6 - Growing powerful using cherry-picking strategies: Coworker networks as cherry trees

Summary

Introduction

“Boys, we may have a problem with the New York family. How much juice can we beg, borrow, or steal to placate their Don and avoid a war?”

Tony Soprano

The answers to this question require Tony's captains to search their social networks for “juice” to satisfy the offended Don. What is this thing they call “juice”? Where do they look for it? How is it grown and stored? Can you identify “juice” by its smell, sight, sound, taste, or touch? When and how can it be used effectively? This chapter is about these questions that can be stated easily but must be answered carefully in terms that make clear what we understand and what needs more research. The approach taken in this chapter is to explore people networks that cannot be commanded or controlled yet supply the life-saving flows of influence. Clearly, sometimes it is not what you know, but who you know that saves the day and keeps your hopes alive.

Although scholars and researchers use the concept of power in many different ways, Tony Soprano's captains know what he means by the term “juice”. They know that juice may include material objects, such as money and property, and human services of many kinds, both positive and negative. Juice may be receiving something attractive or avoiding or stopping something aversive. Tony's captains also know where to look for “juice” in their social networks.