Tanya Menon: The secret to great opportunities? The person you haven't met yet
Tanya Menon: ¿El secreto de las grandes oportunidades? La persona que aún no conoces
Tanya Menon speaks, writes and consults on collaboration. Her research focuses on how people think about their relationships and the habits that allow them to build positive connections with other people. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
a estudiantes de MBA
my students years later.
con mis alumnos años después.
a funny thing happens.
sucede algo gracioso.
in the classroom they were sitting.
en qué lugar del aula estaban sentados.
they were sitting with as well.
con quién estaban sentados.
any special superpowers of memory.
superpoderes especiales de memoria.
favorite people in their favorite seats.
favoritas en sus asientos favoritos.
they stay with them for the whole year.
se quedan con ellos durante todo el año.
for my students is they're at risk
es que corren el riesgo
with just a few people
con solo unas pocas personas
for an international, diverse network.
un círculo social internacional y diverso.
so that they can get great networks.
precisamente para tener excelentes redes.
nuestras vidas, escuelas, en el trabajo,
in our lives, in our school, in work,
brought a friend along for this talk?
a un amigo para esta charla?
at your friend a little bit.
there's nothing wrong with this.
no hay nada de malo en esto.
around people who are similar.
cerca de personas que son similares.
we're on a precipice, right?
en un precipicio, ¿verdad?
when we need new ideas,
cuando necesitamos nuevas ideas,
when we need new resources --
cuando necesitamos nuevos recursos,
for living in a clique.
un precio por vivir en una camarilla.
had a famous paper
escribió un famoso artículo,
is he asked people
es preguntar a personas
most people don't get their jobs
las personas no obtienen empleo
their mother, their significant other.
padre, madre o pareja.
people who they just met.
débiles, personas que acaban de conocer.
the problem is with your strong ties,
con sus fuertes lazos,
significant other, for example.
ya los conocen Uds.
people you just met today --
que acaban de conocer hoy,
to a whole new social world.
completamente nuevo.
ticket to travel our social worlds,
para viajar por nuestros mundos sociales,
human beings so close to home,
a los seres humanos tan cerca de casa,
a little bit more intentional
un poco más intencionales
a more imperfect social search engine.
de búsqueda social más imperfecto.
and filtering your friends.
Quiero tener una gran oportunidad".
I want to get a great opportunity."
are so fundamentally predictable."
fundamentalmente predecibles".
is that you start at home,
es que uno empieza en casa,
the same staircase or elevator,
la misma escalera o ascensor,
the same bathroom --
you're seeing exactly the same people.
uno ve exactamente las mismas personas.
slightly more inefficient.
un poco más ineficiente.
network of people.
personas completamente nuevas.
we are actually filtering.
cómo nos estamos filtrando.
we are looking at them, we meet them,
lo miramos, lo encontramos,
"You're relevant."
We can't even help it.
No podemos evitarlo.
to do instead is to fight your filters.
es a luchar contra sus filtros.
around this room,
un vistazo a esta sala,
the least interesting person that you see,
menos interesante que vean,
durante la próxima pausa para el café.
over the next coffee break.
even further than that.
the most irritating person you see as well
la persona más irritante que vean
is you are forcing yourself
you don't want to connect with,
con quien no quieren conectarse,
lo que tenemos que hacer es
contra nuestras elecciones.
but you know what I do?
pero ¿saben lo que hago?
in their favorite seats.
en sus asientos favoritos.
con diferentes personas
bumps in the network
la oportunidad de conectarse entre sí.
to connect with each other.
of an intervention at Harvard University.
en la Universidad de Harvard.
a los grupos residentes alojados,
the rooming groups,
para estudiantes de primer año,
people are not choosing those roommates.
a los compañeros de cuarto.
all different ethnicities.
incómodas con esos compañeros de cuarto,
with those roommates,
that initial discomfort.
esa incomodidad inicial.
commonalities with people.
de nivel profundo con las personas.
"take someone out to coffee."
simplemente "llevar a alguien al café".
hablan de centros sociales,
is you can't choose;
tan especial es que uno no puede elegir;
you're going to meet in that place.
se encontrará uno en ese lugar.
the paradox is, interestingly enough,
la paradoja es, curiosamente,
algo de planificación.
on every single floor.
who would bump into each other
las únicas personas que se encontraban
que están realmente en ese piso
into each other anyway.
solo había una sala de correo,
there was only one mail room,
from all over that building
de todo ese edificio
in that social hub.
en el tráfico de personas
from your social habits?
de sus hábitos sociales?
of unpredictable diversity?
de diversidad impredecible?
some wonderful examples.
algunos ejemplos maravillosos.
pickup basketball games,
partidos de baloncesto,
is when they go to a dog park.
cuando van a un parque para perros.
than online dating when they're there.
que las citas en Internet.
