Why Employees Should Build Weak Ties At Work
Most people believe that developing strong relationships in the work place will increase their ability to get things done more efficiently. However, this is not the most beneficial way to go about making connections in the workplace. It is in fact the weak ties that will be of the most value to someone at work. Having weak ties with others allows us to gain access to areas of the company that we would usually not have access to.
When building strong ties, human beings must put in extensive time and effort to keep the relationships strong. In general, we can’t keep strong social relationships with a large number of people. In the workplace, it’s only the people we sit next to at the office or people who possibly work in the same department. When it comes to getting help from these people, they can only help us with projects and questions that take place inside of the department.
On the contrary, building weak ties are not hard to do and require a very minimal amount of effort. These weak ties can be made with tons of people: friends of friends, acquaintances, etc. They can, “…act as a bridge to an area where you most likely don’t have access to the same people and information…” These connections allow us to get information from different parts of the company and expand our horizons to other departments. These weak ties are even easier to make now with new emergence of today’s social media. Weak ties are the future building blocks of organizations that can make a bridge between departments and allow for the easy access and flow of information throughout a company.
Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2014/03/11/every-employee-weak-ties-work/