Elevating connectorship to create change
We are really good at seeing and naming separate, boundaried ‘things’, but we are less good at talking about, understanding, appreciating and valuing the in-between - the connections and relationships - the stickiness that holds any greater whole together.
Hannah Smith’s work lives in the spaces between ‘things’ - in growing the collective positive potential of all us through better understanding of the connectedness of everything. She is often described as a facilitator, convenor and connector, yet none of these labels entirely cover the scope of her work and the change she seeks to effect.
Connection is an odd thing. It is easy enough to have a sense of it, people talk about making connections, connecting people, about people who are good ‘connectors’. But looking more closely, the power and potential of this landscape of connection is profound. Whether in teams and organisations, across systems and sectors or in terms of the human connection with the rest of the natural world - what sits between the ‘things’ may be as important as the things themselves.
Something I think about a lot is how we are stuck in seeing everything as separate, rather than connected. We are obsessed by growing things - laser-focused on individuals and entities. We struggle to see the bigger picture - the connectedness of everything - we need to grow our abilities to see and support the greater whole.
For those of us brought up with a Western worldview, it can be hard to talk about because in some ways we lack the language and the frames. We look at a forest and see individual trees before we see the interconnections of a complex eco-system. Our dominant paradigm is one of separation - prioritising individuality and the self - and it ripples out through how we approach making our way in the world.
Over the course of her long relationship with Aotearoa, Hannah has found encountering and learning more about te ao Māori profoundly affecting.
Through beginning to engage with indigenous ways of being, I have come to realise we have choices about how we view and understand the world. That everything is connected and dependent on connection is obvious for so many other cultures. Our so-called ‘Western’ culture and its dominance of the world we’ve made has drowned this out - we’ve forgotten our interdependence. I believe that this is at the heart of so many of the predicaments we find ourselves grappling with.
At the heart of Hannah’s EHF enquiry are 3 words: connectedness, connectivity and connectorship. She explains what she means by them in this recent article. Extending our language, understanding and experience of these concepts is one element of her work. The other is nurturing and developing connectedness and connectivity for people and organisations - both within and beyond the EHF community. In doing so, she wants to raise awareness of the value of ‘connectorship’ as a means of effecting positive change in the world.
The 3Cs: what are they?
Connectedness is what lies between. The invisible matter that attaches one of us to another, to an organisation or a place. It’s so much more than a simple ‘tie’ on a network map. It’s trust, care, empathy, understanding - it’s something with quality, depth and substance. Imagine if we moved through the world more aware of the shape, colour and texture of all the connectedness around us. If we could see it, perhaps we’d do a better job of attending to it.
Connectivity is the amount and quality of connectedness in a system. It’s like the soil in which everything grows - a source of nourishment for a system, team, organisation or community. Where is connectivity strongest or weakest? What makes this so? Which areas need attention? If greater connectivity enables the development of ideas, collaboration and impact, what might be possible if more energy and resources went into nurturing it?
Connectorship - is the act and the art of developing connectedness, and thus connectivity within systems. Like entrepreneurship, it creates new value in the world - but whereas entrepreneurs grow ventures, businesses and organisations, ‘connectorship’ is about weaving connections between them, and nourishing the system as a whole. Perhaps by giving shape and stories to the word ‘connectorship’ - the craft of connectors - we can more easily quantify and understand its value.
Actively fostering connection has been a big part of Hannah’s life, and at the heart of her long relationship with New Zealand. When she was young, her baby sister and her father moved from the UK to New Zealand. It was through letters with her new sister’s mother - and then regular visits - that connectedness was developed and maintained - the weaving of an enduring relationship with a family, and with a country.
I have always been a proactive connector and maintainer of relationships. I love joining the dots between people and staying in touch - I am always curious about the longer stories. Gradually, I’ve come to realise that connectorship is a specific craft and skill, maybe even a way of being. Just as there are ‘born’ entrepreneurs, I think there are ‘born’ connectors. And we create so much value in the world. But it’s often invisible, underappreciated or hard to quantify. As far as I know, there are no prizes for outstanding ‘connectorship’.
As an adult, Hannah has continued to grow her personal connection with Aotearoa New Zealand and nurture connectedness and connectivity across the worlds of social enterprise and impact. At the same time, she has developed a wide range of skills in facilitation, coaching, experience design and nature connection practice. She is now based in Wellington, working with others who have a similar orientation towards social purpose under the Pocketknife umbrella - and hopes to see EHF flourish as a deeply and powerfully connected eco-system of positive impact.
I want us all to think a bit harder about this ‘invisible in-between’ - what it is, how it develops and why it’s important. On one level, ‘connecting’ is something we do and understand intuitively - an in-built human capacity. But I see a whole world behind that word. So many dimensions of developing, maintaining and deepening connectedness. How can we purposefully explore and test these? What’s possible in digital spaces and what requires kanohi ki te kanohi/face to face connection? How can we better demonstrate the value of good connectorship? Is it a skill that can be learned? Is it something that can be catalysed at scale, and with purpose? Ultimately, can becoming more connected - to each other, and to the rest of the natural world - enable us to respond better to the challenges we face?
Hannah is reluctant to frame herself as a ‘hero connector’ and risk repeating the same patterns that limit our understanding of this work. Instead, she is leading an active, multi-faceted enquiry that fosters a dynamic web of conversation, collaboration and shared learning. She sees the EHF community, and its rootedness in Aotearoa as fertile soil in which to experiment - a repository of diverse perspectives, experiences, ideas and skill sets. She is issuing an open invitation to anyone curious about questions of connection to get involved in planting seeds together - testing tools, models and experiences that meaningfully grow connectedness and connectivity.
My hope is that this work can shift thinking to a more connected change narrative. No tree stands alone, however majestic and beautiful it might first appear.
As we consciously engage in developing our interconnectivity, what becomes possible? How does understanding ourselves primarily as part of bigger systems shift our thinking and doing? Ultimately, what can we become, do and achieve - together?
Learn more about Hannah’s work or get in touch here:
OtherBee || Pocketknife || Link to article