How to Build a Broader Network Within Your Company

Authors: Ko Kuwabara, Jiyin Cao, Soomin Sophie Cho, and Paul Ingram

When we ask executives if their organizations have become more or less diverse in thought over the past several years, the answer is often unanimous. In one way or another, nearly everyone has witnessed an increase in divergent attitudes, perspectives, and values in the workplace—welcome news given decades of research showing that this type of diversity can foster innovation, creativity, and productivity in organizations.

Yet, when we ask the same people if their own professional networks within their organizations have become more diverse, their responses are less resounding: an uninspired mix of “No” and “I don’t know.” This is hardly surprising. One of the most pervasive human patterns is homophily, or the idea that birds of a feather flock together. Even as our work environments become increasingly diverse, our tendency is to stick with those who think like us, leaving us ever entrenched in homogenous echo chambers that limit our access and exposure to novel ideas and opportunities.

Still, all of us know people who defy these natural tendencies and build networks that cut across cliques and silos, thriving amid an increasing social and professional complexity. These individuals, sometimes called boundary spanners, break down silos inside organizations by actively exploring outside their comfort zones for new ideas and perspectives different from their own, essentially acting as bridges. They understand that diversity brings a richness that cannot be obtained in isolation.

What can we learn from them about building a diverse network? Our research suggests that what separates these people from the rest is not some inborn trait or ability. Rather, it’s a belief that what it takes to build relationships with people who think differently is nothing complicated. In fact, it’s a growth mindset for overcoming interpersonal differences in values and opinions.

Idea in Brief

• The Challenge

Having a broad network within your company can help you access diverse perspectives, foster collaboration, and open up new opportunities. However, many professionals struggle to expand their connections beyond their immediate team or department.

• The Solution

To build a stronger network, identify key individuals to connect with across different departments and levels, then be proactive about reaching out, offering them help, and showing genuine interest in their work. Engaging in cross-functional projects, attending company events, and participating in internal forums or interest groups can also be useful.

• The Payoff

A well-developed internal network strengthens your reputation, enhances your ability to influence, and increases your access to information and resources.

Beliefs That Can Inhibit Networking

People tend to hold beliefs about whether human traits are innate versus acquired, such as the belief that intelligence is either an inborn quality or developed through hard work. Extensive research has shown that whether one holds a fixed or growth mindset can have pervasive consequences for motivation and performance in a given domain. For instance, decades of research by psychologist Carol Dweck has shown that children with a fixed mindset about intelligence are less motivated to persist at challenging academic tasks because hard work is meaningless if intelligence is believed to be innate. Moreover, these children come to value easy wins rather than effortful learning in something new and challenging.

Applying this concept to a workplace context, we hypothesized that people hold either a fixed or growth mindset about building workplace relationships. The intuition is that people with a fixed mindset about these relationships believe in natural compatibility or chemistry; that is, compatible people will just click or get along with one another naturally and effortlessly. Like hopeless singles searching for love at first sight, people with a fixed mindset about personal relationships tend to pursue relationships that come naturally or easily based on immediate rapport and mutual understanding. They don’t consider that with work they can develop meaningful and worthwhile relationships when those immediate connections aren’t there. In contrast, for people with a growth mindset, relationships are based first and foremost on effort and commitment—taking the time to get to know one another and learning to overcome differences.

To see how such mindsets affect the diversity of networks people build, we set out to examine relationship formation among 111 working professionals enrolled in an executive MBA program in the United States. We first measured their mindsets using a scale we developed for this project at the beginning of the semester. The scale consisted of five statements, with answers coded from 1 (“strongly disagree”) to 6 (“strongly agree”). A higher total score suggested a stronger fixed mindset.

1. Professional relationships are like pieces of a puzzle: People either click or they don’t, no matter how little or hard they work at it.

2. The basis of any productive relationship is chemistry, like how naturally and effortlessly you get along with a person.

3. How well you click or get along with a coworker is not something you can control or change easily.

4. A relationship between coworkers without chemistry is likely to not work.

5. A productive relationship is probably not meant to be if it does not develop naturally and effortlessly.

Next, we administered a network survey to see which people each student had developed professional relationships with at the end of the semester. Finally, we measured each person’s network diversity by calculating, for each tie formed, how similar or dissimilar the pair is in their personal values (for example, honesty, creativity, risk-taking), as each student reported in a course assignment on self-reflection.

