Skills for Net Work by Patti Anklam

copyright © pattianklamdotcom 2007

Skills for Net Work

Patti Anklam Value Network AnalysisWorkshop

Saint John, NBMarch 20, 2007

copyright © pattianklamdotcom 2007 2

We live in a networked world

Collaboration – networking – is the means of survival for small business owners

It takes “net work” to collaborate There are tools that support net work Today is about

Understanding networks Learning some tools Moving into action


The properties of networks

Purpose The complexity of work in today’s

world is such that no one can understand – let alone complete – atask alone

Structure Patterns Texture

Style Place, pace, space of activity,

growth and leadership Value-producing mechanisms


We are all in networks, all the time

Aid and support people, environmentCreate economic

gain for stakeholders

Generate and collaborate in

creating and using ideas

Practice-focused learning and personal development

Nurture emotional and affiliative relationships


How about your networks?

How many? What roles do you play in each of them?

Peripheral or core? Leading, contributing, or listening? Active, proactive, reactive?

What value does eachprovide you?


Exercise (3 minutes)

List your networks Characterize them by type

Count ‘em up Questions?


What is a network?

“An interwoven or interrelated number of things…” American Heritage Dictionary

Things: computers, neurons, transportation hubs, cells, organizations, companies … and PEOPLE


All networks share certain properties

They can be drawn Relationships among nodes and links can be

analyzed: Counted, summed,

averaged Patterned, grouped,

segmented Fred

LynnLynn

Dylan

Lee

SalSal

CoryCory

Nodes

Links


Different types of network may need different structures and styles Team networks

Closely knit, focused on purpose Organizational networks

Sufficient brokering mechanisms for cross-functional and cross-business synergy

Innovation networks Diversity Links to external resources


The network view provides access to managing a network’s context You can design a network

Selecting appropriate elements of purpose and style You can discern its structure

Through self-diagnosis or examination You can create or respond to change

By understanding the network’s context and its properties


Different perspectives create different views: ONA Organizational network analysis (ONA)

Often referred to by more generic term, SNA (social network analysis), an emerging competency among businesses and nonprofits

View of personal interactions among individuals in a network

A senior VP, the VPs reporting to him, and their reports understood when they saw this map of their interaction frequency, that they were not as collaborative as they prided themselves on being.


Different perspectives create different views: VNA Value Network Analysis (VNA)

Pioneered by Verna Allee, a rich methodology View of the transactions among actors in a networked

ecosystem

A senior VP in the professional services arm of a large telecommunications equipment provider said that it was “scary” that the customer feedback from the delivery of services went only to the operational arm of the company and not the organization charged to innovate in service development.


Different perspectives create different views: Industry Network Mapping Industry network mapping

Based on work by Laurence Lock Lee and others using data mining

Strategic view of the relationships among companies based on detection of partnerships

A map of the number of announced partnerships and alliances among IT systems integrators and IT providers illustrated the centrality of integrators like Accenture and HP, but also showed a potential opportunity for CSC.


Maps can be derived from many sources

Using entity extraction from diverse search engines, for example Factiva

Generates links based on Announced partnerships and alliances

See http://www.orgnet.com/inetindustry.html for an interactive version of this map.

http://www.orgnet.com/inetindustry.html


Different perspectives create different views: Mapping complexity Mapping complexity

Dave Snowden’s application of complexity theory to human systems and problem-solving

Select appropriate actions based on the domain in which an opportunity or problem occurs

Routine procedures can be managed using known methods; complicated problems can be approached by experts; in the complex domain of human relationships and actors, comprehension occurs only in retrospect. Any event or context can shift – or be caused to shift – from one domain to another.

OrderedRoutineKnown

MultiMulti--dimensionaldimensionalScientificScientificKnowableKnowable

MultiMulti--relationalrelationalAlways changingAlways changingUnpredictableUnpredictable

DisorderedUnfathomable

Simple

ComplicatedComplicatedComplexComplex

Chaotic


Understanding of complexity provides a practical guide to managing context You can’t manage a network, you can only manage

its context Slight alterations in the structure can create

significant change over time But you must first look

to understand thecontext


Organizational/Social Network Analysis

Introduction and Exercise


Definitions

A mathematical and visual analysis of relationships / flows / influence between people, groups, or organizations – Valdis Krebs

A targeted approach to improving collaboration and network connectivity where they yield greatest payoff for an organization – Rob Cross & Andrew Parker

ONA uses and builds on the methods, tools, and practices of social network analysis (SNA)


Network maps provide insight and prompt questions Knowledge flows along

existing pathways in organizations.

