5-day networking plan (AYA #1)

AYA curates the best advice for 20somethings and makes it actionable. The digest sources wisdom from books, research papers, online communities, and expert interviews. With only 15 minutes a day, you’ll build one valuable new habit or skill.

This week's edition has to do with cultivating weak ties (forming acquaintances that tend to foster your career growth).

AYA Insight #1: Cultivate Your Weak Ties 
(In other words, make new acquaintances!)

Description & Why It's Important
In a seminal 1973 piece that ended up becoming one of the most cited papers in all of sociology, Dr. Mark Granovetter introduced the concept of weak and strong ties.

At the highest level, strong ties hold together relationships between a small, core group of friends, while weak ties bring together acquaintances. Granovetter's research showed that in a population of employed professionals, most of the subjects had found their jobs through weak ties. In other words, your acquaintances were much more likely than your friends to enable career mobility.

There's a second benefit to developing a strong network of weak ties. By definition, we have strong ties with those whom we spend most of our time with. It's likely that our strong ties are with people who have similar careers and interests. By introducing more weak ties into your life, you increase the likelihood you'll be exposed to new, novel information - a critical ingredient for innovation and creativity.

Founder's Note from Joseph 
Weak ties can be beneficial in every area of your life - whether it's identifying and entering a new career, finding a significant other, or simply expanding your knowledge base.

Fortunately for us, it's easier than ever to establish these relationships. This week, we'll leverage some modern technology to establish and foster our weak ties.

Your Action Plan
My goal with AYA has always been to create intuitive, actionable recommendations for you.

Below, I've outlined an action plan for this week so that you can easily integrate this insight into your life immediately. Every one of the outlined activities is designed to take 15 minutes or less. I will be doing each of these things with you - let's check in at the end of the week to see how far we get. Email me ANYTIME with questions/thoughts and we can chat. 

  1. Day 1
    Leverage LinkedIn and/or Facebook. Send a note to 3 existing connections/friends in your area. Provide a quick update on your life and ask them how they are. Let it blossom into a longer conversation and turn at least one of those conversations into coffee/lunch sometime this week.
  2. Day 2
    Ask a close friend or your manager at work to introduce you to someone you'd be able to learn from. (Tip: it's easiest to do this if you want to meet an expert in a specific area of interest. Say you're at a consulting firm and want to join the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) practice - ask to be introduced to a Partner in that group)
  3. Day 3
    Download either Weave or Treatings (they're mobile applications) and set up a meeting with a nearby professional. I've personally used both apps - they're great. 
  4. Day 4
    Find a local Meetup you're interested in and make it a point to put it on your calendar and attend. Ideally this week/weekend. 
  5. Day 5
    Friday is reflection day. Catch up on any of the actions from Monday-Thursday if needed. Jot down some thoughts and contact me on how you did.

Also: don't be disappointed if you hit everything - if you miss one exercise, just focus on doing the next.

Further reading
The Strength of Weak Ties, Mark S. Granovetter

Sign up at http://ayainsight.co/

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