Creating and Sustaining Successful Networks
This is Net Work.
Patti Anklam May 6, 2010
• Themes from Net Work– Attributes of networks– Tools for net work– Networks and leadership– Networks and innovation
• Social media– The changing landscape of connectedness– Innovation engines
Agenda
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Networks and Net Work
We live in networks all the time
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• There is science to support the understanding of network structure
• The structure of a network provides insights into how the network “works”
• Once you understand the structure, you can make decisions about how to manage the network’s context
We live in networks of people
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Source: MWH Global, Vic Gulas
Our organizations are linked
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Source: Laurie Lock Lee, http://www.optimice.com.au
Ideas are networks
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The world wide web is vast
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Networks in our bodies are miniscule
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http://images.iop.org/objects/phw/world/21/10/31/PWnow1_10-08.jpg
What do we notice about these networks?
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• Any set of relationships is a network– Person-person– Group-group– Cross-enterprise– Cross-business– Information artifacts– Web sites– Atoms and molecules
• A network is a collection of entities linked by a type of relationship
• All networks have common properties and can be analyzed
Purpose
Structure
Style
Value
Properties
Networks
Business
LearningIdea
Cause
Purpose
Family & Personal
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Your networks
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Personal
Business
Cause
Learning
Idea
Learning Networks
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• Global Professional Associations
• Face-to-Face Local Groups
• Mailing lists
• Online Communities
• Conferences
Structure
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Core/Periphery Hub and Spoke
Stovepipes (Silos) Emergent
Patterns of network growth
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Source of network maps: Valdis Krebs and June Holley
Emergent Hub-and-Spoke Multi-hub Core Periphery
Time
Where most network-building begins
Self-sustaining network
• Team networks– Closely knit, focused on purpose
• Organizational networks– Balanced cross-boundary
connections– Ensure access to expertise where
it is needed– Strong core
• Innovation networks– Links to external resources– Diversity from the periphery
Structure must support purpose
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Patterns for different types of work
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Functional Need Effective Network Pattern
Complex knowledge transfer (teams)Strong tiesPeople aware of each other’s knowledge
Simple knowledge transferWeak ties are sufficient
Simple coordinationHub and spoke network
Transformation, change managementStrong ties from the hub to central connectors in sub-networks
Complex coordinationDense, de-centralized network
InnovationExtensive weak ties to diverse groups
Public good, field & policy networksStrong and multiple ties to diverse groups
Elements of Style
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• Place
• Space
• Pace
• Style of interaction
Value
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Understanding value
EveryNetworkProducesValue
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©Truman Company
So what is “net work?”
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• Ability to create, examine, and shape a network’s properties
• Stewardship of the connections in the network
• Managing the network’s context
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND NETWORKS?
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Organizational forms are changing
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Dimension “Old” Model “New”
Structure/Control Hierarchical, designed, command & control
Network, emergent, self-managing
Relationships Competitive Cooperative
Roles Formal, fixed Informal, organic
Decision-making Rational Intuitive, synthesizing
Management is Done TO People Done WITH People
Top Management Sets Direction, manages implementation
Creates enabling environment
Metaphor Cathedral Bazaar
Performance at Work
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• In corporations:– High performers have better
networks– People with better networks
stay in their jobs longer– Network-savvy managers
are more likely to be promoted
– People with higher social capital coordinate projectsmore effectively
“Teaching Executives to See Social Capital”University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, November 2005
Ron BurtDon Ronchi
Impact on Attendees of Business Leadership Program (BLP) at Raytheon Corporation
Quality of Life
• In life:– People with strong networks have
a better chance of full recovery from heart attacks
– We are defined by the networks we are in• Obesity studies• Smokers
– The greater our sense of community, the healthier we are
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Managing Intellectual Assets: Knowledge Management
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1st Generation 2st Generation 3rd Generation
Explicit Tacit Emergent
Content Collaboration Connection
Artifacts Individuals The Network
Networks and innovation
• It’s about Capacity:– Existing capacity – where are the
existing pathways?– Potential capacity – does the
environment support the creation of new pathways?
