We can use social media to build bridges and to establish connections with others in ways that we never imagined.  Many of us tend to gravitate towards "birds of a feather" - people that are doing similar work nearby.  Sometimes we expand our networks by getting to know others doing the same sort of work in other locations.. However, building an network of colleagues who do work that is different from yours can help you become far more effective.Dr. James Rawson shared with me the concept of "randomized coffee trials" - a play on the term "randomized clinical trials".  Randomized coffee trials, or "RCTs" for short, represent a cool way to facilitate connections between people in an organization or ecosystem that don't know one another especially when the people are separated by distance and time.

Here's how it works. People who want to expand their network express interest to a facilitator. The facilitator pairs up participants randomly and provides contact information to the pairs. It could be a colleague doing the same sort of work but in a different place. Or a colleague that does very different work.  Next, the pairs agree to "meet for coffee" using technology like Skype, FaceTime, Lync, etc. During their virtual meeting, the paired up individuals discuss topics of mutual interest.  You can read more about RCT's at:

http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/randomised-coffee-trials

Have you participated in RCT's? I would enjoy hearing about your experiences and the connections you've made.

   

I often hear people saying the explosion of social media in the 21st century is, in fact "anti-social" ,and causes us to become more "isolated" rather than more "social".  I wanted to share a TEDxTalk on this very topic presented by Dr. James Rawson.  He argues that social media can build a virtual community in which to transform the sharing of ideas into real life endeavors. Social media can be used to build connections and relationships to have impact on the world.

What do you think? Is social media isolating or bridge-building. Here is the link to Dr. Rawson's TEDxTalk

https://youtu.be/5txst5mOywM