Network Without the Yuck

Dr. Leticia Britos Cavagnaro co-leads the d.school’s University Innovation Fellows program. She is someone I deeply admire, and she’s also one of my favorite collaborators. Her unique blend of insightfulness and scrappiness make her a perennial favorite professor at the d.school, and keep her at what I consider to be the cutting edge of learning experience design.

I had the chance to catch up with her at the beginning of the pandemic (full interview here), and she told me a story that’s come back to my mind many times in the last year: she told me how just the other day, while was listening to a podcast on a run, she stopped dead in her tracks to send a link to the podcast to a student for whom she thought it might be relevant. When I asked her why she stopped her run —ostensibly the primary thing she was doing — to go through the hassle of the sharing interface, she said something to the effect of, “I’m always thinking, ‘Who else would benefit from this?’”

What a thought: sharing as a way of cultivating one’s network of collaborators. To me it’s an excellent example of non-sleazy networking. When we think of building our networks, all too often the word conjures up images of sleazy-feeling cocktail hours where each person is promoting themselves. And yet loose associations are profoundly powerful sources of leverage for cracking open wicked problems. So how do we preserve our networks without feeling gross?

It’s one thing to keep our own problems in mind when we go out into the world. That’s a great idea, and something I’ve advocated for in this space many times. But to keep other peoples’ problems in mind? To be seeking out opportunities to connect others to important insights and valuable resources, like Leticia does?

That’s next level!

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