Human Networks Matter More

In case you missed it, Six Degrees of Separation is a play by John Guare that was made into a movie starring Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland. The title is related to the idea, originated by the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy, that everyone on earth is connected to everyone else by five (Karinthy) or six (Guare) people.2 For example, according to the theory, you are connected to Eminem by no more than five or six people, because you know someone who knows someone, who knows someone, and so on.

By the same theory, you are also connected to a Siberian seal hunter. Today, in fact, with the Internet, the number may be closer to three people than to five or six, but, in any case, the theory points out the importance of human networks. Suppose you want to meet your university's president. The president has a secretary who acts as a gatekeeper. If you walk up to that secretary and say, "I'd like a half an hour with President Jones," you're likely to be palmed off to some other university administrator.

What else can you do? If you are connected to everyone on the planet by no more than six degrees, then surely you are connected to your president in fewer steps. Perhaps you play on the tennis team, and you know that the president plays tennis. In that case, it is likely that the tennis coach knows the president. So, arrange a tennis match with your coach and the president.Voilà!You have your meeting. It may even be better to have the meeting on the tennis court than in the president's office.

The problem with the six-degree theory, as Stockard Channing said so eloquently, is that even though those six people do exist, we don't know who they are. Even worse, we often don't know who the person is with whom we want to connect. For example, there is someone, right now who knows someone who has a job for which you are perfectly suited. Unfortunately, you don't know the name of that person. It doesn't stop when you get your job, either.

When you have a problem at work, like the need to understand the basics of TCP/IP, there is someone who knows exactly how to help you. You, however, don't know who that is. Accordingly, most successful professionals consistently build personal human networks.

They use Facebook and LinkedIn to build and maintain their networks because they know that somewhere there is someone whom they need to know or will need to know. They also meet people at professional and social situations, collect and pass out cards, and engage in pleasant conversation (all part of a social protocol) to expand their networks. You are undoubtedly using Facebook right now. You may even be using LinkedIn. But you can use these applications more effectively if you think about the power of weak ties.

To understand weak ties, consider the network diagram above. Assume that each line represents a relationship between two people. Notice that the people in your department tend to know each other, and the people in the accounting department also tend to know each other.

That's typical. Now suppose you are at the weekly employee after-hours party and you have an opportunity to introduce yourself either to Linda or Eileen. Setting aside personal considerations, thinking just about network building, which person should you meet? If you introduce yourself to Linda, you shorten your pathway to her from two steps to one and your pathway to Shawna from three to two. You do not open up any new channels because you already have them to the people in your floor. However, if you introduce yourself to Eileen, you open up an entirely new network of acquaintances.

So, considering just network building, you use your time better by meeting Eileen and other people who are not part of your current circle. It opens up many more possibilities. The connection from you to Eileen is called a weak tie in social network theory,3 and such links are crucial in connecting you to everyone in six degrees. In general, the people you know the least contribute the most to your network.

This phenomenon is true whether your network is face-to-face or virtual, like LinkedIn. This concept is simple, but you'd be surprised by how few people pay attention to it. At most company events, everyone talks with the people they know, and, if the purpose of the function is to have fun, then that behavior makes sense. In truth, however, no business social function exists for having fun, regardless of what people say. Business functions exist for business reasons, and you can use them to create and expand networks. Given that time is always limited, you may as well use such functions efficiently

Discussion Questions

1. Determine the shortest path from you to your university's president. How many links does it have?

2. Give an example of a network to which you belong that is like your department in the figure on the preceding page. Sketch a diagram of who knows whom for six or so members of that group.

3. Recall a recent social situation and identify two people, one of whom could have played the role of Linda (someone in your group whom you do not know) and one of whom could have played the role of Eileen (someone in a different group whom you do not know). How could you have introduced yourself to either person?

4. Does it seem too contrived and calculating to think about your social relationships in this way? Even if you do not approach relationships like this, are you surprised to think that others do? Under what circumstances does this kind of analysis seem appropriate, and when does it seem inappropriate?

5. Consider the phrase, "It's not what you know, it's whom you know that matters." Relate this phrase to the diagram. Under what circumstances is this likely to be true? When is it false?

6. Describe how you can apply the principle "The people you know the least contribute the most to your network" to your use of Facebook or LinkedIn during a search for a job.