I want you to think about
contra nuestros filtros.
a little more inefficient,
un poco más ineficientes,
a more imprecise social search engine.
un motor de búsqueda social impreciso.
to widen your travels,
ampliar nuestros viajes,
a second-class ticket
un boleto de segunda clase
when we reach out to people.
cuando nos acercamos a las personas.
a very eventful year.
overseas and accept it,
en el extranjero y lo acepté,
lo que terminó sucediendo fue,
what ended up happening was,
como miembro de la facultad,
new identity as a mother.
muy estresante como madre.
of advice from people.
toneladas de consejos de la gente.
more than any other advice was,
que cualquier otro consejo fue,
is breaking down,
se descompone,
is to try and reach out
tratar de construir tu mundo social.
on a much larger scale.
en una escala mucho más grande.
de alto y bajo nivel socioeconómico,
and low socioeconomic status people,
in a baseline condition,
en una condición de referencia,
our lower socioeconomic status people,
de nivel socioeconómico más bajo,
were actually reaching out to more people.
llegaban a más personas.
cómo se movían en su círculo de contactos.
in how they were networking.
de estatus social más alto.
to think about maybe losing a job.
en la posibilidad de perder un trabajo.
completely differed.
diferían completamente.
people reached inwards.
alcanza a las personas hacia adentro.
people thought of more people,
más alto pensaba en más personas,
to bounce back from that setback.
para recuperarse de ese revés.
esto realmente significa.
spontaneously unfriended
espontáneamente sin amigos
your dad and your dog.
lo que estamos haciendo
we need our networks the most.
cuando más necesitamos nuestras redes.
Nos lo hacemos a nosotros mismos.
We're doing it to ourselves.
mentalmente nuestras redes
when we are being bullied,
cuando estamos siendo intimidados,
con perder un trabajo,
isolating ourselves,
nosotros mismos, aislándonos,
don't see our resources.
realmente no vemos nuestros recursos.
we don't see our opportunities.
no vemos nuestras oportunidades.
at your list of Facebook friends
su lista de amigos de Facebook
of people who are there
a la gente que está allí
automatically come to mind.
vienen a la mente.
one of the things we did was,
una de las cosas que hicimos fue,
research on self-affirmation:
Claude Steele sobre la autoafirmación:
en los propios valores,
desde un lugar de fuerza.
and I were able to do is,
y yo pudimos encontrar es que
who had affirmed themselves first
se habían afirmado primero
aceptar consejos de personas
be threatening to them.
se sentirían amenazados.
en su correo electrónico,
you asked somebody for a favor.
que pidieron un favor a alguien.
at the language that you used.
el lenguaje que usaron.
represents a metaphor.
representa una metáfora.
in a transactional way,
humanas de forma transaccional,
to us as human beings.
para nosotros como seres humanos.
and reaching out to people
humanas y llegar a las personas
"you're welcome" in other languages.
"gracias", "de nada" en otros idiomas.
literal de estas palabras.
translation of these words.
that helps us impose upon other people
a visualizarnos a otras personas
Italian, French,
"gracia" y "misericordia".
or transactional about those words.
transaccional sobre esas palabras.
Robert Cialdini says
Robert Cialdini dice
the transaction a little bit more.
la transacción un poco más.
do the same for me.'"
to not think in transactional ways,
no pensar de forma transaccional,
to make it a little bit more invisible.
para que sea un poco más invisible.
"You're welcome," means,
"De nada", significa,
need to go through those formalities."
No precisamos formalidades".
is "Come back to me."
eliminate the transaction
eliminar la transacción
or "That's what friends are for."
"Para eso están los amigos".
you think about this ticket that you have
sobre este boleto que tienen
"La vida es un viaje". ¿Verdad?
"Life is a journey." Right?
algunas se bajan en diferentes paradas,
some leave at different stops,
it's a beautiful one.
a different metaphor.
una metáfora diferente.
being a passenger on that train,
ser un pasajero en ese tren,
through the social universe.
a través del universo social?
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Tanya Menon - Organizational psychologistTanya Menon speaks, writes and consults on collaboration. Her research focuses on how people think about their relationships and the habits that allow them to build positive connections with other people.
Why you should listen
Tanya Menon is fascinated that in a time when we can instantaneously connect with nearly the whole world, we often instead filter our relationships even more narrowly. As such, we often get stuck in dead ends, missing out on new people, ideas and opportunities. Menon and her collaborators have studied the often mundane feelings and innocuous daily habits that cause people to remain in their social comfort zone and produce this polarization. And they have also explored ways that we can be more intentional about navigating the social world.
Menon is Associate Professor at the Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. Her research has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and The Financial Times. She is Associate Editor at Management Science journal, an award-winning teacher, and she has done keynotes, consulting and training for organizations all over the world. Her book with Dr. Leigh Thompson, Stop Spending, Start Managing: Strategies to Transform Wasteful Habits (2016, Harvard Business Review Press) explores various social traps people face in business, and how to overcome them.
Menon earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Harvard University in 1995 and her Ph.D. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Her goal as a researcher, educator, consultant and parent is to create new ways for people to connect with each other so that they can live richer and more creative lives. She hopes that her work will help people intentionally create new habits to live a wider life and also share them widely.
Tanya Menon | Speaker | TED.com