Open Thread: The Power of Weak Ties

Yes, another open thread already.  Today I went to a “lunch and learn” seminar at Joule, which is a co-working office and meeting space.  Joule helps people who run businesses out of their homes or tiny offices when they need more space to talk to clients or hold a meeting.  http://joulemn.com/

The seminar was sponsored by Car2Go (an interesting variation on rental cars) and the speaker was Dr. Janel Anderson.   The topic was “The Power of Weak Ties.”  The idea is that networking is not just creating your own connections, but helping plug people together when you see they have matching interests.  You see Bob needs a financial planner, and Sally needs financial planning clients.  You introduce Bob to Sally, and when they spot connections that might be useful to you, they will plug you in.

The “weak ties” part comes in when you need something from outside your immediate circle of contacts.  You need to know someone who can arrange a tour of the British Museum when you visit, but no one you know has ever even been to England.  So instead you look up someone who’s likely to know someone who might be able to score you that tour.  And they might not know anyone themselves, but they know someone who probably does.  People you only know as loose acquaintances are the most likely to know people you don’t.

And then came some networking time with each of us mentioning what it is we are currently looking for.  (In my case, it’s a customer service-related job, so I want to get connected with hiring managers and human resources people.)  And here’s some other people who might need a hand up.

Dovette DeVore of IV MAID (Intra Venous Anti Infection Device) at Http://www.ivmaid.com is looking for contacts in the Canadian health care system to see about getting the product tested for approval up there.

Joule is starting a new online magazine for micro-business to micro-business relations, so is looking for micro-businesses to subscribe and create content.  See that at http://joulemn.com/mb2mb .

Janel Anderson is looking for women entrepreneurs to join Women Entrepreneurs of Minnesota.  You can find them at http://www.wemn.org .

Brian R. Kelly is a financial advisor  with a specialty in creating technological solutions for start-ups, so is looking for clients that need his expertise at http://www.briankelly-nm.com .

V. Scott Holmgren is a landscape architect and urban designer who would like Minnesota clients with a need to revitalize older buildings and boring business campuses.  Check his company out at http://www.innovativelanddesign.com .

Allison Trimberger is a freelance writer who wants to write content for business websites.  Mission statements, press releases, that sort of thing.  You can contact her at allison dot trimberger at gmail dot com.

Maria McCarthy wants to expand her business communications skills into the medical field.  Currently, she’s at http://www.abcomllc.com .

And Sarah Tower is the community relations officer for Angel Foundation, a non-profit that helps cancer patients with their non-medical bills, so that someone with cancer doesn’t have to choose between meds and rent this month.  She’d like to talk to businesses about setting up ways to let their employees know about this resource.  (Donations, as always, would not go amiss.)  You can find more information at http://www.mnangel.org .

There were a good twenty other people, but I didn’t get to talk to everyone.  If you can help one of these people out with a connection, that would be right neighborly.

For a discussion topic:  What’s your favorite “made an unexpected connection” story?