Social Networks, STDs, Matt Damon and Performance

"Listen, here's the thing.  If you can't spot the sucker at the table in the first half hour, then you are the sucker."

That was Matt Damon's line from the underrated 1998 film called "Rounders."  Worth a watch if you like great psychology and great poker.  With Edward Norton and John Malchovik – you can't go wrong. 

But here's the thing… flip that quote on it's head and ask yourself this…

And it's time for you to find a new table.

Here's where I'm going. 

An article on CNN October 8th called "Obesity, politics, STDs flow in social networks" discussed the fact that our social networks heavily influence our behavior.  Hang around with overweight people and you are more than 3 times more likely to be overweight.  From the article (this one is very interesting…)

"Social networks were crucial to understanding how sexually
transmitted diseases broke out among teenagers in 1996 in Rockdale
County, Georgia, a quiet upper-middle-class suburb near Atlanta.

An investigation found that a collection of young girls, mostly under
16, had been having sex with various clusters of boys, the book said.
This epidemic of syphilis and other diseases stopped when the network
changed, the authors argue. 'They actually figured out a good
intervention there, which was to break apart this central group of
girls that were essentially promoting the spread of this norm of a
heightened sexuality at a very young age,' Fowler said. 'By essentially
quarantining them, the norm couldn't spread anymore, and pretty soon
they were able to get control of the epidemic.'"

But if you look at this in reverse… what if you want your top performers to spread the norm of what they do every day? 

Don't be the best of the worst…

There is an old adage that says being average is the best of the worst or the worst of the best.  If the network you regularly connect with is the first one – move on – find a network that challenges you and drives you to be better.  In almost every case it will be better to be the worst of the best than the best of the worst. 

If you are in sales – hang with the top performers, their behaviors and their approaches will likely rub off on you. 

If you're a manager – move some of your team around – put a few lower performers in with a bigger group of top performers (remember to reinforce the top.)

If you're on your own find a group you think is hitting their stride – get connected – get involved.

As parents we understand this issue all too well – "Don't hang with a bad crowd."  We instinctively know that hanging with a poorly behaving crowd affects our kids behavior.

Think about how organizing your team differently could actually allow the top performers "norms" to spread.