To understand theknowledge flow, find out what the patterns are.

Create interventions to create, reinforce, or change the patterns to improve the knowledge flow. I frequently or very frequently receive

information from this person that I need to do my job.


Who’s using ONA?

Petroleum & heavy industry partners Communications and information technologies Pharmaceuticals Consumer goods Financial services Government agencies Military NGOs and nonprofits Consulting firms …

Business Week, February 27, 2006


Methodology for ONA – “Full” Network

Understand the context Collect data – surveys, interviews Analysis

Visual Mathematical

Interpretation Action


Analysis typically shows up distinct patterns

12

131415

16

18

19

220

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

3

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

38

39

40

5

67

8

9

•Colors indicate geographic regions•#25 is the network leader•#14 is due to retire next year


The purpose behind ONA:If you can draw it, you can re-draw it Imagine the network as you want it to be

Take the actions you need to make it so Make connections (“weave the net”) Close the triangles

A

C

B

A

C

B

A

C

B


Personal (“ego”) networks

Nodes that have direct ties to an individual node and the connections among those nodes


Exercise (10 minutes)

Review your list of networks to which you belong Select one On a clean sheet of paper, make a hub-and-spoke

diagram with yourself in the middle Draw out to nodes who are the people in this

network that you interact with To the best of your knowledge about their individual

interactions, draw links among these people


Value Network Analysis

Introduction and Exercise


What is a value network?

A web of relationships that generates economic or social value through complex dynamic exchanges of both tangible and intangible benefits.

Any purposeful organization or network functions as a value network

- Verna Allee


ValueNet Works Analysis

Developed by Verna Allee originally to benchmark extremely complex re-engineering projects.

In use since 1993 in global corporations, government, and civil society organizations.

Refined for knowledge economy and scorecards 1997 (as reported in Digital Capital, Tapscott, 2000).

Used at large and small companies (Cisco, HP, Boeing, Chevron, Pac Bell, AT&T, Sun, Eli Lilly, MWH, Environment Canada, Australian Red Cross, tech startups, manufacturing).

Also being utilized by several mostly Geneva based global change networks (GRI, IUCN, ICTSD).

Used by European Commission to evaluate multi-billion Euro research investments.

© Verna Allee Associates


Compared to other methods —

Value Network Analysis Based on living systems

theory. Shows whole system –

people and processes. Puts people at the center

of the action (not process). Shows business and

and intangibles exchanges. Links to corporate metrics. Fast and robust – works at

multiple levels.

Process Analysis Based on industrial age

production line. Linear, sequential,

mechanistic. Puts process at the center

of the action (not people). Shows business

transactions. Works at multiple levels. Slow and cumbersome

when complex.

Organizational Network Analysis Based on human

dynamics. Focus is on people. Shows social relationships

and interactions. Shows communication &

knowledge flows. Does not show business

processes. Emphasis on “snapshot”

more than dynamics

Both!Process People

A whole-system view shows how all the processes and people work together.© Verna Allee Associates


>KnowledgeStrategic information, collaborative design, planningknowledge, process knowledge, policy development, etc.

>Benefits or FavorsBenefits that go beyond actual service such as exchanging business contacts, image enhancement, recognition, co-branding opportunities etc.

The molecular level of value is the exchange.

Intangible Exchanges

Tangible ExchangesGoods, services, revenue (traditional value chain).All contractual or mandated activities that directlygenerate or deal with revenue.

