People are seeking investment opportunities. Which are hard to find when you are distracted.
People are looking for a return on investment.
James Coleman identified six forms of return on investment in this sense:
1. Obligations and expectations- If I do something nice or good for you or your cause, then you will reciprocate and do something nice or good for me or my cause.
2. Information potential- Relationships developed will increase knowledge and lead me to specialized information. I'll be in the know about stuff.
3. Norms and effective sanctions- I'll be rewarded somehow someway for selfless actions and I'll receive disapproval for selfish actions. This "My Name is Earl" approach sways me to work work for the collective good of the group and it's cause.
4. Authority relations- I submit to your leadership and you then have access to an extensive network of social capital that can be directed toward a specific goal.
5. Appropriable social organization- I committed to one thing and then the next thing I know, I'm involved in something else and I keep on through inertia.
6. Intentional organizations- I am brought together in an entity that benefits my group and it's cause as well as others indirectly.
According to this theory, most relationships are developed as by products of other intentioned actions.
So, does this discredit intentionality and pragmatism?
Or
Does this indicate that without intentionality, relationships don't happen?
Maybe the takeaway is that a clear cause, whether or not you advance it, leads to relationships.
And then you just have to see what happens.
Otherwise, you just spend lots of time seeing what happens.
And that's really just a bumper sticker.
Waiting to happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment