Social Network
Analysis
by Patti Anklam of Hutchinson
Associates
Social Network Analysis (SNA) is an
emerging discipline that maps the existing relationships
and communications and knowledge flows within and across
organizations. The premise of SNA is that it's important
to understand how work and information actually flow, as
opposed to how they are presumed to flow based on an
organization chart or set of partnering agreements.
Network analysis itself has become an increasingly vital
tool in the study of economics, the analysis of
terrorist organizations, and the spread of diseases, to
name just a few of the emerging application areas for
what is often called "the new science of networks."
SNA in Knowledge Management. SNA has become a
standard component in the toolkit of knowledge
management practitioners. In this context, we assume
that information and knowledge exchange happen most
comfortably between and among people who have an
established relationship or connection of some kind. For
example, a survey that asks people the extent to which
they receive information from others that they need to
do their work can provide numerous insights into the
social structure of the organization. Consider the
diagram above, in which each circle ("node") represents
a person, the colors indicate organizational
affiliations of the individuals, and lines indicate to
whom people go to for information they need.
You can imagine the power of such a diagram in an
organizational setting - it prompts questions about the
efficacy of information flow, the effectiveness of
people in the center, groups on the periphery, people
who are not connected. There are a variety of business
problems that can be traced to the absence,
incompleteness, or poor quality of connections in an
organization - slow response to customer needs or slow
diffusion of innovations, and so on. Many companies are
using social network analysis to detect the presence of
"stovepipes," to identify decision-making or information
bottlenecks, and to understand the impact of proposed
organizational mergers or separations.
SNA practitioners use a variety of methods to map the
actual relationships of people in organizations. The
qualitative methods actually survey individuals in an
organization and ask them to assign a value to different
aspects of their connections with others in the
organization. There are an emerging set of software
tools and applications in the knowledge management arena
that capture the flow of information across an
organization by tracking emails, access to documents in
repositories, participation in online communities,
questions submitted to and answered in expertise
databases and so on. Practitioners use a number of
software tools designed specifically to analyze data
collected in either of these ways.
Complete
Article
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A recently released 900-page Congressional
Report on the investigation into the September 11,
2001 terrorist attacks on the USA, concluded there
"was no smoking gun" that could have enabled us to
prevent the attacks. While on the surface that
conclusion certainly seems plausible, it requires
one to believe that the Congressional
investigators could not see a pattern emerge from
all the relevant information. Of course, the
smoking gun is rarely discernable from a single
piece of information. Rather, examining all the
pieces of information in relation to one another,
and within the context of what is already known,
is what "connects the dots" and offers up the true
picture of what is occurring.
Perhaps the
investigators would have seen the pattern others
and we believe to be evident had they utilized the
tools of relationship business. In this month's
newsletter, guest columnist Patti Anklam of
Hutchinson Associates, describes how Social
Network Analysis is used to literally connect the
dots and paint the picture of information and
knowledge flows within networks.
Keep on
dancing!
Jeff, Jan and The Rhythm of
Business team
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| MicroMentor Helps Grow New
Businesses and Forge New
Relationships |
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We were pleased to make the
acquaintance of David Rand, Director of
MicroMentor, a very innovative relationship
business that uses the Internet to connect small,
low-income business owners, or microentrepreneurs,
to individuals who are successful entrepreneurs or
managers in the same industry. MicroMentor is a
project of the Aspen Institute's Microenterprise
Fund for Innovation, Effectiveness, Learning and
Dissemination (FIELD), a nonprofit research
organization based in Washington, D.C.
The program is currently completing a pilot
project with microentrepreneurs in California.
David and his team are merging Internet technology
and personalized mentoring, so mentors can be
anywhere. (There is currently a waiting list as
the organization recruits more mentors, especially
those with expertise in specialty foods,
hospitality, and arts and crafts). In addition to
making these one-on-one matches, MicroMentor is
also collaborating with community-based
microenterprise organizations, national trade
associations and corporate partners to help
microentrepreneurs gain access to customers,
suppliers, and other resources they need to grow
profitably.
To learn about how one
protégé-mentor pair have worked together to create
a Spanish language Web magazine devoted to dance
in SanFrancisco, check out this recent story from
the SanFancisco Chronicle.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
file=/chronicle/archive/2003/05/26/BU226991.DTL&type=
tech
To learn more about MicroMentor
and perhaps enroll as a mentor, or become a
corporate partner, visit:
http://www.micromentor.org
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| A.S.A.P.'s Alliance Summit
2003 Offers Special Day-Long Session on Alliances
for Corporate Social
Responsibility |
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As our self and mutual
interests become evermore inextricably woven
together, the extensions and elasticity of
boundaries present both new challenges and new
opportunities. Innovative people, like David Rand
at MicroMentor, are forging the network of
relationships needed to solve problems or deliver
the value their specific customers need. This
Collaborative Community that MicroMentor is
growing includes both profit and not-for-profit
enterprises. It bridges public and private
organizations to meet the needs of its
microentrepreneur customers.
Alliances
between public and private organizations are
taking on some of the world's greatest health and
development issues, such as AIDS, tuberculosis,
and bringing information and communication
technologies to underserved regions and nations.
In the process, companies are gaining access to
living laboratories, as well as to new customers,
while recognizing that the global community is an
important stakeholder of every corporation.
Crossing boundaries, forging relationships,
unleashing value are the themes of this year's
A.S.A.P. Alliance Summit, to be held October 27 -
30, 2003, in Seattle, WA, USA. As an optional,
special pre-summit program, participants will be
able to learn about some of the exciting alliances
that are stretching boundaries to address some of
the world's most vexing problems. The day will be
keynoted by Jeremy Rifkin, President, Foundation
on Economic Trends and the author of The Hydrogen
Economy.
To view a complete agenda of the
Summit visit:
http://strategic-
alliances.org/summits/oct31summit.htm
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| Expanding the Notion of
ROI is Topic of Silicon Valley Chapter of American
Marketing Association's Fall
Kickoff |
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It seems as if summer has
just begun, yet the schedule is filling up for
fall. On September 10th, Jan Twombly will join Jim
Lenskold, of the Lenskold Group in a discussion on
the limitations of traditional ROI measures and
new approaches to measuring the value created by
customer relationships and other non-financial
assets, such as reputation and brand. The
discussion will be part of the American Marketing
Association's Silicon Valley Chapter's 2003 - 2004
kickoff program.
This should be a lively discussion. Jim will
draw from his new book, Marketing ROI, a guidebook
that provides insight and innovation into managing
marketing profitability. Jan will introduce the
audience to the concept and use of Relationship
Value, a measurement that adds to traditional ROI
approaches by assessing the net of the give and
get of non-financial forms of value in
relationships. Relationship Value was first
introduced in our 2002 book, Everyone Is A
Customer (click here to learn more about the
book.)
If you're in the Valley, we hope to
see you there! For more information, contact Jan
at 617.965.4777x11 or jan@rhythmofbusiness.com
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| Relationship Business
Workshops Heading to Texas |
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 After Silicon Valley, we're
headed to Houston to lead our workshop,
"Relationship Business: Measuring and Managing the
Value in Every Alliance Relationship for Strategic
and Financial Benefit," on September 18th in
partnership with the Association of Strategic
Alliance Professionals (A.S.A.P.). Alliance and
relationship professionals from companies such as
Genzyme and Oracle, as well as start-up
entrepreneurs whose business plans depend on
building successful alliances have benefited from
previous workshops. Here is a comment we received
from Jane Dancer, an Alliance Manager for Cable
& Wireless in London:
"Being able to
demonstrate the strategic and financial value of
any alliance is key its success. This workshop
provides both the organization and the alliance
practitioner with first-rate and straightforward
tools on which to measure and monitor
performance."
We'll also be participating in an A.S.A.P.
chapter development night in Houston on the
evening of September 17th. A.S.A.P. members are
alliance professionals, attorneys, strategic
relationship managers - really anyone who wants to
build their leadership skills for success in the
networked economy.
To learn more about the
workshop and to register, visit:
http://www.strategic-
alliances.org/events/workshopjoythompson.htm
To
learn more about the A.S.A.P. chapter development
event contact Joy Thompson at 617.965.4777x18 or
joy@rhythmofbusiness.com
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| Want to Contribute to
"Pursuing Value"? |
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 We welcome third-party
contributions to "Pursuing Value: The Newsletter
for Relationship Business." If you'd like your
article or a "Letter to Editor" to be included in
an upcoming issue, please submit it to us for
consideration with an email to info@rhythmofbusiness.com.
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