Social capital is all about where you are, not who you know

‘Structural holes’ in social networks provide benefits to those that bridge them.

Photo by Jake Melara on Unsplash

One of the notions that underlies the nature of innovation in organizations is that of the spread of new ideas. But the interesting observations of the sociologist Ronald Burt in his research into social capital is extremely illuminating. In his 2004 book Structural Holes, Burt states,

Social capital exists where people ha…