Are these people very different from you in terms of age, gender, race, religion, society, education level, career group, political perspective, workplace, and hobbies?

How many social or business meetings have you had with friends you don’t meet often in the past few months (a short meeting like drinking coffee together is also counted).

Can you remember who you discussed with whom you recently what is important in your life?

such as a major decision, getting or giving help, or a plan or project that has no direct relationship with your work.

Are these people very different from you in terms of age, gender, race, religion, society, education level, career group, political perspective, workplace, and hobbies?

I have tested the above problem and the conclusion is that my network is closed and introverted because I only discuss important things with close friends, and therefore I will miss a lot of new information.

This is a test in the book "Break the Circle" I recently read. This book introduces the law of weak connection between social and communication.

The world we are in has a networked underlying structure, which includes three important components: strong connection, weak connection and hub. Among them, weak connection is usually those people in life that we are not familiar with, but they can bring us knowledge, opportunities and unexpected surprises. It is the social mystery of today's elite circle.

We will see how all kinds of people use weak connections to change their lives, achieve careers, and break through life difficulties; we will also see how companies turn dangers into safety and develop and grow due to weak connections; we will also see how the power of weak connections changes the historical process.

We do not need to have extraordinary charm or become a social expert, so we can use the power of weak connections to expand our circle of friends, surpass the existing circle, and become super circle breakers, thereby enhancing our influence, continuing to achieve great things, seeing a broader world, and meeting more interesting people.

The author of "Breaking the Circle" is Richard Cork, a popular tutor in management who redefines the 80/20 rule and is also a well-known "sequential entrepreneur". He started a successful business practice activity very early. He was a senior consultant at Boston Consulting Company (BCG), a partner at Bain Management Consulting Company, and a co-founder of the famous British Aiyikai (LEK).

Another author is Greg Lockwood, a famous investor who focuses on Internet companies. He has worked in two international consulting companies, IBM and Accenture , and has been engaged in human resources consulting.

According to the previous test, what is the "network" and what are the three important parts of the network?

"weak connection" is of importance. How to explore your "weak connection"?

01

What is a "network"

This book also gives a clear definition: a network is a group of people or things that can communicate with each other and share information to achieve results that can only be achieved by the network. Each part of the network (each member) is connected to each other, and it brings benefits to members, costs and obligations. At the same time, non-members are excluded.

The jewelry on the gem necklace is the node (people or objects connected to each other), and the threads that form the jewelry are the connection. A single telephone in a telephone network is a node, while a telephone line or fiber optic cable is a connection. The connection between nodes in the

system can be in communication technology or social relations. For example, a group of friends who know each other form a network with common values ​​or shared identities.

network includes three important components: strong connection, weak connection and hub .

1. "Strong connection" is our strong relationship with the people around us, who are usually friends, family and colleagues we often meet.

Sociologists have shown that those who rely entirely or primarily on strong connections are prone to being isolated, deprived of a lot of valuable information, and have difficulty improving their lives. Poor groups around the world rely more on connections than wealthy or middle-income groups.

2. "Weak connection" is our connection with people who nodded, and there are more people than relatives and friends.Although it is just a relationship of acquaintance, we must get along with it in a friendly manner to maintain this relationship.

We occasionally or rarely see these people, friends of friends, neighbors far away from us or not often, people who were strong connections we used to have but now almost completely lost contact, and strangers and people we happen to meet every day.

3. "Hunnel", we can imagine a hub as the convergence point of many weak connections and strong connections. The human hub consists of people who share common purpose and work together, including families, businesses, social circles, schools, churches, clubs and countries.

In addition to the family circle inherited from parents, siblings and other relatives, we can also choose the groups we want to cultivate and influence. For most people, the traces and the size of achievements left in life depend heavily on the hubs chosen and whether they are good at switching between hubs after hub.

How can "weak connection" let those people in life who we are not familiar with bring us knowledge, opportunities and unexpected surprises?

02

Social secrets of today's elite circle

There is an example in the book, Stanford University professor Grannovit studied things that almost everyone will be interested in - how to find a job.

He found managers, technicians and other professionals who had just changed jobs and asked them how they learned about their new position. It turns out that personal connections are crucial in finding a job. There are more people who find jobs in this way than people who apply for positions directly, and the best jobs (those with high salaries and high positions) are usually obtained through personal connections.

Job seekers who use weak connections to find jobs are more likely to experience career gaps between jobs.

in particular shocked Professor Granovit, that more than a quarter of the work of people is obtained through those who have hardly seen before.

This also reflects the power of weak connections . Good relationships with are troublesome. To break through the circle and achieve leap, general interactions are often more useful than making friends. .

Weak connections are the social secrets of today's elite circles, and how should we use weak connections to change our lives, achieve careers, and break through life dilemmas?

04

Mining your weak connection

First go back to the test at the beginning of the article. If the people you recall are a group of different people and do not know each other, then your social network is likely to be open and diverse.

On the contrary, your network is as closed and introverted as me, but it doesn’t matter. The more we lack a huge, open and diverse weakly connected network, the more opportunities we have.

Our main method of establishing and maintaining an excellent weak connection reserve is to maintain a wide circle of friends, maintain an open attitude towards new people or areas of contact, and at the same time, constantly patiently and devote ourselves to how they should be linked to our wishes.

Of course, in addition to openness and chance, we have three strategies.

1. Be consciously target a new field and participate in it. For example, playing golf, joining a bicycle club, doing yoga, finding a new job or participating in volunteer services, of course, a new activity a year is more reasonable.

2. We can put ourselves in various scenarios, where there are many opportunities to have random contact with strangers or general friends. For example, sitting on a park bench reading or just watching people coming and going, walking your dog in a bustling place, patrolling a specific coffee shop with or without laptop , and often going to clubs, bars, restaurants, bookstores, markets or other places where people gather.

3. Special actions taken to meet urgent needs. For example, if you are eager to change jobs, you should use all your existing connections, restore old connections, and establish new connections. For example, friends of friends, they may be related to your target position.

Finally, we should not ignore connecting people we know, because they may have unexpected and better results after they know each other.

weak connection is interesting and practical, full of foreseeable surprises.

Of course, for testing, like me, the introverted housewife who is closed on the network, you can also refer to the above strategies to explore my weak connections.

1. When I play with my children in the park, I can chat with other people who rest on benches randomly;

2. When my children sleep, I can read books or go online to participate in community learning to expand my knowledge and connections in different fields;

3. I meet an old strong connection a month. In addition to the fun of meeting, I will let it go without asking for any reward;

4. Every time I meet, I ask more questions, what kind of person they want to meet, and then I try to find a potential related person and introduce them to each other. This is also the first step to being a small superconnector.

written at the end

This book "Breaking the Circle" is a "sequential entrepreneur" who sold 1 million copies of the previous work "The Law of 80/20". Richard Cork found that the weak connection between people is the key to determining the breadth of a person's connections and success.

In addition to introducing weak connections, the book also tells about the other side of connections - hubs, that is, the group we join.

This book tells you that you don’t need to be charming, have a wink, know how to do things, or speak with high emotional intelligence. You just need to explore weak connections and find the right social hub. You can also expand your circle of friends and let unfamiliar people help you get things done.

Specifically, we do not need to have extraordinary charm or become social experts, but we can use the power of weak connections to expand our circle of friends, surpass the existing circle, and become super circle breakers, thereby enhancing our influence, continuing to achieve great things, seeing a broader world, and meeting more interesting people.

Through the book "Break the Circle", I hope you can discover weak connections that suit you, find the right hub, and help you achieve your goals.