Eleven Interventions

by Patti Anklam

January 4, 2009 at 9:59 am · Filed under Web 2.0

On the Six Myths of Networks day, the third myth was, We can’t do much to aid informal networks, while in fact there is much that can be done and businesses engage in many of them all the time, not necessarily cognizant (or taking advantage of the fact) that these are net work techniques. Here are eleven:

Ways to change patterns in networks	Techniques and Methods
1. Increase the number of ties (randomly)	Introduce people; hold seminars and knowledge fairs; make sure that face-to-face events provide time and facilitated methods that enable people to get acquainted with one anotherSocial network stimulation
2.Increase the number of ties (selectively)	Establish roles for individuals to broker connections across groups Assign people to work on projects together
3.Open groups that are closed	Reassign members to new projects or locations; add new members with different perspectives
4.Fill in “structural holes”	Leverage or expand the roles of people who are connecting different parts of a network
5.Increase the flow of information, ideas, and insights	Add communication channels (blogs, wikis, virtual team spaces, newsletters) Increase the frequency of meetings or teleconferences
6.Enable discovery	Create member directories that give people an opportunity to let others know about their capabilities, talents, and experiences Use social networking software to help people make connections
7.Increase diversity	Add nodes by creating ties with people in different networks; bring in speakers who represent different disciplines or points of view
8.Leverage diversity	Create reward structures that reinforce working across expertise and geographical boundaries
9.Strengthen relationships	Assign people to work on projects together Use social tools like microblogging (e.g. Twitter) and to enable a sense of presence
10.Reduce cliques	Rotate network leadershipChange team assignments
11.Increase the connective capacity of the network	Create awareness of the impact of an individual’s place in a network; educate members on personal knowledge networking

Okay, one only more day! Countdown:

Share:

Permalink

2 Comments »

Patti, I enjoyed your post and the original Six Myths of Networks too. It reminded me of an article I wrote in 2007 covering some of the key literature in social network theory. We often forget that there’s a lot of great research on social networks that we can learn from. http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/social-networks

Thanks, Shiv, and thanks for the link to your overview on social-networks. Perhaps we could collaborate on the 12 days next year!

Your comment

HTML-Tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>