A Practical Guide
to Creating and Sustaining Networks
at Work and in the World
Available April 12, 2007
Net Work
As an organizational form, networks will never replace hierarchical structures or markets, but it is now clear that network forms (and they are varied) offer a range of choices for managing people, ideas, and work that were not previously available. Net Work: A Practical Guide to Creating and Sustaining Networks at Work and in the World gathers examples, concepts, and practical applications for working with networks in a way that creates value for the individuals involved in networks as well as the networks themselves.
Part I. Throughout the gestation of the ideas in this book,
I've come to rely on a set of assumptions about the nature of networks, which
represent my underlying beliefs about the aspects that all networks have
in common. This is Chapter 1.
In Chapter 2, I've gathered threads of conversation that have occurred over
the past two decades to summarize why networks have become increasingly prevalent
an organizational, what we are learning about them, and what we have still
to learn.
Chapters 3 through 6 set out the still emerging taxonomy of networks that
so many people are looking for. I provide several facets (as a good taxonomist
would) so you can describe a network based on its purpose (Chapter 3), structure
(Chapter 4), and style (Chapter 5), and you can identify its value-producing
processes (Chapter 6).
Part II. Practical guidance about designing, developing,
and working with networks begins with network design in Chapter 7, where
I discuss how to create a network with the perspective of how its facets
come into play through its life cycle. Subsequently I describe methods for
examining and diagnosing the structure and health of a network (Chapter 8)
and how to guide a network through transitions in purpose, structure, or
style of a network to enhance its value (Chapter 9).
Part III. Chapter 10 summarizes the imperatives of "Net
Work" for leaders today: the new work required to create and
sustain purposeful and thriving "nets" inside their organizations
and outside.
There is also a slim Appendix listing technologies that are useful for net work -- which would be a book in itself! -- and of course a rich set of references.