Can we talk?

I’ve always prided myself on loving people and loving networking but recently I am having to admit I’ve fallen out of love with requests for conversations and email introductions.

Today I received a typical message ‘I’m just getting into CSR and lots of people have said I should talk to you do you have 15 minutes’. I get messages like this as much as I get requests to be on panels/ speak at industry events/ write something for industry publications and at certain times of the year ‘I’m a student doing a dissertation and you have come up in research’ message is what fills my email inbox/linked in messaging etc

Even as I write this I find myself thinking - shouldn’t I be feeling happy that I’m established and I can give others a helping hand but the hard and cold answer I will honestly share is that I am fed up with the lack of action that comes from the majority of conversations, event industry press pieces and dissertation requests.

Early in my career I answered every request for a dissertation interview on 2 conditions- that the call would be at 8am (that filtered about 20% of the requests out!) and that the students would share a summary of their dissertation findings. My ’too much hot air and not enough action' theory was proven by the time I had done 20 dissertation interviews and received 1 follow up summary from the interviewers. At that point I changed my approach to a polite ‘I’m sorry I can’t because I have to prioritise time on advancing a sustainable event sector’.

This week someone told me about an instagram post they read from a human rights activist who was sharing a similar experience and was boldly answering requests for conversation with ‘I am not available to do your emotional lifting - our conversations should be equal contributions’.

Hearing this set off a lightbulb for me- I do love people and networking but what I really love is collaboration, participation and inclusion and that happens when people build their capacity and connect with ideas. So if you have an idea on advancing sustainability and the commitment to be unstoppable making it happen lets talk !