I use a variety of methods to help clients to examine and understand the context in which a network operates and to develop a path forward to improved collaboration, connectedness, and effectiveness.

Workshops

Workshops are designed to provide practical, hands-on learning about networks and to produce actionable insights. Those who attend learn to use the “network lens” along simple techniques for drawing and analyzing networks. The net work perspective includes a focus on how to manage a network and/or to manage relationships within it.

Client Engagements

My clients are interested in how their networks are currently working and what they can do to improve collaboration and connectivity in support of primary business goals of innovation, working smarter globally, and bringing the best resources to bear in support of their customers.

Analysis. Depending on the context, I may recommend a custom workshop, or an engagement focused on using one or more of the following principal assessment methods:

• Knowledge management (KM) and social media strategy. The network lens places an emphasis on collaboration to enhance the ways that organizational knowledge is created, shared, and applied. The new, conversational and interactive social computing tools are transforming how we create and share knowledge. Using deep dive interviews and a consultative approach to developing a workable, practical, and flexible implementation strategy, I help clients select the best combination of traditional knowledge management capabilities and social tools.
• Organizational network analysis (ONA). ONA comprises social network analysis (SNA) tools that provide managers with visual maps and quantitative data that indicate the current patterns of connection within and across groups in an organization. ONA is proving to be an exceptional tool for providing a baseline against which to measure changes in collaboration and connectivity during times of organizational change. I use ONA with clients to help them assess the current state of connectivity in their organizations and reframe their strategies in terms of network capacity and diversity.
• Value network analysis (VNA). VNA brings insight and perspectiveby creating a map of the interactions — tangible and intangible — among the functional groups in an organization’s business processes. VNA puts the network lens on a value chain. I use it to help clients see the important patterns in knowledge flow and collaboration so as to help target the introduction of methods and tools to support enhanced collaboration and innovation.

Action. I work as a practitioner colleague with my clients to make sense of the results of an analysis and to chart the next steps, including selecting appropriate measures of improvement and metrics for monitoring progress.

Partners

With Joe Hutchinson at Hutchinson Associates, I bring the strategic down to earth in designing and managing pilot programs to establish the use of collaboration and knowledge management software. And, I work with a network of partners who can bring their distinct experience, insights, talents, and skills to bear on specific unique client engagements. This network is continuous source of learning and improvement of my own practice.