Dormant tie
A dormant tie is a relationship that has gone quiet: someone you were once close to and have not spoken to in a long time, where the trust is still there.
Definition
The term in practitioner language.
Why it matters
The decision or habit this vocabulary clarifies.
In Wend
A product tie-in, kept separate from the definition.
Dormant ties are contacts you were once close to but have drifted from. Research on networking finds that reactivating dormant ties is often more valuable than forming new ones: the trust is already there, but the person has been in different rooms than you, so they bring fresh information and reach.
The catch is that they are easy to forget, because nothing brings them back to mind.
Why it matters
Reconnecting with dormant ties is one of the highest-ROI networking moves: low effort, high trust, novel reach. But you can only revive what you remember to revive.