hutchinson associates Social Network Analysis

The effectiveness and efficiency of an organization—innovation, productivity, and employee satisfaction—hinge on the strength of the relationships of its people. When you understand the patterns of interaction among the people in your organization, you can leverage this knowledge to:

Accelerate the flow of knowledge and information across functional and organizational boundaries
Identify the thought leaders, key information brokers and bottlenecks
Target opportunities where increased knowledge flow will have the most impact

Download a summary sheet of Hutchinson Associate's Social Network Analysis Consulting Service Offering

My Writing
	"Creating Networks at the Defense Intelligence Agency," with Adrian Wolfberg, KM Review, Volume 9, Issue 1 (March/April 2006). Case study of development of knowledge network at the DIA including using organizational network analysis metrics to match people for mentoring.
	"Expanding the Field of Vision," with Rob Cross and Vic Gulas, The Learning Organization Volume 12 Number 6 2005. Case study of social network analysis and organizational development at MWH
	Masterclass: Social-network Analysis,"Four-part series in Inside Knowledge magazine, June 2005 through October 2005. Each part covers a critical aspect of designing, managing, interpreting, and following up on a network analysis project.
	Article: "KM and the social network," Knowledge Management Magazine, May 2003
	Patti's Weblog: Networks, Complexity, and Relatedness
SNA Resources
	Reading List: Resources for Learning about SNA
Conference Presentations
	KMWorld 2006, with Bruce Hoppe, Tools for Social/Organizational Network Analysis October 2006
	KMWorld 2006, with Joe Hutchinson, Running Successful Collaboration Pilots October 2006
	Net Work: The new leadership challenge." Special Libraries Associations (SLA), June 2006
	The Knowledge is in the Network: Using Social Network Analysis to Understand and Improve Knowledge Management, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, June 2005 (Patti Anklam with Valdis Krebs and June Holley)
	Evolving Networking Practices: Net Work, Ark Group Workshop on Social Networks and Knowledge Management, November 2004
	Understanding Organizations and Getting Results: KMWorld 2003 (Patti Anklam)
	Using Social Networks to Leverage Knowledge and Innovation," presentation from KnowledgeNets 2003 (May 2003)
	"Social Network Analysis for Knowledge Management" presentation from KMWorld 2002 (October 2002)
	Article: "Knowledge Management: The Collaboration Thread," Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST), August/September 2002

About Social Network Analysis for Knowledge Management
Social network analysis comprises tools that provide managers with a visual map of the connections among their employees and quantitative data that substantiate the maps and their underlying patterns. Interviews conducted before and after the data gathering analysis ensure that the data are positioned in the context of the organization and will not be misinterpreted or misused.

The Methodology

Employees in an organization or group respond to a questionnaire containing questions like:

How often do you receive information from each of the others in this group that you need to do to your work?
How well do you understand the knowledge, skills, and experience of each of the other people in this group?

Software analysis of the responses results in visual and quantitative views that provide the basis for organizational intervention and individual action.

Social Network Analysis can be an effective diagnostic and planning tool for the development of communities of practice.

The data gathering and analysis processes provide a baseline against which you can plan and prioritize the appropriate changes and interventions to increase the social connections within the organization - effectively building "social capital."

Business Benefits

Benefit	Achieved By
Retention of people with vital corporate knowledge.	Increasing the social capital in the organization. People who are more connected are more likely to be satisfied with their work and more likely to stay.
Increased innovation, productivity, and responsiveness.	Closing gaps in people’s knowledge of one another’s experience and expertise. Decreasing the amount of time it takes for people to locate and access needed knowledge.
Smarter decisions about changing the formal organization structure or introducing new processes into organizations.	Understanding the structure of the existing social networks. SNA gives insights into how work is really accomplished in an organization, how decisions are made, and the effectiveness of the existing organizational structures.
Insight into the challenges of integration following restructuring, mergers, or acquisitions.	Identifying specific individuals or groups who are most likely to have the most influence across group borders and boundaries. It may be important to take special steps to retain people who are key to a network.

About Social Network Analysis
The analysis of networks of social relations has been a part of the academic landscape for many years. More recently, the study of networks and social networks and complex organizations have been applied in the study of many contemporary phenomena, including epidemiology and the fight against terrorism. Social Network Analysis as a knowledge management practice was advanced with research by Rob Cross and Andrew Parker at IBM's Institute for Knowledge-Enabled Organizations (IKO) beginning in 2000. Rob continues the research and application focus at the Network Roundtable at the University of Virginia.