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.

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Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Invisible Influence

Dave Snowden's blog took me to Green Chameleon this morning, where I found a reflection of myself. During the past few months, I've tried to keep up with a few of the blogs and email lists that have been great sources of inspiration, validation, and content for my work and have failed utterly to acknowledge them.

In his book, Achieving Success Through Social Capital, Wayne Baker provides a checklist for a TQM plan for continuous defect reduction. He provides the following ten examples of defects that one could count:

Failure to convert a human encounter into a human moment.
Failure to reconnect with an old contact once a week.
Missed opportunity to fill a structural hole.
Failure to share information.
Delayed return of a phone call, e-mail message, or letter.
Late for meetings.
Failure to attend association meetings.
Failure to send thank-you notes.
Canceling lunch appointments
Delayed updating of contact manager.

Note re (1). I've been saving this quote from Virginia Woolf that showed up on quote of the day a while back:

"I have lost friends, some by death... others through sheer inability to cross the street.

Note re (4). The book was published pre-blog, in 2000. However I think this item covers it. My problem is that I feel so embedded in an extended community (I don't read Green Chameleon, but I read almost all of the blogs and lists it cites) that I often feel whatever I share has already been shared to those I would share it with, so that means that my primary defect is in (8), which is to thank the invisible influences.

So: thank you, Dave, Denham, Shawn, Andrew,Bruce, Karl, John, Nancy, John, John, Ross, Valdis, Verna, Rob, Jack, Art, and others on my less-visited blogroll. I'll have to check in more often (see 2).

Oh, and I finally got round to reading Gordon Cook's interview with Jerry Michalski, and I honestly cannot remember what thread took me there. But talk about sharing! Jerry lets anyone see his Brain.

posted by Patti | permalink (click to comment)

Comments:

Patti - in the spirit of acknowledgement - thanks for your great blog. I've especially enjoyed your "Net Work" presentation (a concept I've been trying to articluate in my Sydney-based goverment agency for a little while) and especially for the link that lead me to the book "Governing by Network". Regards, Serena

# posted by

Serena Joyner : 8:55 PM