Business leaders and owners can’t wait until a crisis is on their doorstep before they focus on community and relationship.

One of the country’s legendary business leaders and philanthropists said it best. At an economic summit this week in Calgary, Jim Gray was asked to speak briefly about lessons he’s learned in more than six decades of building Canada’s economy.(1)

“Always be building bridges… before you need them.”

The first half of this quote is almost so cliche that it doesn’t merit repeating. We all know that building strong relationships is at the core of good business sense. But the second half of the quote holds the sage advice.

“… before you need them.”

It’s easy for leaders to ignore this advice. In the usual fast-paced world of commerce, the pressures on leaders to boost quarterly results often leaves little room for building a bridge with someone not involved in solving that day’s challenge.

What does building a bridge before you need it look like?

For leaders, it means showing up. Show up at the industry association AGM. Show up at the client reception. Show up at the staff annual chili cook-off. Even if you feel these things are unimportant, they’re actually far more important than you can imagine. It’s where the bridge building begins.

I had a boss once who set up bi-weekly Zoom meetings with all his direct reports. He believed they were important; even if there were no immediate problems or situations to discuss, he wanted to simply spend a few minutes on a regular basis connecting with his team.

But then… he didn’t do it. After a month or two, he started cancelling the meetings an hour or so before they were to happen, and never rescheduled. Presumably he felt he was too busy on that afternoon to connect. The message being sent was simple: you don’t matter to me all that much. I’m too busy even for a ten-minute conversation.

Building bridges before you need them means showing up, even when it doesn’t feel as important as hammering out the budget for the board to review.

In a book I wrote at the peak of the pandemic(2), my co-author and I interviewed over 60 company leaders who were able to pivot during the crisis and come out (mostly) unscathed. One of the common themes that ran through all of these interviews was a strong sense of community and connection with others. Their employees, their clients, and even their competitors – all of them had bridges to rely on.

And the bridges had already been built. Some of them had been built over years.

Heading into 2026, the economy will remain uncertain. Volatility and chaos and disruption are here for the foreseeable future. Tariffs and war and ambiguity will continue.

Navigating that uncertainty requires all the help we can get. Build bridges… before you need them.

(1): Given during a speech on Nov 26 in Calgary, at Sandstone Asset Management “Connects” event.
(2): “Spiders in COVID Space: Adapting during and after the pandemic”  Hirsch, T. and Roach, R. P&P Publishing, 2021.