Suppose you are on your daily commute (bus, train, or plane, your choice) and you happen to be sitting next to someone who you have been wanting to meet. Perhaps it is someone whose business success you admire, and you would love to learn from, or it might be that elusive client prospect who won’t return your emails.
What do you do?
Can you go ahead and introduce yourself? Or must you allow the other person to ride in peace?
Cue my best recollection of Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior from my high school years when I seriously geeked out on reading etiquette books.
The roof creates the introduction
According to Miss Manners, if there is a common roof over both of your heads, you are perfectly fine introducing yourself. Because the “roof” acts like a person introducing you to your intended networking target.
But here’s where it gets tricky. The type of roof matters.
Yes, in this instance you are riding together under a roof – a bus, a train, or an airplane – but that is a public roof, and public roofs can’t make introductions. So, it would be rude to disturb the peace of your fellow passenger on public transportation.
However, imagine that you and the other person attended the same university. You are still riding on public transportation, but the common “roof” of your university allows you to introduce yourself without being icky. Even if your paths never crossed while you were matriculating.
What other roofs can create an introduction? Pretty much any roof that is not public. A church roof, a club roof, a preschool roof. Even places that don’t literally have a roof, like a membership association, qualify.
You get the idea?
Be careful out there as you build your business network. No ickiness allowed. Mind your roofs.