How do you evidence human connection?

Tilley, AKOU at GCUC Manchester ‘26

A few months ago I put a question to Hannah Philp, co-founder of ARC: how do you actually evidence the impact of human connection?

She introduced me to Tilley Harris at Akou, and it's been one of the most quietly useful conversations I've had in a long time.

After a few calls I went to meet Tilley in person and did her Connector Types assessment. Reading it back was one of those disarming experiences, the kind where someone holds a mirror up and you think, oh. Yes. That.

I came out as a Community Connector. Which means I have an almost algorithmic sense for who should meet who, and I carry all of it in my head. I resist writing it down, because the moment I do it starts to feel calculated. Too transactional. Like turning something that feels like a gift into a spreadsheet.

The work with Tilley helped me see that the magic isn't in the intuition alone. It's in finding a way to evidence it without losing what makes it feel human.

That's the balance I'm looking for this year. It's the same question I've been circling since PLATF9RM, when we coined the PLATF9RM Pound to describe the value members generated for each other. I still don't think the industry has answered it properly.

But this is the closest I've come to a method.

If you work in community, coworking or events, and you've ever struggled to explain the value of what you do, this might be worth your time. I'd start with Tilley.