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
More of our life is driven by social norms than we care to admit. In Zvi Band’s latest post on Setting Social Norms, he talks about the power of structuring conversations to help people get past the small talk and encourage deeper connection. As a designer, I can’t help but appreciate this perspective:
“structure helps good parties, like restrictions help good design”
—Priya Parker, Art of the Gathering
Relationships
In David Brook’s provocative article The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake, he talks about how the shift in focus from extended family to the nuclear family has impacted many of us. He also shares some emerging trends that suggest the pendulum is starting to swing back in the other direction.
“The period when the nuclear family flourished was not normal. It was a freakish historical moment when all of society conspired to obscure its essential fragility…In 2004, the journalist and urbanist Jane Jacobs published her final book, an assessment of North American society called Dark Age Ahead. At the core of her argument was the idea that families are “rigged to fail.” The structures that once supported the family no longer exist, she wrote. Jacobs was too pessimistic about many things, but for millions of people, the shift from big and/or extended families to detached nuclear families has indeed been a disaster.”
Community
If you’re thinking about how community will drive outcomes for your company, give Poshmark’s Tracy Sun on why community is the future of retail a listen (or a read, transcript included). Poshmark is one of the pioneers of incorporating a social angle to e-commerce and recently went public. In her words:
“You go to the local farmer’s market and you like to know who grows your lettuce, or you like to speak to the shopkeeper at a store, to find out how to style things. And with the rise of e-commerce, what’s happened is a lot of that human connection gets stripped out. And what you get is just, like I said, ease, selection, all that stuff. But what Poshmark does is it brings back a lot of that really innate human connection that happens around shopping and combines it with e-commerce.”
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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.