The Goldilocks in Your Network

Hi there, happy Thursday!

I appreciate the great feedback on last week’s issue, where I rolled out the new structure for the Network Wrangler. We’re onto something good, so we’re doing it again:

1. MANAGE: Thoughts on managing your existing network

2. GROW: Insights on growing your network

3. INSPIRE: A business idea that leverages networks

4. SCROLL: Quick links to items related to networking

MANAGE: Finding Goldilocks in Your Network

I spent the holiday weekend eating dog food.

Not the kind that goes in a bowl on the floor (finances aren’t that tight around here, thanks for asking).

I was dog fooding in the Microsoft sense: following my own advice about auditing my network, looking for gaps, for redundancies, and for people I needed to prune.

I’d been inspired by Shane Parrish’s FS newsletter about Small Surface Area and became aware of how much time and effort it takes to manage anything at scale: possessions, beliefs, friendships, etc. There’s a trade-off between the size of your network and the sanity enjoyed in managing your network.

When I think about the surface area of networks with the complexity of connections and value exchanges, my mind immediately drifts toward the heavy math like in these surface area calculations below:

However, to understand the impact of surface area, it’s not about the exactness of measurement; it’s about the relative size.

Bigger network with more surface area? You’re burdened with more management tasks but enjoy greater network effects as the size of your network works on your behalf to create value.

Smaller network with a smaller surface area? You’ve got more time and (potentially!) more sanity but enjoy fewer network effects, to a degree.

I’m sure for each of us there’s a just-right “Goldilocks” size to the network that has the delicate balance of network effects to management effort.

We’ve just got to find it.

And we’re in luck: research shows that Goldilocks is closer to the smaller end of the scale. Marissa King writes in her book Social Chemistry, “The quality (not quantity) of your social connections is a strong predictor of your cognitive functioning, work resilience, and work engagement.”

So, could you spend some time looking over your network this weekend? If the surface area seems too big, costing you time, effort, and sanity trying to keep up with everyone, maybe it’s time to focus on quality over quantity and shrink your network’s surface area to Goldilocks-size.

GROW: The Art of the Informational Interview

After encouraging you to shrink the surface area of your network, why would we even talk about growing it again? Because the value of your network is all about the quality of your connections.

Part of living a happy life is constantly striving to be better at something. To never settle for good enough. We can be better leaders, better partners, better parents, better friends, better customers.

No matter where we are in our lifetime, there’s someone just ahead of us along the “better than us” path that we can learn from. Whether they are already in our network, or they’re a node we need to connect anew, we can condense decades of experience-building into days of learning by reaching out to them.

The best informational interviews create value for both the interviewer and the interviewee. An informational interview isn’t conducted just to suck the experience and lessons out of the subject. An informational interview should leave the subject feeling smarter for having shared her wisdom and experience in a meaningful way.

This is where the art of the informational interview comes to play.

To set the stage for a transformative informational interview that grows your network (in quality and quantity), use this recipe to create a valuable experience for you and your subject:

1. Identify a specific time to connect one-on-one. It can be in-person or virtual, as calendars and logistics allow. But be intentional about the connection.

2. Ask meaningful “when you were in my shoes” questions. They’re ahead of you on your path. Invite them to think back to when they were new and what they wish they knew then that they know now. What routines did they establish? Where can you expect to struggle on the way? What seemed important at the start but wound up not mattering as much? What didn’t seem important at the start but wound up learning the hard way?

3. Send the questions you want to ask ahead of time. Not everyone is good at thinking on their feet, especially when asked meaningful, deep questions. Except for a select few extemporaneous geniuses, most people’s insightful answers come after reflection.

4. Ask who else you should talk to. Always (always, always) ask if there’s someone else they think you should talk to.

I’ve learned so very much from having these kinds of conversations with people. I know my interview subjects have benefitted because of the opportunity to reflect and regard the progress they’ve made since they were a newbie (like me, at the time).

And so you see, the value isn’t just one way. Both of us benefit, which makes our connection all the stronger, and it ticks the quality of our (shared) network up thanks to the experience.

Take some time this weekend to think about who you want to learn from, and start crafting your questions accordingly. If you’d like an extra pair of eyes on what you’re thinking to ask, feel free to shoot them my way and I’ll happily give you feedback.

INSPIRE: Networking a Plant Bank

I’m blessed to have inherited my green thumb from my mom, so my living space is filled with all manner of green leafy things growing and blooming and cleaning the air around me. My mom’s a master gardener and heavily involved in the gardening scene in the Pacific Northwest, so she’s light years ahead of me in gardening expertise and opportunities to connect with other gardeners.

She and I were talking last week about a situation she found herself in where a property was being razed, and she was on a small team of people invited to salvage the landscaping plants for use elsewhere before all was dumped in a bin and hauled away.

This plant salvage and reuse inspired this week’s networking business idea based on the concept of networked redistribution embodied by local food banks.

If you’re unfamiliar with food banks, they redistribute excess supplies of food to those in need. Those in the food chain with too much supply (manufacturers, retailers, farmers) donate to the food bank, and the food bank uses intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens to redistribute the donated food to those who are in need of assistance. The excess food doesn’t get dumped, it gets distributed and consumed. The networks of supply and demand are addressed by the bank.

This week’s business idea builds off this networked redistribution model but focuses on landscaping. I’ll call it the Plant Bank. 

The Plant Bank would operate on a similar premise to food banks: places that are getting rid of plant specimens for whatever reason could donate them to the Plant Bank instead of sending them off for compost (at best) or landfill (at worst).

Who might be getting rid of plant specimens? Homeowners who are “completely re-doing the yard.” Businesses that are beautifying their property. Communities that are reshaping their public spaces.

And where could these plant specimens go instead? Nonprofits that own land but can’t rationalize landscaping improvement as a line item in their budget. Local community open spaces (think medians or parklets). Individual homeowners who have the desire to garden but not the budget.

The Plant Bank would act as the redistribution point for supply and demand, with benefits for multiple players in the ecosystem

• Landscaping services would reduce the cost of their landfill disposal fees by instead directing unneeded plant specimens to the Plant Bank. They could also source lower-cost specimens for additional future projects.

• Master Gardeners could flex their gardening prowess by working with the landscape services to identify specimens and educate recipients on how to grow them in new spaces.

• Waste Management systems could use Plant Banks to curtail the volume of collections in their landfills.

Where’s the next Plant Bank going to take root? If you already know of one, please share! Simply hit reply. 🌱 🌱 🌱

SCROLL: This Week’s Quick Hits

• Stuck at a networking event unprepared? How to go about making small talk: the FORD method

• Your network of peers is most effective at teaching lessons in cybersecurity. “The Power of Storytelling in Cybersecurity Training” (WSJ - subscription)

• Prune your network with this skill: Master the “gift of goodbye.” You don’t owe loyalty to a friend, partner, or employer who belittles you. Successful and happy people simply say goodbye. (Ben Meer)

That’s all for this week. Third (issue) time’s a charm! See you next Thursday.

— Thomas

Got any feedback for me? Just hit reply. I read every email.