The Philadelphia Connector Project

Abstract

In the summer of 2000, when I strolled into a bookstore to find a good “beach read,” I came upon The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Drawn to its subtitle, How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (and its length — short enough for a quick read), I picked it up. Perched on the beach and poised to learn, I couldn’t put it down. Reading it changed my definition of leadership and a life well lived.

Like the other readers who have kept this book on the New York Times best-seller list for over seven years, I was intrigued by Gladwell’s explanation of the way ideas spread through society like epidemics. What really got my attention was his description of the Law of the Few, which explained the role of “Connectors” in spreading information and bringing the world together. Suddenly, I had a name for the kind of leadership that inspires me. When Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson spoke of pulling together the right players and then getting out of their way, he was acting as a Connector. When another of my favorite leaders, the late Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks, assembled the 1980 U.S. gold medal–winning team, saying “I’m not looking for the best players, I’m looking for the right players,” he was acting as a Connector.

Gladwell’s insights helped me to understand why so many of the key leaders who spoke to LEADERSHIP Philadelphia’s classes of executives were effective but not inspiring, while certain less traditional, more entrepreneurial leaders mobilized these executives to volunteer to serve the community. These mobilizing leaders were Connectors. They achieved results by enrolling a diverse group of others in their cause. They earned reputations for serving the common good; they articulated visions that inspired others. Most refreshing of all, they often achieved results by staying below the radar, working behind the scenes with no concern for who got credit.

Gladwell’s views strike a chord for so many of us because not only do we admire these unsung heroes as connectors, but often we are these unsung heroes. Gladwell’s Connectors are the leaders next door, people like us. Like so many otherTipping Point readers, I found that by helping me see the possibilities in connection, the book made me want to be a better person. Likewise, I wanted to get different people in leadership roles, meaning more Connectors, who achieve results without caring who gets credit and who bring out the best in others.

Coincidentally, The Philadelphia Inquirer had been running a series of editorials about City Hall’s “pay to play” scandals and the lack of local leadership. I approached the editorial page editor, Chris Satullo, with the response that Philadelphia has outstanding leadership if you broaden the definition to include Connectors. Chris agreed enthusiastically. This exchange confirmed that we were on the right track.

I was thrilled in 2005 when Gladwell accepted our invitation to speak at a LEADERSHIP Philadelphia alumni event on the February Philadelphia stop of his Blink book tour. As I prepared his introduction, it dawned on me that in our audience CEOs sat next to artists, politicians, doctors and students. The room seemed to have two of everything — a Noah’s Ark of talent. LEADERSHIP Philadelphia is the organizational equivalent of a Connector. As Gladwell prepared to leave after the speech, I asked him to sign my copy of Blink. He inscribed it “To Liz, Philadelphia’s #1 Connector.”

The message struck me like a bolt of lightning. LEADERSHIP, the model for 400 community leadership programs across the country, would be celebrating its 50th anniversary in four years. Instead of simply having another gala event, I decided, we would celebrate Connectors. We would change the conversation on leadership in Philadelphia from its focus on what’s wrong with local leadership to what’s right by broadening the definition of leadership to include Connectors and recognizing their contribution.

When I approached my board to propose this idea, they asked about measurable outcomes. What concrete benefit would come out of this work? I told them about an observation that haunted me in Gladwell’s New Yorker article, “Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg” (1999, 63). “If the world is really held together by people like Lois Weisberg . . . how poor you are can be defined quite simply as how far you have to go to get to her. . . . Poverty is not deprivation. It is isolation.”

The board agreed that we should identify and study Connectors, find out how they operate and use what we learn to teach kids to connect. If poverty is less about deprivation and more about isolation, let’s teach kids to connect their way out of poverty.

Once LEADERSHIP’s Board accepted the idea, I called Gladwell to tell him that we wanted to identify and study Philadelphia’s Connectors. No one had ever mapped the Connectors in a city, and I didn’t know where to start. He proceeded to connect me with then Harvard professor and social network guru Karen Stephenson, whom he had interviewed when writing The Tipping Point. I e-mailed her and got a call back immediately from Spain. Intrigued by the adventure and creativity of this new application of social network analysis, she was on board.