Strength of Weak Ties
For several years now, sociologists and social psychologists have been well-aware of the concept of the strength of weak ties, which basically says that weak connections between individuals are often more important than strong ones. For example, you're more likely to find a job opportunity from an acquaintance than a close friend.
While this holds true for interpersonal connections amongst individuals, I think there's an opportunity here for companies as well. I recently wrote and published a computer book with one of the larger publishers in the industry, and the experience with them was, at best, so-so. Their process for creating books is very mechanical, and while I would love to offer my suggestions to them, they never gave me the impression that anyone working for the company cares or would even listen to anything I suggested. The few questions and suggestions I offered were pretty much ignored. Consequently, I kept my head down and my mouth shut, and I'm okay with that.
But consider this: last night I was sitting with a friend at a coffee shop, and he was reading my book. At some point, he looked up and said, "You know, the lines of text on the page are really close together. It would help the readability of the words if they added more space between each line."
Here, we have a person who reads lots of computer books, and he finds the format that my publisher chose to use in printing the text a little difficult to read. How many other readers have felt the same way about how "scrunched" the lines of text are? It's extremely difficult for them to know, because getting feedback from readers about that kind of thing is a very difficult thing to do.
Even if they create a "Submit feedback" link on the homepage of their site, how many readers are going to think enough of a small suggestion for improvement that they'll take the time to register their complaint? For something that small, it hardly seems worth the time. And even if they did, it's unlikely that anyone at the publishing company is taking the time to review and seriously consider the small suggestions.
Yet small suggestions are what they need. They are what every company needs for continuous improvement. But it's very challenging to get that kind of "small" feedback from people. If the publisher I worked for had bothered to listen to my suggestions as an author, and encouraged my feedback, I would have gladly told them my friend's suggestion for line spacing in the text, which could benefit all of the readers of all of their books. That is such a wasted opportunity on their part.
Consider the company you work for: are there any "weak ties" lurking in your relationships that could provide you with valuable insight?
While this holds true for interpersonal connections amongst individuals, I think there's an opportunity here for companies as well. I recently wrote and published a computer book with one of the larger publishers in the industry, and the experience with them was, at best, so-so. Their process for creating books is very mechanical, and while I would love to offer my suggestions to them, they never gave me the impression that anyone working for the company cares or would even listen to anything I suggested. The few questions and suggestions I offered were pretty much ignored. Consequently, I kept my head down and my mouth shut, and I'm okay with that.
But consider this: last night I was sitting with a friend at a coffee shop, and he was reading my book. At some point, he looked up and said, "You know, the lines of text on the page are really close together. It would help the readability of the words if they added more space between each line."
Here, we have a person who reads lots of computer books, and he finds the format that my publisher chose to use in printing the text a little difficult to read. How many other readers have felt the same way about how "scrunched" the lines of text are? It's extremely difficult for them to know, because getting feedback from readers about that kind of thing is a very difficult thing to do.
Even if they create a "Submit feedback" link on the homepage of their site, how many readers are going to think enough of a small suggestion for improvement that they'll take the time to register their complaint? For something that small, it hardly seems worth the time. And even if they did, it's unlikely that anyone at the publishing company is taking the time to review and seriously consider the small suggestions.
Yet small suggestions are what they need. They are what every company needs for continuous improvement. But it's very challenging to get that kind of "small" feedback from people. If the publisher I worked for had bothered to listen to my suggestions as an author, and encouraged my feedback, I would have gladly told them my friend's suggestion for line spacing in the text, which could benefit all of the readers of all of their books. That is such a wasted opportunity on their part.
Consider the company you work for: are there any "weak ties" lurking in your relationships that could provide you with valuable insight?