Social Chemistry
Decoding the Patterns of Human Connection
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3.6 • 7 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
One of 2021's Most Highly Anticipated New Books—Newsweek
One of The 20 Leadership Books to Read in 2020—Adam Grant
One of The Best New Wellness Books Hitting Shelves in January 2021—Shape.com
A Top Business Book for January 2021—Financial Times
A Next Big Idea Club Nominee
Social Chemistry will utterly transform the way you think about “networking.” Understanding the contours of your social network can dramatically enhance personal relationships, work life, and even your global impact. Are you an Expansionist, a Broker, or a Convener? The answer matters more than you think. . . .
Yale professor Marissa King shows how anyone can build more meaningful and productive relationships based on insights from neuroscience, psychology, and network analytics. Conventional wisdom says it's the size of your network that matters, but social science research has proven there is more to it. King explains that the quality and structure of our relationships has the greatest impact on our personal and professional lives. As she shows, there are three basic types of networks, so readers can see the role they are already playing: Expansionist, Broker, or Convener. This network decoder enables readers to own their network style and modify it for better alignment with their life plans and values.
High-quality connections in your social network strongly predict cognitive functioning, emotional resilience, and satisfaction at work. A well-structured network is likely to boost the quality of your ideas, as well as your pay. Beyond the office, social connections are the lifeblood of our health and happiness. The compiled results from dozens of previous studies found that our social relationships have an effect on our likelihood of dying prematurely—equivalent to obesity or smoking.
Rich stories of Expansionists like Vernon Jordan, Brokers like Yo-Yo Ma, and Conveners like Anna Wintour, as well as personal experiences from King's own world of connections, inform this warm, engaging, revelatory investigation into some of the most consequential decisions we can make about the trajectory of our lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
King, professor of organizational management at Yale, explains the nuances of networking in this smart debut. She identifies three main groups of connectors: conveners, such as Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who build dense networks with outsize trust and reputational benefits; brokers, like Barack Obama, who bring together disconnected parties from different social worlds; and expansionists, including rock 'n' roll manager Shep Gordon, who have large social networks but can't always maintain or leverage them. In King's thinking, convenors don't spend a lot of time exploring multiple social worlds, but have deep roots in a few and pairing with brokers can inject diversity into a convenor's network. Brokers are adaptable translators, and are the most likely group to produce innovations that benefit the group, making them good partners to both convenors and expansionists. Expansionists, meanwhile, are generous, have an uncanny ability to read others, and often have a larger social network than other personality types, making them ideal for signal-boosting messaging. A robust and lengthy notes section also provides plenty of follow-up reading material. King's wise, well-reasoned advice will be perfect for those aiming to climb the corporate ladder.
