← Back to Blog
By Alex·October 7, 2026·10 min read

Dormant Ties: Why Reconnecting With People You Lost Touch With Beats Making New Connections

TL;DR. A dormant tie is someone you used to know and have not been in touch with for years. In a study of executives, reconnecting with these people about a real work project produced advice that compared favorably with advice from current contacts, and it tended to be fresher and quicker to get. The useful reconnections were not the comfortable ones: people you spent less time with, who have since moved up, and who are likely to help. Your network probably holds dozens of them. Pick a few a month, give them a real question, and call if you can.

When people want to grow their network, they usually think about new people: events, cold requests, more followers. There is a cheaper option already in your connections list. The former colleague from two jobs ago. The client you worked with closely for six months in 2019 and never spoke to again.

Researchers call these dormant ties. This guide covers what the studies on them actually found, why reconnecting often beats starting from zero, how to pick whom to contact first, and where the evidence runs out. If you want the exact wording for the message itself, our guide on how to reconnect with old LinkedIn connections covers that.

What a dormant tie is (and why you have so many)

The main study on this topic defined dormant ties as "former ties, now out of touch," and in practice used people the participants had not communicated with for at least three years[1]. The authors call that cutoff "admittedly arbitrary." The point is the relationship existed once and then stopped.

Most relationships go this way, and fast. Sociologist Ronald Burt followed the work networks of bankers in a large organization for four years. Relationships that bridged otherwise separate groups were linked to better peer reputations and higher pay, yet "nine in ten bridges this year are gone next year"[5]. A smaller study by Sam Roberts and Robin Dunbar tracked 25 students' whole personal networks for 18 months and found emotional closeness to friends fell, including in the outer layers of the network: "even 'weak' ties become weaker over time"[6].

So a big pile of dormant ties is normal. The question is whether it is worth anything.

What the research found

The 2011 study: dormant ties held up against current contacts

Daniel Levin, Jorge Walter and Keith Murnighan asked 224 executives in four Executive MBA classes to each reconnect with two dormant contacts, one they had once been close to and one they had known only loosely. The ask was specific: get information or advice for "a major, ongoing work project that has significance for your career," ideally by phone or in person. 129 executives completed both surveys. The researchers then compared the reconnected ties with a sample of each executive's current contacts on the same project[1].

What they found:

  • Comparable value. Outcomes from dormant ties "compared favorably to those of their current ties"[1]. The authors' summary for managers puts it more strongly: dormant ties are "as valuable, and often even more valuable" than current ones[2].
  • Fresher and faster. Insights from dormant ties "tend to be more novel, and more efficient to get, than those from current ties"[2]. Efficiency here means time spent getting the advice, which was on par with current weak ties[1].
  • Trust mostly survives. Former close ties kept much of their trust and shared perspective. Trust did decay somewhat compared with current close ties, but the extra novelty made up for it. The authors called it a "best of both worlds"[1].
  • Loose old ties were nearly as useful. Dormant weak ties were "almost as useful as dormant strong ties," lower on trust but higher on novelty and efficiency[1].

The pool is deeper than your first pick

A fair objection: maybe executives just picked their single best old contact. So the team ran a second round with 116 new executives (95 finished). Each ranked their top 10 dormant contacts for a work project, then reconnected with their number 1 plus one random pick from numbers 2 to 10. The value of advice did not drop as they went down the list: the correlation between rank and usefulness was small and not significant. "The pool of valuable dormant ties is deep," they wrote, at least for the first ten names[1].

An old echo from the weak-ties research

This fits a detail in Mark Granovetter's 1973 paper on weak ties. Among professional, technical and managerial job changers in a Boston suburb who found jobs through contacts, 16.7% saw that contact often, 55.6% occasionally and 27.8% rarely (a small subsample of 54). The contact was often "an old college friend or a former workmate or employer," and the ties were reactivated by chance meetings or mutual friends. His line: "It is remarkable that people receive crucial information from individuals whose very existence they have forgotten"[4].

Why reconnecting can beat a brand-new connection

  • They have been somewhere else. Years apart means different jobs, different problems and different people. That is where the novelty comes from.
  • You skip the trust-building. You already know how each other works. The 2011 study found former close ties kept much of that trust even after years apart[1]. A stranger starts at zero.
  • The conversation restarts quickly. Shared history gives you a first sentence and a reason they will read it. One executive in the study described a reconnection where "it was as if we had been talking regularly for the past seven years"[1].
  • No upkeep was needed in between. The authors point out that dormant ties "require much less maintenance" and can be "a cost-efficient means for sustaining a large, diverse network"[1].

This connects to the bigger LinkedIn experiment covered in our weak ties guide: across about 20 million users, moderately weak ties were the most useful for landing new jobs, "not the weakest, but slightly stronger than the weakest"[9]. Many dormant ties sit exactly there.

Whom to pick: valuable, not comfortable

In a follow-up study, the same researchers looked at which dormant ties gave the most value and which ones people preferred. The most valuable reconnections were with people who offered novelty, "by not having spent much time together in the past and having higher status," and engagement, "by being trustworthy and willing to help." The executives preferred neither. They leaned toward people they had spent a lot of time with, "thereby actually reducing novelty," and the authors trace that preference to anxiety about reconnecting[3].

So when you scan your list, score each name on four quick questions:

  1. Did we overlap briefly rather than for years? Short overlap tends to mean more you don't already know.
  2. Have they moved up or across since? A bigger role or a new industry usually means a wider view.
  3. Were they decent to work with? Trustworthy and willing to help is the engagement half. Skip anyone you parted with on bad terms.
  4. Do I have a real question they could answer? The studies used a concrete work project. That gives the conversation a purpose.
Example. Two names come to mind. Your old desk mate, whom you saw daily for four years, now in the same kind of role you have. And a product lead you worked with for one quarter in 2020, who has since become VP of product at a company in the market you want to enter. Your gut says the desk mate. The research says the product lead is the better first call for a work question. Catch up with the desk mate too, just for a different reason.

