Networking

Helping others can indirectly expand the helper's network. At actual networking events, more than half of Columbia Business School MBA students' time was spent talking to people they already knew. Harvard Business School research found that the implicit association with professional networking is a desire to wash one's hands — a disgust response. Across evolutionary history, human connections formed through shared activity, proximity, and community rather than deliberate introductions between strangers in formal settings. Beyond approximately 50 feet of workspace separation, communication rates drop so steeply that the parties might as well be on different continents. Curiosity improves networking by encouraging interest in who people are and what motivates them. Networking is misdirected when it is mainly pursued for personal advancement or status. Networking should focus on how one can help the other person. The article recommends being interested in others rather than trying to appear interesting. Curiosity and interest also apply outside professional networking.