Malcolm Gladwell gives a great explanation of connectors in his book, [“The Tipping Point”](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316346624/qid=1103003846/ sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-7636724-0915348). They are the people who get great satisfaction from connecting others. And in that, they create great value. He says there are varying degrees of connector. From the person who can only make a few introductions, to the person who can make hundreds of them at will.
I thought, “Who are the connectors in my network? It will be useful for me to know exactly who and how I can best offer assistance to the people they know.” I took it upon myself this morning to map out who introduced me to who. It was a fascinating and rewarding experience—reconnecting me with many memories. Riding my bike along the highway on a hot summer day as my friend and I chased down someone he knew. Sadly that friend has since passed yet the person he introduced me to remains a life-long friend. In another case I can track the roots of an introduction to a friend in Denmark all the way back to a friendship of my Uncle’s youth. If you’re interested it goes like this. Me → My Mum → Her brother (my uncle) → His friend → His wife → Her parents → Their exchange student→My friend. One work colleague inadvertently put forward the series of introductions (about 5–6 chained) which led me to a career as an ontological coach.
Take a look at the map of my network and notice how many people lead nowhere, whereas others are rich in the people they know.
The original list was created using MindManager and converted for your enjoyment. My rules were:
- Link to the person that introduced me. If I know that somebody else knew you, but we had not met, that connection was ignored. Rather it was the person who actually introduced us.
- Don’t map relationships between people. This is about who introduced me to who. Not who knows who. That’s another task to look at.
- Networking professional bodies are included as people because they are the catalyst for the introductions. Workplaces are treated the same (otherwise you end up linking to the person who interviewed you
- Only link to people I know. If I know you know somebody who I don’t I’ll have to wait for that introduction before adding it.
Then to make it public I shaded all the boxes and text the same colour. You shouldn’t be able to read it.1
This was a worthwhile exercise for the 2 hours it took and I plan to keep it up to date. I suggest you do the same. And, if you know Malcolm, perhaps he’d be interested in this. Please let him know.
Footnotes
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I later found out the Google was indexing the text within the PDF, even though it was shaded. ↩