Ben Brabyn

Selling your products or services – or ideas – can feel like a lonely experience. Many people feel like a lone candle in the darkness, trying to shine their light into a world which reflects nothing. No matter how much energy they put into their activities, there is little or no reaction. Meanwhile, others use […]

How should we balance the interests of incumbents with newcomers? Should the state interfere in the norms of subcultures to assert the rights of individuals? What kind of patriotism builds stronger societies? Yascha Mounk’s “The Great Experiment” tackles all of these questions and more as he sets out to explain… How to Make Diverse Democracies

Jacques Sauvagnargues is building Link My Ride – connecting cyclists across the world. Yesterday we sat down together (seats not saddles) to discuss how he is using mobile tech to build a high performing community. But like most cyclists, we weren’t alone – we were in a Peloton with a elite group of community builders

The chances are that what you are doing is boring, complex or taboo. Not boring to you of course, or even to your colleagues. But really boring to 95% of the population. That’s a shame because 95% of the population is a lot of people who aren’t helping your business. The good news is you

Loneliness is worse for your health than smoking 15 cigarettes every day. Men’s social networks shrink faster than women’s. Just two of the revelations from the Max Dickins’ excellent Billy No-Mates – How I Realised Men Have a Friendship Problem. But Max has good news too. Anyone can repair and rebuild their friendship networks by

One of the limitations of CRM systems is that they locate your organisation at the centre of a network – a hub with a lot of spokes. But have you tried mapping the organisations around you that you are NOT yet connected with but share interests, constraints or critical dependencies with? You will find that

I first met Andy Lopata while I was on a fintech panel. He asked a question from the floor, and I realised I was the only member of the panel who didn’t know him. Later, he helped me build a clearer understanding of the role and power of networks and relationships while I was leading

Have you ever seen an organisation that is overwhelmed because its senior leadership need to sign off every decision? This is a common growth issue, and its less well-known side-effect is loss of influence. As organisations grow, their ability to build and maintain external relationships – for example with customers – reduces relative to their

The structure of your network reliably predicts the results of your sales activity, and how much you will be paid. Research by Ronald S Burt in his excellent book Brokerage and Closure: An Introduction to Social Capital shows that the structure of your network determines the effectiveness of your business development activity. Your network identity

Albert Einstein said; “If you can’t explain it, you don’t understand it well enough.” Put another way, we need to “Keep it Simple Stupid” if we want to communicate effectively. This is where so many set out to fail. But help is at hand. How complicated are your sales messages? You can easily find out