How to reconnect so it lands

Lead with a real ask for advice

The executives in the study asked for advice on something that mattered to them[1]. That is specific, flattering and easy to answer. "Would love to catch up" is vague and easy to postpone.

Expect a warmer reception than you imagine

The executives were "initially reluctant to reconnect"[1]. That reluctance is common and usually miscalibrated. In experiments with more than 5,900 participants, people who reached out underestimated how much the recipient appreciated it, and the gap grew when the contact was more surprising or between more socially distant people[7]. A message after five years of silence is both. We cover that research in depth in people are happier to hear from you than you think.

Use your voice when you can

In a field experiment, Amit Kumar and Nicholas Epley had people reconnect with an old friend by phone or by email. Interactions with voice "created stronger social bonds and no increase in awkwardness" compared with text, even though people expected calls to be more awkward[8]. A short LinkedIn message to set up a 15-minute call is a good pattern: text to open the door, voice for the conversation.

Hi Priya, we worked together on the checkout rebuild at [Company] back in 2020. I saw you are now leading product at [New Company], congrats. I am working out how to price our first enterprise tier and I remember how sharp you were on exactly this. Would you be up for a 15-minute call in the next couple of weeks? Happy to share what we have learned on our side too.

What the studies don't tell you

  • Who was studied. Executive MBA students, mostly in the US, with an average age of about 38[1]. Results may differ for early-career people or other cultures.
  • Self-reported value. The executives rated the usefulness themselves. The authors flag that people who expected little and got something may have rated generously[1].
  • Not every reconnection worked. A few were pleasant but not useful for work, and one participant met a contact who was still angry about an old incident[1].
  • The outcome was advice, not deals or jobs. It is reasonable to expect similar benefits for introductions or hiring, but that part is our reading.
  • It is not a hack. The authors warn that collecting shallow connections just to "reconnect" later may not give these benefits and could backfire[1]. The value comes from a relationship that was real in the first place.

A simple monthly habit

No study gives an ideal pace. Here is one that is easy to keep:

  1. Once a month, list ten dormant ties. Use your connections list sorted by oldest first, or think through past jobs, programs and clients.
  2. Score them on the four questions above and pick the top three.
  3. Find the reason for now. A new role, a post they wrote, or the question you are working on. Our guide to seeing who in your network changed jobs helps with the first one.
  4. Send a short note that asks for a call, with the specific question in it.
  5. Write down what you learned and anything you promised. Then follow through.

Doing the scoring by hand gets slow once your network runs into the thousands. wait who? helps with the finding part: it syncs your connections with when you connected and their work history, ranks who matters for the goal you are working on, and flags job changes so the reason to write is already there. If keeping in touch is your main goal, see how it works for keeping in touch.

FAQ

How long before a connection counts as a dormant tie?

The main study used three or more years without contact, and its authors call that cutoff arbitrary. In practice, anyone you knew once and have not spoken to in a few years qualifies. The study did not find a difference between ties dormant for three years and longer.

Is it weird to message someone after five or more years?

It feels weirder to you than to them. Research on reaching out found that senders underestimate how much recipients appreciate it, especially when the contact is surprising or the tie is distant. Mention your shared history, give a reason for writing now, and keep any ask small.

Should I reconnect with old close friends or old acquaintances first?

For a work question, start with people you overlapped with briefly who have since moved up and who were good to work with. That combination of novelty and willingness to help predicted the most valuable reconnections. People tend to pick comfortable old friends instead, which gives less new information.

What if they don't reply?

Send one follow-up a few weeks later with a new reason, then leave it. Silence is usually about their inbox, not about you. The research suggests the pool of useful dormant ties is deep, so move on to the next name.

Is a LinkedIn message enough, or should I call?

Use a short message to open the door and suggest a call. In a field experiment on reconnecting with old friends, phone conversations created stronger bonds than email without being more awkward, even though people expected them to be.

Sources

  1. Dormant Ties: The Value of Reconnecting (Levin, Walter and Murnighan). Organization Science 22(4), 2011. Author-hosted copy, George Washington University.
  2. The Power of Reconnection: How Dormant Ties Can Surprise You (Levin, Walter and Murnighan). MIT Sloan Management Review, March 23, 2011.
  3. Reconnection Choices: Selecting the Most Valuable (vs. Most Preferred) Dormant Ties (Walter, Levin and Murnighan). Organization Science 26(5), 2015. Abstract on RePEc.
  4. The Strength of Weak Ties (Granovetter). American Journal of Sociology 78(6), 1973. Course reading copy, University of Washington.
  5. Bridge Decay (Burt). Social Networks, 2002. Author's preprint, December 2001.
  6. Managing Relationship Decay: Network, Gender, and Contextual Effects (Roberts and Dunbar). Human Nature 26, 2015. Open access copy, Liverpool John Moores University.
  7. The Surprise of Reaching Out: Appreciated More Than We Think (Liu, Rim, Min and Min). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2022. APA.
  8. It's Surprisingly Nice to Hear You: Misunderstanding the Impact of Communication Media Can Lead to Suboptimal Choices of How to Connect With Others (Kumar and Epley). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2021. Author-hosted copy.
  9. The power of weak ties in gaining new employment. MIT News, September 15, 2022.

Find the dormant ties worth a call this month.

wait who? syncs your LinkedIn connections with when you connected and where they work now, ranks who is worth talking to for your goal, and flags job changes so you have a reason to write. You edit and send every message yourself.

Create a free account →

Keep reading