As DevOps continues to move to the norm, it becomes even more important for teams to have effective communication and collaboration. With intentional networking, teams become more familiar and integrated with each other which leads to less painful (and costly) communication in the process.

Throughout my career I have witnessed how beneficial networking can be. From landing a new (and perfect) job, to gaining the insight needed to make that slight tweak to a team/process/strategy to catapult to success. I’ve seen teams go from struggling to execute on a cross-organizational project, to being able to meet and exceed timelines and expectations. And at the same time, I’ve seen how uncommon it is for people and teams to utilize the power of something that can be so simple. This is why I’ve started to teach and evangelize about intentional networking. Starting with friends, co-workers and really anyone who will listen. My goal is to take these simple steps from helping individuals, to helping the masses. I started 2 years ago, by presenting to our summer interns (who better to teach then those that are just starting out!) and am now on the yearly intern summit agenda. But that’s not enough. Now, it’s time to take it to the next level by teaching the community for which this could benefit the most.