A powerful aspect of working with the network lens is that the lens offers visual tool that help you to see structure and patterns in the network. The visualizations often confirm the results of assessments reached through deductions and logic, but just as often offer insights that would not otherwise be possible.

We live in a visual time, and there are a plethora of visual tools to support how we work (see Celine’s recent post on MindMeister). I use the following three to help me (and others) make sense of the networks that are important to them.

• Organizational network analysis (ONA)
• Value network analysis (VNA)
• Cynefin methods for mapping complexity

Organizational network analysis is a method based on social network analysis (SNA) that collects relational information about people, organizations, events, and so on, and produces statistical analyses and visual network maps illustrating or highlighting aspects of the relationships.  I find it very helpful even as a “back of the napkin” exercise, to help people understand where there are gaps or bottlenecks in an organization. Maps can help identify people who are key to the organization who might not otherwise be recognized, and opportunities for creating connections across groups who may benefit from exchange of ideas or knowledge.A network map illustrates people (nodes) and ties (connections between them). Ties represent the nature and strength of the relationship: How often are ideas exchanged? Do people know each other sufficiently that they know when to call on them? Do people receive value from their interactions? There are wonderful examples of ONA on Valdis Kreb’s site; if you want a deeper dive into how it’s done, you can download my four-part SNA Masterclass.

While ONA maps the network at an individual level, Value network analysis looks at the ecosystem of exchanges within the network. In a VNA, nodes are roles within the network (funder, beneficiary, community,volunteer) and the ties indicate what flows between them. Flows represent tangible goods and services (money, food, training, reports), but more importantly the intangible (recognition, reputation, tacit knowledge) benefits that come from interactions. A VNA can illustrate important gaps in reciprocity or lost opportunities for learning, and can establish a baseline for improving any of the specific flows in an overall process. For more information on VNA, download Verna Allee’s paper or peruse the Value Networks web site.

Mapping complexity with the Cynefin framework does not show flows or exchanges, but it does provide insight into the nature of relationships, processes, and events. Dave Snowden’s Cynefin framework is based on a set of distinctions about human complexity; it enables us to differentiate among four descriptive domains: the simple (well known, repeatable, subject to simple cause and effect), the complicated (knowable through the application of specific expertise), the complex (based on shifting, mutable relationships, understood in hindsight), and the chaotic (completely unknowable and inaccessible). The framework supports sense-making activities that operate on three principles: fine granularity (The collection of large quantities of information objects…), distributed cognition (…patterned by a group of people who have experience of those objects…), and disintermediation (…who can access the data and the patterns without the intervention of consultants or analysts). Dave and co-author Mary Boone have described the power of this framework in decision-making in their HBR article of November 2007.

All three mapping tools can be used in the foreground or the background. In the foreground, they are organizational interventions that bring people from across group boundaries into a sensemaking environment where they can generate shared understanding and move into action. In the background, I often use them for myself or with a small group in a client’s workspace to highlight a problem or opportunity area, or just to help the mindshift needed for net work.

Recounting:

• Three network tools
• Two network sources
• One network lens