The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations [Hardcover]

This is the first accessible introduction to social network analysis and its potential applications for practitioners and consultants. Cross and Parker draw on their extensive consulting based research to provide the readers with practical examples and cases. Rather than staying on the level of The Tipping Point and Linked, they actually go into providing sociograms and explaining the steps used in their analysis. The work also comprises an interesting Appendix with tools. I recommend it to consultants and executives that are looking to apply social network analysis as an additional tool for OD purposes.

In recent years, there have been several excellent books published on the important subject of social networks and this is one of the most informative as Rob Cross and Andrew Parker examine various social networks that are dynamic and conditioned by strategy, infrastructure, and the work that is being done at a given time, noting a unique characteristic of them: information does not flow through unchanged through a human network as it does through Internet routers. "People add context, interpretation, and meaning as they receive information and pass it along." The implications are of special interest to me, in light of the rapidly increasing impact of blogging, another indication of "information transparency." Cross and Parker base their observations and recommendations on their involvement with more than 60 strategically important networks in a wide range of well-known organizations. They explain how "managers can use the tools of social network analysis to assess and support those within their own organizations, and it's much better to take this targeted approach rather than leave collaboration to chance."

Specifically, they explain how to

Reveal and leverage "the hidden power" of social networks
Identify and repair critical disconnects
Develop a "sense and respond" organizational capability
Create energy throughout an organization
Understand how individuals affect a network
Initiate, develop, and sustain networks
Align organizational context to support social networks
Identify and then prepare for a network's future challenges

Then in Appendix A, Cross and Parker explain how to conduct and interpret a social network analysis and, in Appendix B, they provide tools for promoting network connectivity.

For me, some of the most valuable material is provided in Chapter 5, "Pinpointing the Problem: Understanding How Individuals Affect a Network," as Cross and Parker identify four types of people and their positions within a network: Central Connectors (e.g. "The Unsung Hero" and "the Bottleneck"), Boundary Spanners (i.e. those who "connect a department with other departments in the organization or with similar departments in other organizations"), Information Brokers (i.e. those who communicate across subgroups of an informal network "so that the group as a whole won't splinter into smaller, less-effective segments"), and Peripheral People (i.e. those who "might either need [vary degrees of] help getting better connected or need space to operate on the fringes"). Cross and Parker duly acknowledge that there are many different ways to assess the composition of a network, and, of individuals who comprise it. Obviously, members who are centrally can have a positive or negative impact on a network's value in terms of what is learned as well as which mindsets and viewpoints are predominant. As for boundary spanners, they can play an important role "when people need to share different kinds of expertise -- for example, in establishing strategic alliances between companies or developing new products. Their involvement will help to facilitate effective communication, cooperation, and collaboration between and among those who might otherwise function in a disconnected number of organizational "silos" and "bunkers." Alas, boundary spanners are rare.

With regard to information brokers, they can help an organization "disseminate certain kinds of information and promote connectivity throughout a network [or matrix of networks]."These brokers tend to be third-parties outside the given organization who have direct access to other organizations; other brokers could be individuals within an organization who also have access through their own personal networks. Some of the latter could also be viewed as "intentionally peripheral" in that they operate on the fringes of a network (perhaps for personal reasons) but who, nonetheless, can add substantial value to a network by helping it to obtain certain access it needs. The most effective, efficient, and productive social networks need lots of "bridges" and people to build and then maintain them.

Credit Cross and Parker with providing two supplementary sources of exceptional actionable value. Appendix A includes a six-step process for "Conducting a Social Network Analysis," followed by a "Case Example" of that process based on an unnamed oil and gas services organization. In Appendix B, they provide and then carefully explain three kinds of assessment tools for promoting network connectivity: "Personal Network Diagnostic" whose exercises help to increase one's understanding one's personal network and how to create an action plan to optimize its effectiveness; "Relationship Building" whose facilitated exercises can help to promote network connectivity through relationship building; and "Organizational Context Diagnostic" that can be included with network surveys to gain a better sense of how aspects of context affect collaboration throughout a network.

It remains for each reader to determine the nature and extent of this book's relevance to her or his own organization's immediate, intermediate, and long-term needs in terms of increasing its effectiveness, productivity, and efficiency by improving communication, cooperation, and collaboration between and among everyone involved throughout the enterprise. For many reasons, the power of social networks is now hidden but that will not continue to be true if their C-level executives read this book with appropriate care, then formulate an appropriate plan, engage their people at all levels and in all levels when implementing that plan, and then rigorously evaluate its progress thereafter, making whatever modifications may be necessary.

Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Jay Cross's Informal Learning, Gary Hamel's The Future of Management (with Bill Breen), and Ram Charan's Leaders At All Levels as well as Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution co-authored by Jeanne Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson, Richard Ogle's Smart World: Breakthrough Creativity and the New Science of Ideas, and Global Brain co-authored by Satish Nambisan and Mohanbir Sawhney.

Do you understand the dynamics of the social networks within your organization? Are you even aware of them? Are your workers well-connected with each other? Are they able to collaborate effortlessly? Don't feel bad if you don't know. Few executives understand how workers connect and collaborate within their organizations. To get a better handle on how work actually gets done in your company, turn to "social network analysis." Rob Cross and Andrew Parker explain how to use this diagnostic tool to describe the worker networks that invisibly traverse your organization. With this information, you can uncover and eliminate bottlenecks, roadblocks and hurdles that impede workflow and progress. Plus, you can determine the best ways to enhance employee connectivity and promote collaboration. getAbstract recommends this hands-on guide to you if you want to identify your firm's worker networks and make them more robust for your organization's benefit.