So a few key takeaways from our discussion of informal networks.
The first is that networks are social capital.
They're the analog to your human capital,
they're part of the portfolio that you bring to any situation, any organization.
The effectiveness of the network depends heavily on structural holes.
This is the new idea,
kind of unusual counterintuitive.
Somewhat provocative idea we're pushing today is one of
the most important ideas in network theory
that the efficiency and effectiveness of a network,
the power of that social capital depends
on structural holes- how disconnected the network is.
And finally, that networks are earned, not built.
You can't do this stuff quite as ready made as intentional as we'd like.
This is something you need as a way of life.
You create energy by thinking about it in terms of reciprocity,
going beyond the norm of reciprocity.
Very much thinking about social networks as something you're doing on a daily,
weekly basis not because you have an objective that has to be met by it right away.
So, the ideas we've been talking about on this topic connect to the rest of the course.
Understanding the other party for example,
is an idea that we've been talking about throughout the course.
It's critical for creating valuable resources, generating reciprocity,
strategically managing your network, recognizing trade-offs.
This is something we talk about pretty much every step of the way.
It would be nice if these were tactics that you could use
without worrying about using them too much or if you could use them all circumstances.
But life is a little more complicated that influences a lot more complicated than that.
There's going to be trade-offs associated with every choice that you make.
And finally, intentionality, building networks in a way that maximizes
their effectiveness requires a little more strategy and it might be
a little more strategy than you're comfortable bringing to your relationships.
One way to think about it,
we would urge you to be intentional about
your network and to be unintentional about your relationships.
We understand the squeamishness,
In fact we advocate having squeamishness about bringing
too much intentionality to relationships and individuals.
But I think we can sit comfortably about being strategically,
about the broader network,
and the decisions we make about jobs,
about where we sit, about how we spend our time,
while still being unintentional and more
human in the individual relationships that we build.
Finally, far from being distasteful,
increasing influence to your network is one of the key ways to leverage your ability.
The development and use of power requires
accomplishing and accomplishing almost always
especially these days requires working through other people.
You can't take accomplish what others can,
If you can't work through other people.
As Jeff Pfeffer puts it,
"failures of implementation are almost
invariably failures to build successful coalitions".