Building community through the strength of weak ties

By Dr Elaine Gourlay, Research Culture Specialist for Communities and Collegiality

As a mentoring programme facilitator, leading the University of Glasgow’s Thesis Mentoring and Catalyst Career & Leadership Mentoring programmes, I am someone whose job it is to pair people together. I was intrigued recently when an external training facilitator described their mentoring matches’ initial meeting as “the worst blind date ever.” This is not traditionally how mentoring meetings are pitched. This description emphasised that the pairs were made to facilitate connections across the greatest difference. So, rather than pairings based common ground or shared lived experiences, pairing across the greatest difference offers the potential greatest learning. This got me thinking about how I now rarely feel intimidated by meeting someone new one-on-one and instead have come to relish this experience, no matter the depth of difference between us and the benefits this can in fact bring. In this blog, I discuss the benefits of making new connections with those outside our normal social or professional circles and offer a method you can use to support this.

Reflecting on this, and the value of connections across difference for our research culture, I stumbled upon a phrase which resonated with me – “the strength in weak ties”, which I then discovered is a long-established social and professional networking theory.

The strength of weak ties

The theory, developed by sociologist Mark Granovetter in 1973, postulated that connections to casual acquaintances are extremely important. Whilst friends and family (our strong ties) provide emotional support, it is our acquaintances (weak ties) who provide us with access to new information, opportunities and ideas that we would otherwise be unlikely to encounter within our usual circles. Because weak ties connect us to different networks, they play an important role in knowledge sharing, collaboration, and innovation. Rather than focusing solely on building deep relationships, networking can therefore be understood as creating and nurturing a wide range of connections, many of which may have a meaningful impact over time. For this reason, even brief, informal conversations can be surprisingly valuable.

In our increasingly virtual world, these connections are no longer made through the passing of people in the corridors, or the introduction to the friend of a colleague as they meet to have lunch together. There are, of course, professional networking platforms, like LinkedIn, which kindly indicates our degrees of separation from every post on our feed. But how do we forge these all-important ‘weak ties’ within an institution to build community and open doors for interdisciplinary collaboration in our research culture?

Small connections, big impact

At UofG, we support our PGRs, Researchers and Research Professionals to make these small connections through initiatives such as Coffee Connect (a monthly random pairing for coffee chats) and Walk / Talk / Connect (a monthly slow-paced guided group walk in the local park).

Following the recent relaunch of both initiatives in summer 2026, we have over 350 PGRs, Researchers and Research Professionals signed up to Coffee Connect, and have received an influx of positive email traffic sharing anecdotal benefits. 

Personally, I have found that connecting with others through this initiative has resulted in further contact with my matches to better understand their role within the University, and one match even introduced me to colleagues from the institution where they previously worked, seeing the alignment in our work.

Through seemingly informal connections, we have strengthened working relationships and broadened our wider professional networks.

A networking resource: Network Accelerator

Our work presents natural opportunities to facilitate the connection of casual acquaintances (and to develop our approach). Last year, we tried out a new event format which we have dubbed “Network Accelerator”. We describe it as “speed networking but slowed down” – the aim is still to meet multiple new people, but without the added pressure of extremely short time bursts. The format is simple and straightforward, and we have now used it in both online and in-person settings. 

• We introduce the concept, clearly outlining the timings and what is expected of the participants.
• We provide a list of suggested conversation topics or questions, but we make it clear that these are suggested, and that participants can engage in conversations that are meaningful and comfortable for them.
• We set off, making the pairings and starting the timer.

We have found that 10-minute pairings seem to work well and are not overly time pressured or so long that the engagement and energy dips. 

With slight adaptations we can accommodate virtual and in person delivery: 

• Online session: I recommend conversations of six-minutes, giving participants a shout out in the breakout rooms when the time is up. The final four minutes can be used to wrap up the conversations naturally, decide if they want to keep in touch, or simply switch their camera off and take a breather before we start the next round. 
• In person session: In this context I felt that four-minute breaks would be a little awkward, especially without the same facility to switch off cameras and sit quietly. Therefore, I recommend eight-minute conversations with a two-minute wrap up warning, encouraging participants to stand up, stretch or get a refreshment before moving to their next partner.

The sessions have proven a success, with participants asking if they could all remain in touch after the event. Additionally, the format is flexible, and the suggested conversation topics can be further adapted  or themed to align with the time of year, or an event where a Network Accelerator session is one part of the action.

Feedback from participants has described the Network Accelerator as “a very good social opportunity”, “a really fun way to meet people and it sparked some new connections that I have maintained” and have shared that they found it to be “a well-thought-out activity” with a “good mix of informal and structure”. One participant stated that it was “not as intimidating as I had feared” and another said they “enjoyed every minute.”

The feeling from weak ties

Whilst this glowing feedback and the desire to remain in contact might sound like we are actually building strong ties, I speculate that it is only rarely (although entirely possible) that individuals are making close, lasting connections (friendships) by engaging with initiatives like Network Accelerator, Coffee Connect and Walk / Talk / Connect. Through engaging with these myself, I have expanded my network of weak ties within the institution – people I say hello to as we pass in the corridors, that I stop and have a quick chat to in the café, or that I drop a quick email because they may be (or know) the go-to person for a quick work-related query. All in all, making me feel more connected, more part of Team UofG, whether I set foot on the UofG campus, or whether I switch on my laptop at home. And that definitely feels like strength in community.