The Power of “Weak Ties”

I recently read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and was fascinated by a study performed by Mark Granovetter of Harvard which looked into how people get a new job. He found that often times candidates received a lot of help from casual acquaintances (friends of friends) or as he called them “weak ties”.

Granovetter found that “weak ties” were often times more valuable than strong friendships because they provided a window into social networks where you don’t otherwise belong. This makes sense since we often times have similar interests/activities to the people we most closely associate with (neighborhood, alumni association, gym, colleagues, church, clubs, sports, etc.) By the time one of your close friends hears about a job or opportunity, chances are you have heard too. “Weak ties” can often times make you aware of something you would otherwise not be connected too.

The study also found that “weak ties” are also susceptible to peer pressure…in other words that if you don’t help a friend of a friend with a job search, they may voice this back to the original friend. This “guilt” is sometimes good leverage in prompting people to help. Granovetter summarized that this “weak ties” concept is often times how business gets done nowadays.