• Work Practices– Idea Generation: leveraging brokers early to help identify
opportunities, frame solutions, and test initial viability.– Idea Implementation: leveraging well-connected network
members to help design the solution (and implementation) and identify and link to key resources
Tools for Net Work
• Design• Transition• Examination
Network Design
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• New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI)– Transformation of healthcare– Based on collaboration
among all constituentsto identify and solvespecific systemicproblems
– Healthy interpersonalnetworks was a happyside effect
Network Discovery
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Many people think that all post-Katrina recovery efforts are fragmented and failing. Although many of the formal organizations are falling over each other, and over the debris that is still in the streets, community networks are self-organizing and emerging in New Orleans and elsewhere in the devastated region …
http://www.networkweaving.com/blog/2006/09/nola-networks.html
Design Elements
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Network Individual
Top-down Emergent
Closed Open
Outcome Discovery
Transaction Knowledge
Tangible Intangible
Change orTransition
Networks Transition
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Purpose Design Grow Perform
Completion &
Celebration
What drives transition?– Plans to reassess– Discovery– Internal change– External events
Examination: Organizational Network Analysis
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…a targeted approach to improving collaboration and network connectivity where they yield greatest payoff for an organization – Rob Cross & Andrew Parker
… a mathematical and visual analysis of flows / relationships / influence between people, groups, organizations, computers or other information/ knowledge processing entities – Valdis Krebs
Examination: Value Network Analysis
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• Value Network Analysis (VNA)– Pioneered by Verna Allee, a rich methodology– View of the web of relationships that generates economic or social value
A senior VP in the professional services arm of a large telecommunications equipment provider said that it was “scary” that the customer feedback from the delivery of services went only to the operational arm of the company and not the organization charged to innovate in service development.
Examination: Complex Sense-making
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• Sensemaking framework – “Cynefin”– Developed by Dave Snowden at IBM, now an open source framework
maintained by Cognitive Edge PLC– View of the context of a problem or situation as revealed by anecdotes or
stories
Distinguishing among the nature and context of specific events, problems, or potential courses of actions makes it possible to select the appropriate method for moving forward. Sense
CategoriseRespond
SenseSenseAnalyseAnalyseRespondRespond
ProbeProbeSenseSense
RespondRespond
ActSense
Respond
Simple
ComplicatedComplicatedComplexComplex
Chaotic
• Conversations for Sensemaking– OpenSpace, World Café…– Dialog, AI (Appreciative Inquiry)
• Reformulate the mission/value proposition• Change the patterns of the relationships• Reposition the network, market to new potential members• Make adjustments to place, space, and pace• Empower leadership changes
Tools for Transitions
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There are few new tools, but thinking in network terms alters the way we use the tools at hand
Managing in Complexity
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• You can’t manage a network, you can only manage its context• Slight alterations in the structure can create significant change
over time• But you must first look
to understand thecontext
• All examinations arealso interventions
Probe
Sense
Respond
Understand the context
Methods are already to hand
Desired Pattern Changes Practices and Approaches
Create more connections Make introductions through meetings and webinars, face-to-face events (like knowledge fairs); implement social software or social network referral software; social network stimulation
Increase the flow of knowledge Establish collaborative workspaces, install instant messaging systems, make existing knowledge bases more accessible and usable
Discover connections Implement expertise location and/or; discovery systems; social software; social networking applications
Decentralize Social software; blogs, wikis; shift knowledge to the edge
Connect disconnected clusters Establish knowledge brokering roles; expand communication channels
Create more trusted relationships Assign people to work on projects together
Alter the behavior of individual nodes
Create awareness of the impact of an individual’s place in a network; educate employees on personal knowledge networking
Increase diversity Add nodes; connect and create networks; encourage people to bring knowledge in from their networks in the world
The Leader’s Net Work
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• Weave
• Steward
• Embrace technology
• Create the capacity for net work
Weave
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A
C
B
A
C
B
A
C
B
• Close triangles
• Know the net, knit the net
• Make introductions
Steward
