"The Jesuit Way of Networking"

Networking is a buzzword. Just like innovation, creativity, ‘corporate DNA’, empowerment, and unfortunately leadership. The problem with buzzwords, especially those that rely on badly constructed metaphors as is the case of ‘corporate DNA’, is that everyone literally has an opinion on them. Take leadership, one of the most badly treated ‘concepts’ within organisation studies. Because everyone has experienced leadership, either as a leader or most often as a follower, we all tend to rely on our intuition to build a narrative on what we think leadership is and, of course, on how leaders should behave.
Networking and networks are no different! We are all part of some form of network, be it a more traditional one like our extended network of family and friends, or one of these new technological networks which have created in us the pure illusion that we have a big network. But we all know, even if we keep it to ourselves, that most of the networks we are involved in are fruitless. Your Facebook connections don’t reflect the number of friends you have; your professional networks don’t guarantee job security; and in most networking events you end up talking with people you already knew! We need to start looking at networks and networking differently!
The Jesuits, as usual, provide us with fresh insights into networking. And as usual, the insights the Jesuits provide us with are not fresh at all! ‘The Jesuits have been doing it for 475 years!’ is a kind of catch phrase I use in class to help students understand that we all keep looking for things that either have been around for long, or are not possible as others have tried it many times. The latter refers to our illusion that technology solves everything: networks are ‘the thing now’ because ‘we have the internet and all these collaboration platforms’. When approaching the Jesuits and their networking potential, we need again to be extremely careful… We all think we are getting it right: the Jesuits and their network are massive! If we start counting Jesuits, their employees, their students, etc we easily reach 7 digit figures! What we fail to acknowledge is that this leads us nowhere.
In my research I was soon led towards the relevance of the Jesuit network of correspondence, their use of catalogues and the annual reports sent across the globe. Allegedly, this allowed Jesuits to know what was going on and to a certain extent fostered a network of correspondence and information exchange that does resemble contemporary forms of networking. What we fail to acknowledge is that these material dimensions of the Jesuit network were not the sole drivers of their network. On the one hand, I do believe that these material aspects of the Jesuit network gave it visibility which is by itself important; on the other hand, I claim that these visible traits of the Jesuit network are the outcome of a particular way of networking. I call it the ‘Jesuit way of networking’. The ‘Jesuit way of networking’ is part of their identity and culture, and has three main pillars.
First, openness to diversity. Think of Jesuit history and how they were never scared of what was different: new countries, new scientific discoveries, new people, new cultures… the Jesuits were always open to diversity! The network of correspondence and reports the Jesuits created reflect that openness. Every Jesuit was exposed to Jesuits from different backgrounds and to what they were doing, most probably in a country rather far away or discovering a crater in the moon. At the time this couldn’t be more different! A take away for yourself: How many new people have you actually met during the past 12 months? Are these people different or are they just a reflection of your existing network? Think of their social background, as an example, and that might give you a clue of how boring your network might be at the end of the day…
Second, an active search for diversity. Think of the following: how many Jesuits you know that were born, raised, or have lived, worked and died in the same place? I don’t know one single Jesuit in that situation: every single Jesuit I know has lived in different places, has travelled, has studied abroad and even if he ended up again in his country of origin, most definitely he is now working away from his birthplace… An overwhelming majority of the Jesuits I know even speak 3 languages… you might think this is a detail, but it is an extraordinary detail… You do not expand a network if you keep doing the same things you have always done and speaking to people that resemble you, your social background and are nothing more than a copy of yourself!…
Third, humility… humility looms large in the Jesuit Constitutions… humility underpins the active search for diversity as it allows you to be open when diversity knocks on your door! Are we open to other views that might contest our own? Typically we are not! The Jesuits were open to diversity. Think of the first companions… Ignatius of Loyola did not gather a group of first companions that resembled him and his basque origins. On the contrary: the first companions were from different countries and most remarkably had rather different and opposite social backgrounds… This means that the original way of networking that characterised Saint Ignatius was just as expansive as it was inclusive: Ignatius of Loyola expanded his network because he was inclusive, even including New Christians.
What I claim is rather straightforward: the ‘Jesuit way of networking’ has always been, historically, about openness to diversity via a Christian way of including difference. Amazingly what we teach in business schools is not that different: you might have a network of 1 million connections. If those connections are all equal, nothing new or extraordinary will happen.
Photo via Flickr CC license
Note: this post was orginally published on 2014 but it has been reedited for dialogue towards GC-36.