Six degrees of separation

By: Monika Evers

What they didnt tell you about that study and its application to business.

Inspired by Paul Revere's ride, this landmark study was conducted by psychologist Stanley Milgram.  He wanted to test how effectively information could spread across the United States. So he devised the following experiment.

He got the names of 160 people at random who lived in either Omaha and Wichita. To each person he mailed a packet. Inside of the packet was a letter explaining the study and the name and address of a Stockbroker who worked in Boston and lived in Sharon, Massachusetts.

Each person was instructed to write his or her name on the packet and send it to someone they knew (on a first name basis), that could get the packet closer to the stock broker.

The idea was that by the time the packet arrived at the stockbroker's home or work address, it would show how many people's hands it came through to get there.

The study revealed that it took on average 5.5 hands to get there, hence the "Six Degrees of Separation". However, that wasn't the big deal of the study. It revealed something far more significant to people in business, today.

Of the 24 packets that arrived at the stockbroker's home in Sharon...16 were hand delivered by the same person. That is 66% of all the letters to his home came through just one person. Of the ones that arrived at his office in Boston, the majority were hand delivered by just two other people.

Imagine, 160 letters were sent out to friends, relatives or work colleagues, totally unrelated to each other. Yet in their journey across the country the majority of the final letters would eventually end up in the hands of these three people.

What the study really showed us, was not that everyone in the country is linked through six degrees of separation, rather the reverse. It was that these three people had links to everyone else in the country.

The people who are the connectors

You will find these people peppered through referral networks, social groups and business clubs. The easiest way to uncover who they in your circle is to do this simple test.

Write a list of 40 friends (excluding work colleagues and family), or even 40 clients and trace back the contact points to find out how you got to know each of these people. Often the majority of your connections originate with one or two people.

Don't be surprised if you also discover that you are actually part of their network rather than in one of you own. At the very least your search may reveal a person you should be appreciating a whole lot more. When I traced back my business clients, I ended up with two people. Gary Schuller's and his Breakthrough Connection and indirectly Rosalyn Neville and her Entre Nous Agency for an introduction to a business connector now living abroad.

Both Gary and Rosalyn have utilised their skill as connectors, to create businesses that specialise in connecting people to each other. Gary's connections are to do with connecting businesses and people in business, while Rosalyn's are more on a personal level.

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