Networks, Complexity, and Relatedness

Networks, Complexity, and Relatedness
Inquiry and learning into social networks, organizational network analysis, and the relationships among people and systems in complex organizations and networks.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

KMWorld and the Social Network

(Just back from a post-KMWorld vacation.) Happy to report that social, personal, and organizational networks/analysis showed up in many ways and places, even though there were no sessions specifically on ONA/SNA itself.

In his opening keynote, Tom Davenport listed "Emulate the social networks of high performers" as #9 on his list of 10 ways to improve knowledge work. For the record, the complete list is:
1. Adopt a process orientation
2. Change the external environment
3. Embed knowledge into work
4. Automate decisions
5. Focus knowledge management
6. Address personal capabilities/personal knowledge management
7. Reuse existing intellectual assets
8. Put someone in charge (of improving performance)
9. Emulate the social networks of high performers
10. Experiment (and measure)

Dan Holtshouse ofXerox, in his talk on the workplace of the future, also gave high marks to social network analysis as a key to understanding the key knowledge assets.

And of course Verna Allee, in both her workshop and her Thursday keynote stressed the synergy between her own Value Network Analysis (VNA) and network analysis.

There was a full track on social networks, tools, and development, which I had to miss because I was moderating a very interesting day on knowledge transfer.

My colleague Joe Hutchinson and I gave a well-attended talk on "Piloting Collaboration Software", based on our work with clients who are introducing tools like eRoom and SharePoint, which we'll post on our web site later today.

[More when I dig through the piles of laundry and my notes show up!]

posted by Patti | permalink (click to comment)
(1) comments

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Deep Smarts and the Passion Factor

I was lucky to catch Dorothy Leonard's talk on what she learned writing the book, Deep Smarts:How to Cultivate and Transfer Enduring Business Wisdom. at the Boston KM Forum. (Thanks to Bill Ives for finding this link to a good summary; Bill, by the way, is speaking at the next KM Forum meeting on November 17th)

Essentially, Dr. Leonard (now professor emerita of Harvard Business School) and her co-author Walter Swap researched how companies identify and leverage those employees who have both depth and breadth of understanding and knowledge as well as the skills and experience needed to tackle the hard problems. It's a great book; I had read it last year but was happy to see her distillation and to hear her talk about it.

A week later I saw her again at the Network Roundtable bi-annual conference at the University of Virginia. I excused myself from listening to the talk a second time and gave myself a long walk around the beautiful and historically rich campus at UVA.

I returned from my walk just in time to hear her closing comments and the Q&A. She shared that one of the characteristics that people with "deep smarts" have in common is that they have a passion for what they do. "Of course," I thought to myself, "talent and passion are linked, just as Johnson O'Connor has been saying since 1922. People are happiest when they are using their talents, and unhappy in work that forces them to do things that they are not good at.

One of the very interesting aspects of the JOC work is that they have kept a record of all the people who have taken the suite of aptitude tests over the years and correlated the career and career happiness with specific profiles. This gives them a good sense of what careers would be best for people with a specific set of talents. We went to JOC because we knew two people who had made significant career changes as a result of JOC recommendations, and were happy as pie in their new work. My husband, step-son, and I all invested in the aptitude testing process at JOC many years ago, and I count the insights into how I had been and was (and was not) using my own talents helped me to shift my perspective about work and from there make a powerful transition. When passion and innate talents combine in a person who is in a work environment that values people and knowledge, that is a recipe for deep smarts.

posted by Patti | permalink (click to comment)
(0) comments

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Dialogue skills as a precursor to network building

Here's a theme that's been coming up in conversation lately. It's about conversation itself. Here's a quote from a guest* at last week's Gennova meeting. Mira Furth, SEA Consultants, was speaking about shifting the cultural context for an architectural engineering firm from individal personal behaviors to collaborative (sound familiar?):

"How do you help people who are not experienced in dialogue to move from mechanistic responses to collaborative relationships?"

*I'm traveling and will need to get home to update this blog with her full name.

Meanwhile, earlier this week I finished a draft of a case study I'm writing with Rob Cross and Adrian (Zeke) Wolfberg from the DIA. It's a story about building a knowledge network; an Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) project plays a role in helping identify people who have high connectivity. Zeke's overall program includes work with Nancy Dixon, a workshop in "Critical Discourse". This program teaches people skills that enable them to have more productive conversations. The comments from people who have been through the workshop are illuminating material.

Another client is working with a different consultant along the same lines, giving people the skills to converse collaboratively and productively (I'm waiting for specifics). Another "blindingly simple" truth emerged in my writing projects about sense-making, collaboration, and networks. Part of the formula for building a collaborative network must include:

Understand the context and create a shared understanding of the context (this is the sense-making part)
Create the conditions that enable people to find and work with one another based on relevant knowledge (this is the KM/collaboroation tools/infrastructure stuff)
Provide individuals with new skills necessary to engage in effective collaboration (this is the conversation and dialogue part that enables building the ties that in aggregate make a network)

I've never lost sight of the need for the development of the dialogue skills (since I first learned them -- about them, anyway -- in the early 90s in a workshop by David Isaacs himself). But I've not seen the requirement so clearly articulated in the network context. I'd love to hear from people who have introduced conversational distinctions, methods, and skills to their clients (inside your organizations or as consultants) to shape this theme further.

posted by Patti | permalink (click to comment)
(3) comments

patti anklam. How to make networks work.

Find me person-to-person !

KMWorld 2008 September 23-25, San Jose, CA. I'll be doing a session on Net Work and moderating a day with KM thought leaders.

links: network analysis

My ONA Page

Rob Cross
Bruce Hoppe
Valdis Krebs
INSNA
ONA-prac. The online community for learners and practitioners in the emerging field of Organizational Network Analysis.

links: blogroll

21st Century Organization
Anecdote
Bill Ives
Dave Snowden
David Gurteen
Denham Grey
Jack Vinson
Patrick Lambe
Ross Dawson