Hi, I'm Helen and I'm Sarah. And you're listening to the Squiggly Careers podcast where each

week we explore the ups, downs, ins and outs of careers today and share insights and ideas for

action and some tips and tools for you to try out to. Today you get our thoughts on the topic of

weak ties and how you can work your weak ties to support you and your career

development. And if it is not a term that you are familiar with, do not worry because Sarah is going

to talk about what weak ties are and why they are helpful before we get into all those tips and

tools that I mentioned. But before she does that, if it is your first time listening, you might not

know about the many things that we produce to make

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you can download our Squiggly Careers Podsheet,, which is a 30-minute Zoom with Sarah and me,

sometimes both of us, sometimes one of us, but it's every Thursday at 9 o'clock and it's on Zoom,

and it is free and all of the details for both those things are in the show notes.

So let's get into what weak ties are, because I always think it doesn't sound like it's good does it oh you're a weak tie oh I don't I don't if I want to be someone's weak tie it sounds like being the weak weakest link

but it is a positive thing and weak ties are really important and the concept comes originally

from a sociology professor called Mark Granavetta and he published a paper called the strength

of weak ties so let's just start by thinking about what is the difference between called Mark Granavetta and he published a paper called The Strength of Weak Ties.

So let's just start by thinking about what is the difference between strong ties and weak ties

and then why weak ties are important enough for us to spend a podcast talking about them.

So strong ties are the people who know you well, who understand who you are

and I think they've usually supported and sponsored

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