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• Pay attention to change triggers• Manage the context
• Enhance trust
• Clarify roles and responsibilities
• Manage complexity• Prepare for
emergencehttp ://www.gfs.com/en/about-us/stewardship.page
“One consistently surprising aspect of social software is that it is impossible to predict in advance all of the social dynamics it will create.” – Clay Shirky
Embrace Technology
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• Take small steps
• Practice
• Find friends to practice with
Create Capacity
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• Reward good network behaviors• Encourage outreach• Bring the outside in• Establish and transmit norms
for networking• Enhance skills in using
collaborative networkingtechnologieshttp://www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb/images/impact/capacity.jpg
Innovation
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• Remove barriers
• Enable the culture
• Change work practices
• Design the network
Barriers
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• Fragmentation – Lack of integration along functional lines– “Handoff” of ideas rather than joint development– Process/review inefficiencies
• Domination– Small number of people hold fast to established model– Network overly influenced by a few people
• Insularity– Access to external resources spread across a lot of people (i.e. not just a
few people know the external sources)
Driving results through Social Networks: How Top Organizations Leverage Networks for Performance and Growth, Rob Cross and Robert J. Thomas, Jossey-Bass, 2009
Practices
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• Create network-centric ability to sense and respond– Network weaving – awareness of who knows what
• Develop an ability to test and refine an opportunity• Work through people in specific network positions• Leverage energy• Ensure that organizational context supports
collaboration– Budget– Incentives, motivation
Driving results through Social Networks: How Top Organizations Leverage Networks for Performance and Growth, Rob Cross and Robert J. Thomas, Jossey-Bass, 2009
Where Networks Live, Now
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Where these networks live, nowPersonal Networks
Play Work
Personal Net Work
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• …and what you know about them
• …and what they know about you
• … and what you are learning, together
• … and how you work at that
IT’S WHO KNOWS YOU.
Social Media Practices
• Leverage technology to discover networks• Encourage the use of technology
• “Network productivity trumps personal productivity*”
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*Stowe Boyd, “Flow: A New Consciousness For A Web Of Traffic”, http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/files/flow.pdf
Finding and Making Connections
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• Pay attention to change triggers• Manage the context
• Enhance trust
• Clarify roles and responsibilities
• Manage complexity• Prepare for
emergence
• Research people• Find connections• Make yourself findable• Manage your profile
Keeping Track/Maintaining Connection
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• Pay attention to change triggers• Manage the context
• Enhance trust
• Clarify roles and responsibilities
• Manage complexity• Prepare for
emergence
• Family, Friends, Colleagues intermixed
• Easy to look up “friends in common”
• Photos and videos engage • Easy to acknowledge
others
Keeping Up
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• A network of ideas• Follow who others follow• Show people you are
listening• Be in the flow
Tweetdeck filters and focuses Patti Anklam May 2010 55
Reading Blogs
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• Subscribe to news that interests you
• Your “daily paper,” customized
• Organized the way that you want to read
Writing Blogs
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• Write about what interests you
• Think out loud• Engage people who may
want to share experiences
Tagging
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• Research tool• Find others • Share my learning
Social Learning
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Innovation Engines
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Integratingsocial media into innovation processes and practices
Innocentive
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Spigit
• Idea market• Voting and ranking• Commenting• Conversations
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Net Work =
http://quilting.about.com/od/picturesofquilts/ig/Alzheimer-s-Quilts/The-Ties-that-Bind.htm
A new way to see: The network lens
• You can design a network
– Selecting appropriate elements of purpose and style
• You can examine it– Looking at its structure,
value flow, or relationships
• You can create or respond to change
– By understanding the network’s context and its properties
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This is Net Work.
• Patti [email protected]://pattianklam.com/
• http://www.twitter.com/panklam • Blog:
http://pattianklam.com/blog
Net Work: A Practical Guide to Creating, Leveraging and Sustaining Networks at Work and In the World
Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann 2007