Thanks for signing up to all the new readers! Here are some nuggets about how networks shape your wellbeing, relationships and community to help you actively cultivate yours.
Wellbeing
There’s a general perception that Professional Networking Makes People Feel Dirty. While that is true in some cases, it’s important to remember the role that intention and mindset play in surfacing those feelings.
Networking makes low-power employees feel unclean, which understandably makes them not want to network. But if they don't network, they may not become high-power employees—who no longer feel dirty when they network…But Gino notes that powerful people know they can contribute reciprocal value to most professional interactions. Thus, before attending a networking event, it may behoove low-power people to consider something other than a desire to move up the corporate ladder. "If you focus on what you can offer to the relationship, it might be an important mindset to have, and remove some of those feelings of inauthenticity," Gino says.
That’s exactly what I mean when I encourage people to cultivate their network. You can read more about more about it here.
Relationships
Two giants in this space are releasing books:
This WIRED interview with Sherry Turkle captures her reflections on how technology has impacted our relationships over decades of study. Her new book, The Empathy Diaries, came out this week.
You know, for such a long time we’ve said, “I’ll just send a text. I’ll just FaceTime my mother. That’ll be enough.” Now we’re likely to be much more deliberate, because we know what we’ve missed when we only do that. When you feel as though you always have enough time in the world to do whatever you want, you’re sloppy. You substitute. But once it’s taken away from you, you’re more sensitive to what you’ve been missing. That is one of the things that’s come out of our deprivation.
Robin Dunbar shared extracts from his new book in Covid and friendships: the health cost of a year without socialising (paywall). His new book, Friends: Understanding the Power of Our Most Important Relationships, will be out this week too!
There is a very strict limit on the number of people we can hold in any conversation. It’s four, including the speaker. More than that and it will very quickly break up into two conversations. The only way we can have a larger conversation is if it becomes a lecture. And that defeats the object of the exercise. In a natural social occasion you can slip from one conversation to another around the room, buttonhole some particular person in a corner for a private moment. You can’t do that online, so a large group quickly gets dominated by the four or five people with the loudest voices or most domineering personalities.
Community
In Tech Stack and Strategies of the Modern Community Builder, Jennifer Phan outlines the different tools available to manage communities and key learnings from 5 different community management examples:
Social Media Manager at a direct-to-consumer brand (gitti)
Community Manager at a product-driven company (Notion)
Community Manager at a co-working space (Factory Berlin)
Founder of an online community (Innovators Room)
Creator and content writer (NessLabs)
Like what you read? If so, please share this with someone you think would benefit:
About The Reliants Project
Reliant is my word for a person that someone depends on, an essential component of our social networks. With each edition, I’ll share useful nuggets about how networks shape your wellbeing, relationships and community to help you actively cultivate yours. Whether you want to cultivate your relationships, make better introductions, or activate networks to make an impact in the world, let me help you reach your goals.
You can find more about The Reliants Project here.