The secret to great opportunities? The person you haven't met yet
2,372,871 views | Tanya Menon • TEDxOhioStateUniversity
We often find ourselves stuck in narrow social circles with similar people. What habits confine us, and how can we break them? Organizational psychologist Tanya Menon considers how we can be more intentional about expanding our social universes -- and how it can lead to new ideas and opportunities.
We often find ourselves stuck in narrow social circles with similar people. What habits confine us, and how can we break them? Organizational psychologist Tanya Menon considers how we can be more intentional about expanding our social universes -- and how it can lead to new ideas and opportunities.
This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxOhioStateUniversity, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
Read more about TEDx.Share in the comments examples of how you broke out of your conventional social habits and discovered an unexpected friendship with someone outside your social circle.
About the speaker
Tanya Menon speaks, writes and consults on collaboration. Her research focuses on how people think about their relationships and the habits that allow them to build positive connections with other people.
Herminia Ibarra | Book
Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career
So many working people today describe feeling stuck: they are looking for opportunities either within their workplace or in other organizations, and ways to repurpose their skills. Professor Herminia Ibarra presents many fascinating stories of reinvention and offers ideas as you think about your networks and the psychological factors that may be holding you back from using them.
Robert Putnam | Touchstone Books, 2001 | Book
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
When the Frenchman Alexis De Tocqueville visited America in the 1700s, he was struck by the voluntary associations that held American communities together. Professor Robert Putnam’s classic book documents the loss of these types of cross-cutting ties that bind the American social fabric together. The title refers to the decline in bowling leagues in America, as more people bowl alone. These micro-level, interpersonal patterns translate into macro-level implications as society becomes atomized and polarized.
Sandy Pentland | Penguin, 2015 | Book
Social Physics
A brilliant book on how we can quantify social relationships, and predict behavioral patterns and idea flow in society.
Tiziana Casciaro, Francesca Gino, Maryam Kouchaki | Harvard Business Review, 2016 | Article
"Learn to Love Networking"
Networking is psychologically aversive for a number of reasons. Our research focuses on the stress of stepping outside your comfort zone, asking for others for opportunities and resources and being rejected. Professors Casciaro, Gino and Kouchacki show that people are also held back because it feels morally repugnant to see people instrumentally, rather than as ends unto themselves. In this wonderful article, the authors frame networking via a different mindset: that of learning. Don’t think "networking," think "learning." Your relationships educate you about, not just about opportunities and resources, but about other lives, perspectives and your many possible selves and roles.
Brian Uzzi and Sharon Dunlap | Harvard Business Review, 2005 | Article
"How to Build Your Network"
A practical guide to think more intentionally about how you build the relationships around you and you manage your career.
David Krackhardt and Jeffrey Hanson | Harvard Business Review, 1993 | Article
"Informal Networks: The Company Behind the Chart"
A practical guide to think about how network analysis can be used to address managerial challenges
Gargiulo, M. and M. Benassi | Organization Science, 2000 | Article
"Trapped in your own net"
This academic article focuses on the trade-offs of having cooperation/safety in a dense network and the flexibility of being in a network that is rich in diversity. Professor Martin Gargiulo is also known for developing a validated social capital survey that allows you to learn about the networks of relationships you have accumulated in your life and career and potential opportunities to develop that network. Unlike an organizational chart, your social network is often hidden, and you can understand your own position in an organization via this tool.
Learn more
About TEDx
TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." It supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community.
This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxOhioStateUniversity, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
Read more about TEDx.Share in the comments examples of how you broke out of your conventional social habits and discovered an unexpected friendship with someone outside your social circle.