Social Capital

So, my friend Karin responded to one of my posts and explained the idea of "Social Capital" to me. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Consider this...just like we have (or don't have, given what's happening in the financial sector... but that's another post) financial capital, we also have social capital. How many friends we have, connections, liaisons, etc.

I've been thinking about this on a lot of levels.

First, I went to my experience in business. I have found that social capital (now that I know about it) is more important than almost anything in succeeding in business. After working in Corporate America for 11 years and then consulting and seeing employees of Fortune 500 come in and out of my doors each week, I've seen it in play. Of course competence is important. But I've seen some VERY competent professionals who don't know how to gain social capitol. They remain isolated in their offices. They don't engage in social conversations where a lot of real decisions are made. They're not part of the gossip channel where people get heads ups about opportunities. And, I've seen some pretty incompetent people play the politics game really well and succeed. It is, in fact, one of the things that drove me out of Corporate America.

Now, it is sometimes important to have the financial capital to get the social capital. For instance, you have to be part of the country club scene to get access to all the social opportunities of that type of people. But I do know that without the social capital, the financial capital is harder to come by.

I also assume that there are a lot of different types of social capital. The social capital of a business is very different than the social capital of a NFL football team which is different from the social capital of the slums which is very different from the social capital within the Catholic church.

This has also made me think of what other kinds of capital there is. For example, I think there is a "Physical Capital." Those who have looks going for them have more opportunities. There is data that men that are over 6 foot are perceived as having stronger "leadership" skills--even if people don't know anything else about them. Ever since the Kennedy-Nixon debate, it has been known that the physical attributes of presidential candidates can help or hinder them. Attractive people often marry other attractive people and so on. I don't think it is right. I think it is what is inside that should matter. But what should matter isn't always what does matter.

I look at my boys who are both in Middle School. Their world is all about Social Capital. Two years ago it was about who had the rarest Pokemon cards. Now it is about who has gotten up to what level of a certain video game. And, of course, they all know who has what technology, be it the iPhone or video consoles, etc. I saw it last weekend with little girls--they were all comparing who could do the most elaborate gymnastics tricks. The one who could do the back handspring had the social admiration of the others.

What does it all mean? Who knows. Again, my thoughts first go to those who don't have social capital. And why aren't we aware of that and help them more? As my friend Karin said, more people die of social isolation than of smoking. And, if someone really wanted to make a difference, they should find a cure to loneliness. What is sad is that we CAN cure that. We say that no one should live without insurance, but truly no one should should live without human connections.