© Verna Allee Associates


COMPANYCUSTOMER

OR END USER

Basic elements for mapping value

Personal Responses

Feedback for Product Development

Sense of Community

Online Services

Fee for Service

Loyalty

Exchange

Participant

Deliverable


Currencies for exchange

Financial Goods and services Intellectual

Human capital Structural capital Relationship capital


Determining what’s important

Copyright © 2004 Rhythm of Business


Example: not-for-profits tangible exchanges

tangibles are exchanges for financial value

GREEN = Tangibles

Educators

Funders

SchoolDistrict

TechnologyCompanies

Students

Classes

ITLiteracyProject

Salary

Curriculum

Software

CourseMaterials Funding Funding

Venue

Time

Funding forSalaries

ProgramPlanning

Instruction

Coaching

Hardware

EquipmentMaterials

Skills

ProgramFulfillment

Report

ClassReport

ProgramPlanning


Example: Not-for-profits intangible exchanges: knowledge and benefits

Educators

Funders

SchoolDistrict

TechnologyCompanies

Students

Classes

ITLiteracyProject

Salary

Curriculum

Software

CourseMaterials Funding Funding

Venue

Time

Funding forSalaries

ProgramPlanning

Instruction

Coaching

Hardware

JobApplicants

BrandLoyalty

ExpandedCurriculum

Prestige

Passion

EquipmentMaterials

SkillsCompany

Connections

BrandImage

Prestige

ProgramFulfillment

Report

ClassReport

Recognition

Recognition

Recognition

Recognition

Prestige

Prestige

EmployeeSatisfaction

Volunteers

Feedback

Satisfaction

ProgramPlanning

GREEN = Tangibles

BLUE = Intangibles


ValueNet Works™ Methodology

Analyze the patterns andprocesses for creating value.

Map the key tangible andintangible value exchangesbetween the Participants.

Analyze cost / benefit ofevery value output for eachParticipant to increasevalue outputs.

Identify the Participants

Identify key Participantsand stakeholders forcreating value.

Conduct a cost/benefitanalysis of every valueinput for each Participant.

Describe the Deliverables

Exchange Analysis

Impact Analysis

Value Creation Analysis


Mapping Exercise (20 minutes)

What is the value network for this event?


Summary/DeBrief


Net Work for Collaboration

The role of leadership in net work


Net Work for collaboration

Network intentionally Practice network stewardship Embrace technology Create the capacity for net work Use the network lens and net work tools to enhance

the lives and contributions of individuals and the collective power of the network


Network intentionally

Network weaving: “know the net; knit the net” “weave the net”

Personal network management

A

C

B

A

C

B

A

C

B


Enhance collaboration by changing patterns Create connections

Randomly Mindfully Between individuals and across groups

Increase the flow of knowledge Technology, events

Discover connections Create more trusted relationships Correct impedences

Overly central people or bottlenecks Increase diversity


Embrace technology

Leverage technology to discover networks See if you can use ONA to uncover barriers to use

of technology Encourage the use of technology

Blogs Wikis RSS Referral sites (e.g. LinkedIn)


Create capacity

Reward good network behaviors Encourage outreach Bring the outside in Teach networking skills in

on-boarding programs


Use the “network lens”

If it’s a network, you can draw it. Pick up your pencil

If collaboration is really important, and is not happening, then net work tools can help you dig deeper.

It only takes one big “aha” in an analysis to alter the context for collaboration


Skills for Net Work

Patti Anklam

Net Work: A Practical Guide to Creating, Leveraging and Sustaining Networks at Work and In the World

Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann 2007


Value Network Workshop


Value Network Analysis process

Identify the network Identify the participants Understand the roles Distinguish tangible and intangible


Identifying participants

Stakeholders Who cares that the network be evaluated? Why are they concerned?

Purpose What does a successful outcome look like? What is the scope?

Participants Who are the actors in this network? What roles does each person or group play?


Understand the roles in the network

A role is not necessarily the same as a group, company, or function One person or group might play 2-3 key roles Roles are different from job descriptions

If people are not clear about their roles, they can miss value-creating opportunities and are vulnerable to competition


Identify value exchanges and interactions Consider these participants in the value network

Customers Partners Providers of services Regional agencies

What value (contractual and non-contractual) does each provide? What value does each receive?

What is the quality of intangible exchanges or interactions in these relationships?


Let’s do the map!

Mapping (60-90 minutes) Review map Action steps


Verna’s principles

In a network, the center is where you are.

You cannot administer a network you can only serve it.

You cannot fight a network with a hierarchy.

Intangibles build real relationship.

What’s required for success:

Autonomous agents who can make decisions, negotiate, and initiate independent action.

Shared purpose, values, and norms of interaction.

An understanding of the whole system and what is needed for its health, vitality and success.


Increasing Prosperity

Intangible assets are the real wealth of individuals, organizations, and nations.

The network perspective supports a dynamic whole-system view of wealth and value creation for every type of purposeful organization.

With this view we can more deliberately generate the true wealth that marks true prosperity and success – and that makes life worth living.

The capacity to honor the collective consciousness and to act on behalf of the whole is truly the work of the next 100 years.

– Alan Briskin