The research by Rob Cross, Leigh Weiss, and Jeanne Liedtke, presented at Leading in a Connected World last fall has been published by the Harvard Business Review: “A Practical Guide to Social Networks,” by Rob Cross and Jeanne Liedtka of UVA, and Leigh Weiss of McKinsey. It’s a very useful guide to how different network structures support different styles of business:

1) Customized. Each customer situation is different, and multiple and different skills and talents may need to be applied each time. A highly connected and diverse network is best for this kind of business which requires invention and innovation.
2) Modular. Many elements of the business are repeatable and easily packaged for different customers. Collaboration between people in similar roles and consistency of expertise are important in this type of network.
3) Routine. The work follows well prescribed patterns and responses, so there is not much need for diversely connected networks.

Once again, Bruce Hoppe beat me to blogging about this. In his blog last Wednesday, he does a nice job of summarizing the article. His big “aha” was about how sociologists tend to like things in threes (see his Thursday blog).

My big “aha,” when I first read the article, was about how the three types could also map to three of the distinct domains of sense making in the Cynefin framework:

1) Visible order — the routine, well known and practiced
2) Invisible order — the knowable but often complicated stuff that it takes expertise to make sense of
3) Complex — the domain of changing relationships, ideas, and innovation

Dave has started his third stint as guest on the AOK Star Series, which already contains some rich conversation. I’ll be blogging some of the insights as they start to pop.