By Nilesh Bhagat, CHRP

Every singular achievement stems from a greater source.  While some may cling to the notion that innate ability or disposition is what defines success or failure, the fallacy of the ‘star’ syndrome has become apparent.  Our every fortune (and misfortune) is a result – sometimes direct, other times not – of the networks we associate with and those upon which we focus our attentions.

Our networks define who we are because they open up our opportunities and lead us to the contexts that define our identities. How they enable value creation in the form of innovation and adaptability is a matter of relevance to anyone in business, especially in HR.

In Superconnect, authors Richard Koch and Greg Lockwood help us understand these networks and their properties with the purpose of activating their potential so that they can create the innate value and opportunity they offer.

They define networks as having three components: hubs, strong links and weak links.

Hubs are the contexts in which we form links – sports teams, families, organizations, online communities and events. These create the environments which foster the creation of strong and weak links.

Strong links define us. They are composed of the people with whom we interact most often and whose norms, values and beliefs we internalize and so define our sense of self.

Weak links are those with whom we have casual or other acquaintance with; usually the friends of friends. These people give us access to new worlds, new ideas and expand our opportunities and self-definitions. They provide us with chances to grow through the network effect of reciprocation; that is, we benefit from their acquaintance in often indirect ways.

The networks these three elements combine to create are described in the context of business life and personal economic fortune.  How we recognize the networks they form and attune ourselves to the opportunities they represent is the sum of all things. Superconnect shows us how to understand networks and their properties, so that they can create value and often unexpected opportunities.

What Superconnect’s authors also reveal is our Darwinian tendency to overlook the true strength of weak links – and their direct correlation with innovation. An inability to open ourselves to weak links can lead to rigidity in the ways we think, act and feel.  Koch and Lockwood illuminate how fostering weak links – channels to new worlds to which we don’t fully or immediately understand, but offer potential for growth and benefit – can open entirely new dimensions of opportunity for organizations and individuals alike.

Have a crack at it to see what this book is really all about. Think about how you found yourself in your current position, or on your current team, and what that group now means to you. If you’re like me, you were connected to a ‘hub’ (for me, the BC HRMA People Portal) by an acquaintance (a classmate at Simon Fraser University); you explored this new hub, even if only briefly (I browsed through the jobs available); and through the magic of networks – and weak links – you found yourself as part of a new experience or platform of exchange. I have hired onto a remarkable team that finds a way to impress and teach me something new about business every day.  In return, I connect people, and perhaps that is the reason Superconnect resonates.

We are social creatures.  Howard Bloom, in Global Brain, described the human form as a network of dependents, whose very survival depends on the influence the network environment has on each node (human). He showed how those who are well connected prosper and survive, while those who are in the unfortunate state of disconnection suffer and perish.

In The Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki, showed how, with the right elements present, we as a collective can create more accurate knowledge than any individual.

Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, in Wikinomics, showed how the power of collaboration is changing the economic scene because we are beginning to embrace the power of connectivity and harness the energy of networks.

In Superconnect, Koch and Lockwood provide a global explanation of how we are all connected by an intricate network that shapes our very lives and gives rise to our every opportunity.  How we might, in turn, make the world a better place by simply being a better connector of others inspires further conversation.

I invite you to connect on the matter.

(PeopleTalk: Spring 2011)