We chose to study networking in a classroom setting because we wanted to understand why some people struggle to build diverse networks in an environment that was designed to be very diverse. Further, it is difficult to study networking in most workplaces, where most people have already built ongoing relationships. Importantly, our subjects were all working managers, not full-time students.

What did we find? As predicted, people with stronger fixed mindsets were less likely to develop ties to others who held dissimilar values. Between the most dissimilar pairs in our sample, people with fixed mindsets were almost 50% less likely than those with growth mindsets to develop ties to people who hold values different from theirs. Conversely, people with fixed mindsets were no more or less likely than their growth-mindset counterparts to develop ties to peers with very similar values. This is a striking demonstration of how personal beliefs and values affect how people network—even when they cannot directly observe one another’s values.

Previous research suggests that growth mindsets are particularly important in challenging situations that require effort and perseverance. Among our students, those with a growth mindset who viewed relationships in terms of effort rather than chemistry were more likely to try to bridge interpersonal differences and form diverse networks.

In a follow-up study with 174 MBA students, we set up a classroom experiment to see if different mindsets could be taught and learned on the spot. To this end, students read and reflected on a short article designed to teach either a growth or fixed mindset about relationship building. Next, they were randomly paired to share their personal opinions on workplace politics. After the discussion, students rated how well they worked with each other. The results showed that those induced to have a fixed mindset experienced lower satisfaction when paired with a partner with dissimilar opinions on the case. In contrast, those with an induced growth mindset were equally satisfied regardless of how similar or different they were from their partner.

This study shows that individuals can quickly adopt growth mindsets. While we don’t suggest that altering one’s mindset alone equates to networking mastery or instant reconciliation with adversaries over political or ideological conflict, examining and adjusting their mindsets could be an accessible yet significant step toward greater inclusion.

Tips for Building Diverse Networks

Based on what we have learned about growth mindsets for relationship building, we offer several recommendations for professionals who want to make their networks stronger, more robust, and more diverse.

Go beyond chemistry

People with a fixed mindset often expect relationships to spring up naturally and spontaneously based on so-called chemistry. Such a viewpoint probably reinforces our natural human tendency—to avoid interpersonal differences—thus exacerbating social isolation and friction in diverse workplaces. The concept of growth mindset suggests a valuable counterpoint. To be boundary spanners and reap the benefits of having a diverse network, first realize it takes deliberate effort and commitment to build relationships. One has to go beyond natural chemistry.

Make it a habit

The idea that it takes deliberate effort over time to build relationships is akin to going to the gym to get fit: No one gets fit by working out only when they feel like it. This means you need to set up a specific time to catch up, seek out opportunities for collaboration, and continually invest effort in understanding and embracing differences. These are valuable strategies for building diverse networks. You’ll find that regularly scheduled interactions, not just casual encounters in the canteen or elevator chats, pave the way for deeper rapport and understanding.

Ask questions

The crux of the growth mindset is taking a learning orientation to overcome challenging situations. For instance, instead of perceiving interpersonal differences as obstacles in forming connections, try to see them as opportunities for growth and learning.

Asking questions is one key skill for exercising a growth mindset—not questions to interrogate but to inquire and learn. For instance, in The Innovator’s DNA, Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton Christensen describe one skill that distinguishes truly innovative leaders from ordinary leaders: idea networking, which refers to the intentional practice of engaging with a diverse array of individuals in search of new ideas. By regularly reaching out to people they don’t normally interact with and chatting about what they are excited about and what’s keeping them up at night, these leaders continue to innovate and inspire. Asking genuine questions about differing viewpoints, values, and experiences plays an important role in nurturing diverse relationships.

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Our research shows that building a diverse network at the workplace starts with changing one’s viewpoint about relationship building. We can all adopt a growth mindset, make it a habit to invest effort in embracing differences, and ask genuine questions to better understand one another and nurture relationships.

As workplaces continue to evolve and diversify, the ability to navigate interpersonal differences becomes increasingly crucial. While interpersonal similarity may offer a sense of comfort and familiarity, for individuals, it is imperative to recognize the value of embracing differences and cultivating a growth mindset about professional relationships. For organizations, there’s immense value in fostering an environment that encourages individuals to appreciate and respect interpersonal differences, too. Organizations can harness the full potential of diversity, leading to enhanced collaboration, innovation, and overall success.