The Surprising Power of Social Networks... and how they shape the Lofts experience.
Three weeks ago I was standing in line for a taxi from Chicago Midway airport with two suitcases. I felt like I had everything I need for spending a month here: a new phone with the US SIM card, some local cash, and all sorts of things I packed the night before: from a small bottle of a laundry detergent to a swimsuit (you know, just in case, in Chicago in November). What I did not have at that time was social capital in this city — I didn’t know a single person here.
Today in the morning I walked into the building and my pass did not work. I was trying to explain who I am when the security guard told me he knew me and at the same time I heard “I can vouch for her” from the elevator. That was the moment I realized that my social network grew considerably over last 3 weeks.
Social network analysis (SNA) is a common technique to study patterns in social networks. If I had to create a SNA to demonstrate whom I met in Chicago and how, I’d say the central node would be Nickie, Sr. Talent Manager. Havas Chicago started from her email congratulating me on being selected to Lofts. And, she was the first person we Lofters met on our first day. Nickie organized a meeting for us with the Content Creators team at the Annex (more on this in Carla’s blog) and a lunch for us with leadership team that gave us opportunity to ask Lisa and Tatia about CHI culture and how the office operates. And, that was Lisa’s voice from the elevator this morning as she was ready to save me when my pass did not work.
If you continue to explore my imaginary SNA, you’ll see a cluster with the highest number of interactions and closest ties, this is the Chicago Analytics team. I got introduced to the team by my coach Dan. And, I am grateful for each one of them for finding time to meet me (and not once), bringing me up to speed on projects, answering my questions that I bombarded them with on Slack, and even recommending me local restaurants. They made me feel like part of the team when Clarissa invited me to the team’s get together before Halloween party and when they invited me for lunch this week.
Not only do I owe Chicago Analytics team a lot from what I learnt during the Lofts program, but also I owe them a lot of connections to other teams in the office: Socialyze, Affiperf, SEO teams and account teams on Moen, Dish, AutoZone and Hefty.
There is another quite small, yet very important for my Lofts experience, cluster of people who would appear quite far from everyone else on this imaginary graph of my Chicago network. These people are the Lofters who came to Chicago like me. I think nothing can quantify better the closeness of this cluster than the volume of WhatsApp and Slack messages we exchanged during past 3 weeks. I don’t think the whole office has enough paper if we are to print it all.
I also met people who seem not to belong to a specific cluster or share common nodes in my network. For example, I got to work with the creative team on one of the largest accounts. Do you know how? It was easy. You can try it, too. Just talk to people in the kitchen while waiting in line for a microwave, and mention what languages you speak. It was by chance that the team needed to validate the copy in a foreign language, and that was my opportunity to contribute.
Nicholas Christakis, author of the book “Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks”, said that “Our experience of the world depends on the actual structure of the networks in which we’re residing and on all the kinds of things that ripple and flow through the network”. I agree that my Lofts experience was shaped a lot by people who I’ve met in Chicago. And, during my time here I realized the surprising power of social networks — knowledge exchange.
