Masterclass: Social-network analysis Part I

A masterclass covering the use of social-network analysis in an organisational setting. Part one: setting the context for network analysis. By Patti Anklam

Let’s face it: your organisation is a networked organisation whether or not top management thinks it is one, and whether management wants it to be or not. Informal networks have always played a huge role in how work gets done in organisations; good managers have understood the role of these networks and people who know how to leverage them. What’s different today is that a convergence of years of research in the social and physical sciences has provoked interest in a new set of methods for mapping and mining insights from these networks. Whether you call it social-network analysis (SNA) or organisational-network analysis (ONA), it’s about identifying the key networks within organisational boundaries, understanding the structure of personal and group relationships among them, and using this understanding to make a difference to business performance.

This article, the first in a series of four that make up this masterclass, describes how to establish the context for a successful network-analysis project or programme. It assumes that you already have a basic familiarity with the concepts and processes of an SNA project.

Any KM project, whether network analysis, portal development or after-action review, has both a strategic and a tactical context. Under the radar of top management, you may only be working at the tactical level: doing one or two analysis projects within a business unit or functional group in the organisation. These projects often lay the groundwork – providing evidence of utility – for building network competencies through a strategic programme initiative. For any SNA project, the context-setting tasks you need to perform are generically the same, but the target audience, focus and results will differ. Table one summarises these four elements and the key concerns you need to address at each level.

This series of articles addresses how you should prepare to address the tactical concerns of context setting for an SNA project, so that you will have successful results from on-the-ground projects to use as proof points when you want to move SNA on to the managerial radar screen.

Clarify the business purpose

I’m assuming that you are interested in SNA because you believe that it can help solve a specific problem in your organisation. SNA is not itself a ‘solution’, but it does provide a key diagnostic component in the design and management of initiatives and change programmes that involve a social element of communication, collaboration or co-ordination. A number of KM-related business challenges are summarised in table two. You may find resonance with your immediate problem or opportunity in one of these. If not, the table should help you articulate how SNA can provide meaningful insights or specific metrics in your unique context.

Transfer your commitment to management

If you can clearly identify the business value of a network-analysis project, you need to be sure that the group manager – as high in the organisation as you need to go – will sponsor the project and support it. In other words, if you are committed to using SNA successfully, you need to be sure that you’ve transferred your commitment and understanding fully to the sponsor so that they own the project as much as you do.

Here are some simple questions that you should be prepared to talk through with the manager whose support you are requesting:

Is this problem important enough that they are willing to support the project and the work that it entails?
How does management perceive the problem? Do they see how relationships among individuals impact what work happens and what doesn’t, and that improving key relationships or the overall structure could have an impact?– What do they want to know about the structure of the network? – Do they already know that there is poor connectivity, but have been unable to provide evidence that will motivate change?
Do they have the capacity and capability to make whatever changes are suggested as the results of the SNA become visible?– Is this the right time for doing an organisational intervention? Is there some other team-building meeting or initiative in which the SNA can be positioned? – Will they have budget to bring people together face to face if that is what is called for? – Will support from HR be needed to facilitate the project?

Think about how you will address the following concerns, which are often voiced as questions during these conversations:

Cost of the SNA – Be prepared with a cost estimate. This can be a ballpark figure from a consultant, or a summary of the cost of training and software for you or your staff to do the analysis yourself;
Project schedule impact – Be clear about how much time each individual will need to allocate to fill out a survey, be interviewed and participate in the review of the SNA results;
Employee morale impact – Emphasise that the manager’s attitude in communicating the project before, during and after determines whether the SNA will be perceived as another ‘rock fetch’ or an interesting, exciting and motivating experience;
Validity of the survey responses – Remind the manager that the process includes: a review of the initial results with a management team that will be able to remove or explain anomalies in the data; and, interviews with selected people in the centre or at the edge of the maps produced to get more context about the results;
Fears about how the results will be interpreted – Discuss the options of displaying network data to participants that are available and select the one that the manager is most comfortable with: showing all names to all participants; or, showing no names to participants, but all names to the leadership team and SNA consultant.

Your role as an SNA project manager in these conversations is to listen, elicit, coach and synthesise. Be prepared to hear that this is not the right time for an SNA, or that the SNA may not be the best tool for the problem at hand.

Organisational readiness

Armed with a clear business purpose and management support, the next round of thinking should focus on whether the organisation is really ready for ‘net work’. Anyone who has participated in off-site teams has probably experienced at least one facilitated off-site group meeting that included exercises for getting acquainted, motivational talks, the drafting of mission statements and the generation of many promises to work together more often. The excitement from these meetings wanes quickly as people return to their desks and PCs, unless the organisational infrastructure is in place that allows new practices and behaviours to grow and thrive.

What elements need to be in the organisational soil in order for change to take root? Table three summarises five organisational dimensions you should review to determine if your organisation offers the right conditions. There is no single formula that specifies the right mix of these elements, however. Each company and group within the company will be unique. But it is important to set the context for an SNA with the end result in mind: take an inventory of the tools that you have or must have in order to be successful making a change following the SNA.

Changes that occur as a result of an SNA typically fall into one of the three following categories:

Organisational changes, including staffing additions or changes and alterations in roles and responsibilities;
Relational development, including various types of knowledge-management interventions that range from face-to-face meetings and knowledge fairs to collaboration systems and expertise-location software;
Personal actions taken by individuals to modify their own behaviours with respect to knowledge hoarding and brokering connections among people.

When you think ahead to managing the interventions following an SNA, use the elements in table three as a checklist to determine what kind of changes the organisation will be prepared to accept – and sustain.

Communications

One CKO who has been using SNA for two years in a global IT organisation always says that the key to a successful SNA is: “communicate, communicate, communicate”.

Remember that the management team you work with will need to think about the SNA in the context of the organisation and the scope as it applies to:

Individuals;
Groups within the organisation;
The whole organisation;
Other organisations;
Enterprise programmes and initiatives.

Create a communication plan that summarises the list of people who will need to know about the SNA and the means by which it will be communicated.

Critical success factors

I’ve worked with managers and system architects for many years. The best among them all agree that the most important part of a project is getting the context right. More than once in the past month, I’ve heard the mantra, ‘right problem, right people, right time’. The key to success in network analysis – at both the tactical and strategic level – is to ensure that you go into a project with as much understanding as possible of the business problem, the environment and the organisation’s capacity to absorb and act on the results.