social network analysis

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January 8, 2013 by Patti

Networks and NonProfits

I’ve had the good fortune over the past two years to see my work shift into the nonprofit space. I miss some of my corporate clients, but it has been both a rewarding and a good learning experience to participate in this other world. I’m getting ready to do a webinar [link updated 4/2 to take you to the full replay] on the 14th of January for the Leadership Learning Community. It’s titled Network Analysis (SNA/ONA) Methods for Assessment & Measurement. It’s the result of some thinking and working with June Holley and Claire Reinelt on the various things I’ve seen in the nonprofit world. June and Claire will also be sharing case studies on the webinar.

Part of what’s been interesting over the past years (as I was working on Net Work and thereafter) is the pick-up of interest in all things networks and nonprofits. I use this graphic in my workshops as a way to get people to talk about what they have (or might) read:

nonprofit reading

This is certainly not exhaustive, but it’s a pretty good list. So I have published this list (with hyperlinks) as Net Work’s NonProfit Reading List.

Two recent additions to the list (one made it into the graphic, the other not yet):

The LLC’s recent publication, Leadership & Networks (October 2012) by Claire Reinelt and Deborah Meehan. I am a contributing co-author on this paper, along with some great collaborators. The report is intended for “those who run and fund leadership programs that develop and support leadership for social change.” It highlights the importance of, and ways that, leaders in social change should be more network-aware and ways that programs can bring network literacy into their work.

I’ve also added an as-yet unpublished paper developed by Heather Creech and colleagues for IISD (especial thanks to co-author Michelle Laurie, for sharing this). I’ve been a fan of Heather’s for some time as she has been working in the development world for many years offering insights into how networks can support sustainable development. This new publication, Performance improvement and assessment of collaboration: starting points for networks and communities of practice provides a very good breakdown of types of communities of practice and suggestions for ways to measure value created by each.

Which brings me back to the topic of the webinar: it is important to understand not just how network analysis can support nonprofits in designing and assessing networks and measuring the impact of the network, but also to understand the limitations. It’s a topic of active inquiry for me — having been so immersed in SNA/ONA for so long, I am finding that it is important to be able to understand how network maps and metrics can be indicators of outcome. That’s the new net work.

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September 21, 2010 by Patti

Speaking of Networks and Net Work

I’ve been working (sometimes at full bore, sometimes in the background) on an organizational network analysis project since the spring. I’ve had the pleasure of working with clients in the nonprofit/NGO sector looking at the changes in networking behavior across countries in Asia Pacific.  (I’m just sharing the final report with my clients now, so can’t say much about it, but will be sharing a bit about this at KMWorld in November:  Session B101, Building Knowledge Networks).

Also this spring, I completed work on a self-paced, online tutorial for people who want to learn the basics of doing a network analysis: Organizational Network Analysis is one of a series of courses offered by my friends at Information Architected, Dan Keldsen and Carl Frappaolo, who have created “IAI University” to showcase pragmatic training on methods, practices, technologies, and strategies from their extended network. The course has four modules:

  • An introductory module gives the “soup to nuts” about network analysis and the steps required
  • A module focusing on network patterns and metrics — how to interpret maps and data from an analysis
  • A tool-focused module that has step-by-step tutorials on using ONASurveys to create a survey and UCINET/NetDraw to analyze the results
  • Practical tips on managing ONA projects

I will be giving much the same course, live and in person, also at KMWorld: Workshop W13, Organizational Network Analysis and Tools.

Please pass this bit of shameless self-promotion to anyone in your network who may be interested in getting a pragmatic head start in working with network analysis.

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April 28, 2009 by Patti

Networks and Heterarchies

I was recently invited to participate in a published “panel” on the topic of heterarchies for the People and Strategy Journal, a quarterly publication of the Human Resource Planning Society. The lead article “An Argument for Heterarchy: creating more effective organizational structures” was written by Karen Stephenson, who has a gift for describing network concepts, in this case, the emergence of what she describes as a new network form, the heterarchy.

She describes heterachy as an “organizational form somewhere between a hierarchy and a network that provides horizontal links permitting different elements of an organization to cooperate, while they individual optimize different success criteria.”

Now, I have used the term heterarchy myself in a more specific way (referring to closely knit social networks), but have no objection to the introduction of this topic in a prestigious HR community. It’s important to get the word out: we are everywhere seeing the importance of understanding connections within and among corporations, institutions, and groups, profit and nonprofit alike.

I was one of eight experts invited to respond to Karen’s article. It’s exciting to be published among such respected thinkers as Ed Schein, Charles Handy (I’ve been a fan since I first read The Age of Unreason in the early 90s), and Art Kleiner, as well as colleagues Ross Dawson and Tracy Cox of Raytheon. Ross blogged about this article himself, including his own response to the article, and posted a copy of the PDF.

Karen is at her best when talking about the importance of relationships, particularly when it can be too easy for companies to declare a strategic “alliance” and forget about the myriad connections that need to be made at all levels in an organization. My response focused on the ways that heterarchies may emerge and form (top-down, bottom-up, or shaped) and then asks the question,”okay, what happens next?” If we see a heterarchy emerging, what is the real work that needs to be done? As Karen puts it: “Connection by technology without trust is merely traffic.” Overall, the article and its responses make for great conversation.

end of script

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October 26, 2008 by Patti

Managerial Essays on Social Networks

A re-posting on the Value Networks blog of a list of research centers in social network analysis reminded me to take a look at what’s happening at the University of Kentucky’s International Research Center on Social Networks in Business which nabbed Steve Borgatti away from Boston a year and a half ago. I noticed a few “managerial essays” that I hadn’t seen before that Steve has written and that are now posted.

Steve’s essay on Facilitating Knowledge Flows provides definitions of centralization, density, core/periphery, and also a term new to me, multiplexity (the the extent to which one kind of tie between two people is accompanied by another kind of tie between the same two people).

Creating Knowledge: Network Structure and Innovation illustrates network structures for innovation, and
Selecting a Team Leader is a short and powerful reminder of how network position can be a predictor of a team’s success.

I miss seeing Steve around Boston and here in my home town of Harvard.

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