Someone with ties into groups that rarely talk carries ideas and information between them, which gives an early view of opportunities and makes them the natural author of proposals that need both.
An example
Between two groups that rarely spoke sat a project controls manager at an engineering firm: the transportation group, which designed highway interchanges, and the water group, which designed treatment plants. She tracked costs for both. In the same month she noticed that the water group was struggling with a scheduling method the transportation group had used for years, and that both groups were bidding separately for work from the same industrial park developer. She set up a lunch between the two group leaders, brought the scheduling templates, and suggested a joint bid on the developer's upcoming roads-and-drainage package. The joint bid won. Because she knew both groups' costs and people, she was asked to manage the combined project, and the next year she ran the firm's cross-group proposals.
Why it works
Inside a tightly connected group, people mostly hear the same ideas. Someone with ties into groups that rarely talk hears more, earlier, and can see combinations neither group sees, so the broker's ideas look better and they become the natural author of proposals that need both sides. It depends on the broker sharing what they learn and connecting people openly, so that both groups see them as useful; a broker who hoards soon finds both sides routing around them.
The thinking behind it
Ronald S. Burt Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition (1992) calls a gap between unconnected groups a structural hole and argues that people who bridge such holes gain advantages of information, timing, and control. In Structural Holes and Good Ideas (2004), managers whose networks spanned holes were more likely to have their ideas judged valuable. A project controls manager working for two groups that never spoke was in that position, and the joint bid was the good idea it produced.
When it fits
People whose work already touches several groups that do not talk much are placed for it: controllers, project managers, account leads, specialists who serve many teams. You need real ties into each group, the habit of noticing what one group knows that another needs, and the generosity to connect them.
How to use it well
Map the groups you have ties into, and note which of them rarely talk to each other.
- Listen for problems in one group that another has solved, and opportunities both could use.
- Make the introduction yourself, with the specific reason.
- Share what you learn with both sides, openly and on time.
- Offer to carry the work that needs both groups.
- Credit the people whose ideas you carried, by name, in both groups.
Keep the ties alive with small favors between projects. A broker who appears only when they need something stops hearing anything.
What it costs and where it backfires
Brokering takes time outside your own group, and colleagues may see your loyalty as divided. Once the groups connect directly, your advantage shrinks, which is good for the company and less so for you. Hoarding what you learn to keep both sides dependent on you crosses the line, and once seen it ends your access to both.
When it is used on you
Build direct ties of your own if someone has become the only route between your group and another. Ask for introductions, attend the other group's reviews, and share information directly. Credit the broker for what they brought, and keep the direct link, which protects both groups.