John Stepper writes a lot about the act of generosity in working out loud. When you seek to assist your network to get stronger, more resilient, enable breakthroughs – for its own sake! – you will be paid back handsomely.

Now, this goes against a lot of late-capitalist thinking about the dog-eat-dog world of globalization. We live in fear – and/or are entrepreneurially energized – that globalization in fact eats the dog, that eats the dog, for breakfast.

Stepper says otherwise.

Leading with generosity: By framing your posts as contributions you’re more likely to engage other people. You’re not just looking for help but offering to help others, too. As Keith Ferrazzi said, “The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity.”

Adam Grant from Wharton School of Business thinks likewise.

Today, in these structures, which are both flatter and more improvisational, I think that givers are going to find that their reputations start to take off, and that the people who are willing to support them, and champion them, are the people who respect them for their generosity.

Givers spur on matchers, who act in reciprocity to the prevalent mood. Organizational life gets more upbeat, healthy even.

I wrote last year, that Giving is the new Taking…

As a long time “healthy sceptic” of win-win scenarios, defaulting to a share > save approach to knowledge and work has been quite liberating. Trying to help people is so much more fun than seeing everyone as a competitor / traitor! Ha.

←This Much We Know.→