Today is Giving Tuesday. It arrives on the heels of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, two days marked by heavy consumption and spending. It’s nice to have a day where we’re encouraged and reminded to give back to others (though I’d argue that every day should be a giving day).
There are a lot of ways you can give to people in your communities, and there’s no one thing you have to do. However, there is one easy thing to give, according to Adam Grant, a professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. It’s simply an introduction.
“When I look back on the moments that fundamentally changed my life, the vast majority began with quiet and generous introductions,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “I met my wife through an introduction (thank you, Mike) and chose my career due to an introduction (thank you, Tal). When I wrote a book about the hidden power of helping others, it was featured in a New York Times magazine cover story because of an introduction (thank you, Wendy). Adam Rifkin was one of the stars of the book, and fittingly, I met him through an introduction (thank you, Jennifer).”
Grant says that most people overlook introductions as a form of giving, with only 27 percent making an introduction last year.
“One of the barriers is that we worry about putting our own reputations on the line,” he wrote. “As Liz Ryan pointed out last week, most introductions are reactive: we make them after someone reaches out for help. This puts us in a position of evaluating whether we want to stick our necks out on behalf of someone else. We can circumvent this problem by being more proactive, initiating introductions before people ask. When we choose who we want to connect, we can introduce people where there’s likely to be a mutual benefit and provide a compelling reason for why they should meet.”
I encourage everyone today to take a moment and introduce two people who were previously strangers. Ask them then to pay it forward. In the end, we’ll all get to know each other a little bit better and perhaps a few good things will come of it.
