can contribute to this by ratingthe podcast and also giving feedback.
(22:39):
And if something connected with you,please consider sharing this podcast
with your colleagues together.
We can make change happen.
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