I had a conversation for relatedness with Jeff Shuman and Jan Twombley of Rhythm of Business yesterday. They are on the leading edge of defining the field of relationship technologies, and have developed a set of methods to help companies calculate the value of relationships. By adopting the language of business and finance, they speak to the issues of calculating the monetary value — currencies — in business relationships. They have been wondering how social network analysis might provide a diagnostic and maps of the existing relationships across companies. I was happy to talk about how the insight from a social network analysis can move people into action.

Their language is also rich in dance metaphors, including a recurrent and natural use of dance-step patterns to show how businesses and relationships grow through design and iteration, and also the key notion of a choreographer who manages the web of relationships created for innovation and growth.