But what if we
don't have an error message to enter into a
search engine? As the big shift takes hold, and
the world becomes ever less predictable, many
times we're no longer certain what to look for
or what questions to ask. That's where a second
level of pull becomes more useful: the ability
to attract people and resources you didn't
previously know existed. Some percentage of
these, once you encounter them, turn out to be
relevant and valuable just what you were
looking for. This level of pull works through
serendipity rather than search. Social networks
are prime spots for serendipity to play out as
we unexpectedly encounter friends of friends or
even total strangers that ultimately prove to be
helpful.
The first two
levels of pull the ability to access and
attract are ultimately static. They assume
that the people and resources we need already
exist and that the challenge is to find or
discover them. Yet each of us may need to
further develop our own personal and
professional skills before we can even recognize
how best to access and attract what we need and
want. Said differently, we need to master a
third level of pull the ability to pull from
within ourselves the insight and performance
needed to achieve our potential and help other
people do the same.
What
follows are four broad ways each of us can use
these three levels of pull to increase our
personal success:
Make your passion your profession. Do
you love what you do? In today's economy just
having a job is cause enough to be thankful. But
the pace of change keeps none of us safe: a more
uncertain world requires working harder to keep
our professional skills competitive. Since most
of us put intense effort only into those things
that provide us meaning and emotional engagement,
we must
make our passions our
professions or
the world will pass us by.
Expand and engage the edges of your social
network.
You're probably on
Facebook,
LinkedIn,
or some other social network by now. But how
adventurous are you there? Serendipity works
best when we extend the edges of our social
networks. People on these edges represent "weak
ties" connecting us to new insight, experiences,
and capabilities that provoke us to improve our
own game. Over time, these edge connections
become part of our core network, transforming
that core in deep yet unexpected ways.
Participate in spikes.
As we begin to pursue our
passions, something remarkable starts to happen.
While a few of us will choose to remain in, or
even migrate to, remote geographic areas because
of our passion for certain physical locations,
many more of us will be drawn to emerging spikes
of complementary talent in densely settled
geographic areas. Social networks in virtual
space will amplify the forces of pull being
generated in spikes as our passions motivate us
to seek out people who can help us get better
faster.
Maximize return on attention.
Hearing these recommendations,
some readers will ask how any of us will have
enough time to expand our networks and explore
talent spikes. Aren't we time-constrained
already? Yet by adopting new tools and services
we can all improve our "return on attention"
the value we get in return for the time spent
looking for what we want and need. Search tools
help improve this value immensely. But
serendipity tools may prove even more helpful as
they connect us to people and resources we don't
yet know exist.
What about you?
Would you accept a "friend" request on a social
network from someone you'd never met? In what
ways have you noticed serendipity at work in
your own life and career? Have you found ways to
shape serendipity to increase the quantity and
quality of unexpected encounters?
