"Without understanding connectivity, the basis of human connections, network theory, contextual intelligence, any business leader unable to grasp those things will be lost." [Warren Bennis]
The 12 habits of highly connective people has been the single most read and shared post I have written in the last couple of months. Literally.
Why it worked
Part of the reason is the structure of the post.
It starts with a great story told vividly by a master storyteller and maker who has earned tremendous respect and attention in the business and tech communities. Two communities I am becoming very involved with and hope to bring closer to each other.
I met Anil Dash briefly a few years ago at a conference in New York City, and know I will find an opportunity to connect based upon some of our shared passions.
The other attractive part of the post was the manifesto-quality of the 12 habits: deep thoughts distilled into simple statements whose quality makes them easy to internalize because they are connected under the same idea, thus useful.
Framing
When we put structure or frames around things, we make it easier to break them down into steps or modules. Thus, we have the ability to visualize the actual things we are going to do and keep track of the vision and the goal(s).
How we do things -- execution -- is still very much up to our own experience, talent, and skill.
My recent overview about frameworks -- how we think about what we do -- at Ignite Austin was admittedly in a format that challenged the storytelling angle. You can be the judge of whether I pulled it off or not, the video is here.
Frame an idea or a topic that people are thinking about and address it well and you will have their attention. Take that same approach to addressing a real problem consistently, and you have a business to trade on.
Human connections
Why is the social graph such a fascinating and important part of digital connectivity?
Based upon mathematics and computer science, the connectivity of a graph is an important measure of its robustness as a network. The social graph shows human connections. There are entry points or intersections between personal story and story together.
Those relationships are the yin to the yang of commerce -- complementary opposites that interact within a greater whole, as part of a dynamic system. Commerce is the relationships of what people exchange instead of the asset.
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There is much more, of course. We'll get to that in due time.
Meanwhile, I'm seeing evidence that mastering connectivity, bringing together the yin and yang of commerce in the dynamic Big Shift John Hagel and John Seely Brown talked about in The Power of Pull, is the future of business.
Leaders need to understand this new course. Will the Master of Communication Science and Connectivity Arts be the new MBA?
[image courtesy Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier]