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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I’ve also added an as-yet unpublished paper developed by Heather Creech and colleagues for IISD (especial thanks to co-author Michelle Laurie, for sharing this).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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August 9, 2012 by Patti

Integrating Network Analysis into a Social Media/Collaboration Project

I have been recently been requested to participate in proposals (some leading to projects!) in which an organizational network analysis (ONA) is used in an integrated way during the development of a collaboration strategy. In each instance, I’ve found it necessary to write some educational “addenda” for attachment to the proposals. Much as ONA/SNA practitioners would like it to be otherwise, our discipline never went mainstream to the extent that the method and its uses are well known.

My colleague Dan Keldsen recently invited me to collaborate with him and others on such a proposal. Rather than attach my write-up as an addendum, he (social media guru that he is) published it as a blog on his Information Architected site. See Using Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) and let us know what you think.
And, if you are interested in learning ONA, I think there are still spaces available in the course I deliver with Optimice colleagues Cai Kjaer and Laurie Lock Lee. The four-session course includes access to the online ONA course I developed for Information Architected and that is hosted on Dan’s site. The course runs sessions based on Asia/Pacific, US, and European time zones. The next European session begins next week. Apart from the online course, we work to tailor the content to the needs of the students, that is, we talk about how to integrate an ONA project into the work challenges that they are facing right now.

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April 18, 2012 by Patti

New ONA Resources

This past week brought a few nodes in the interconnected map of resources (articles, papers, blogs) related to organizational network analysis (ONA).

Maya Townsend (@mayapar), Partnering Resources, has begun to blog on Change, Talent, Strategy, and Collaboration. Two of her first posts reveal how intimately she combines her expertise in ONA with her organizational development and strategic consulting expertise. One, The Most Important Positions in Your Company, provides a nice summary of three key roles in networks: hubs, gatekeepers, and pulse takers. The post links to a short white paper that expand on the topic. If you are interested in networks and organizational development, you’ll find a number of gems on Maya’s site, as she is very generous with her tools, exercises, and cases. (She was a great partner to me in a NetWorkShop I conducted for the Boston Facilitator’s Roundtable last December.)

Meanwhile, over at Activate Networks‘ blog (written by Steve Wardell) references a good article from People and Strategy last year on organizational network analysis. Authors Dan Novak, Mark Rennaker, and Paulette Turner set the stage nicely for talking about the need for ONA as follows:

Using structure to articulate the intent of an organization creates a challenge for leaders because it creates a perception of stability…However in knowledge intensive organizations, people and information need to be brought together in adaptable and flexible ways.

They present five brief case studies focused on culture change in silo’d organizations. In the concluding case study, the COO offered after-action insights, including this echo of the above:

Leaders may expect a neat and clean [organizational] design, but complex, networked realities may appear messy.

I always like a good ONA read. Keeps the juices flowing. Other flows in progress:

  • My Optimice colleagues Cai Kjaer, Laurie Lock Lee and I have just completed module 2 of 3 in our first running of the ONA Online Practitioner Course. We complete Module 3 next week when Marc Smith takes the student cohort into NodeXL territory. It’s not too late to sign up for the U.S. course that runs April 25 – May 22, with the interactive sessions May 8, May 15, and May 22.

And just to boggle my brain a bit, I’m attending the Collective Intelligence symposium at M.I.T. tomorrow and Friday. I hope to tweet from there (my twittering is a bit rusty, but I can still count to 140.)

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April 4, 2012 by Patti

Network Tensions

I was reminded recently during a meeting with a client about the importance of both distinguishing and acknowledging the tensions inherent in intentional networks. The case in point: a very high-powered network of senior leaders in the nonprofit arena who had been carefully selected to be part of a facilitated network. The funder of this network supported network members by providing them sabbaticals; planning and facilitating shared learning experiences outside their geographic area; and giving them opportunities to meet, identify shared goals and possible areas for collaboration; and fostering their visibility to the wider nonprofit and political communities.

The funder did not set specific goals for the network. That is, there was nothing that they were expected to work on as a common effort. The intention was purely to provide a container that bounded the network and to stimulate the network in various ways to enable collaborative opportunities to emerge. And they did. Still, some people continued to question the “why” of this network. What were they supposed to do, exactly?

This tension, I noted, is one of the primary ones I exposed in Net Work: “Outcome v s. Discovery.” Tensions, I wrote, “are present all the time; both leaders and members of a network should be aware of how these tensions impact the health of a network. All networks will shift along these lines of tension as they respond to changes in the environment, changes in the demographics of their members, and changes in purpose, structure, and style.”

 

In one of those delightful moments of serendipity, I very shortly thereafter received via email from Andrew Rixon the following cartoon:

(Cartoonist: Simon Kneebone)

It’s always nice to hear that Net Work is being used, and useful and especially gladdening to see depictions such as this one.  Thanks, Andrew!

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January 23, 2012 by Patti

Learning Opportunities for ONA

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve teamed with the Cai Kjaer and Laurie Lock Lee at Optimice and Marc Smith of Connected Action to offer an Online ONA Practitioner Course. The course includes:

  • Access to my self-paced ONA learning module
  • Three 2-hour interactive virtual sessions with fellow learners. These sessions cover Scoping and Designing Your Project (with moi), Hands-On with ONA Surveys (with Kai and Laurie) and Hands-On with NodeX with (Marc).
  • A year’s subscription to Optimice’s ONA Surveys tool for conducting surveys
  • A copy of “Analysing Social Media Networks with NodeXL” by D Hansen, B Shneiderman and M Smith (2010)

I’d like to thank my friends at Optimice and my colleague Dan Keldsen (who hosts the online course at IAI University) for the opportunity to participate.

For full details, including a global course schedule, visit the course’s main site: http://www.optimice.com.au/onacourse.php

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