The Zen, Art and Science of organizational_networks
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The Zen, Art and Science of Organizational Networks
Free Your Mind And See Your Team Perform!
David KershawVP, Cloud Services
Altova GmbH
What Is An Organizational Network?
• Interests • Friendships• Questions• Stream of thought
• Team membership • Responsibilities• Decision making• Stream of action
All companies have both, but most want to improve
this kind of network.
Social Network Organizational Network
So, Why Is Teamwork Complicated?
What do you get when you cross a spider web with a school of fish?
“…when a task is carried out collaboratively by more than one individual, the task activities of the various individuals also need to be coordinated and integrated, further increasing the complexity of the teamwork effort”Familiarity, complexity, and team performance in geographically distributed software development, Espinosa, J. et. al., Organization Science. 18.4
Organizational Network impact is exponential
Teams are networks
That means:
• Capability goes up when you add members
• Team overhead gets crazy with size
Meet Metcalfe’s Law
The PMBOK worries about this
LinkedIn likes this!
Think Positive!
Do not ask me again what is already apparent in the Organizational Network!
Organizational Networks
can be 2x as good as you think!
• They help things get done
• They help us not need to do things
n(n-1) ÷ 2!!
Beckstrom’s Law
So, how great is your network?
• The value added by each pair of teammates
• Then sum all possible pairs
Network value must offset the high cost of communication and organization
But Remember What Didn’t Happen
Subtracting negatives results in a positive.Simple math!
• The value not lost by each pair of teammates
• Sum all those avoided costs
Wait, What Avoided Costs?
• Verifying information
• Making many little decisions
• Negotiating uncertain situations
• Finding or recreating lost items
• Asking questions
• Giving work to the wrong person
• Waiting for inputs
• Etc. An organizational network minimizes these distractions!
Dunbar’s Number
So many likes, so
little time…
Apparently,
humans can only handle
a few social relationships
The number is roughly
150
Let’s Extrapolate!
There must be similar limits for
all kinds of information…
Like tracking dozens of roles &
responsibilities across teams
But you don’t have to remember what the Organizational Network remembers for you!
The Allen Curve
Hold my calls, I’m in another state!
The frequency of communication
between teammates
drops exponentially
as distance increases!
Flip It Around, Frequency Enables Distance
Increased communication
enables greater distance
with less disengagement
An organizational network amplifies team
communication!
So How Do We Do That?
When team members’ jobs are integrated in an organizational network everything they do is communication!
• Remove “nuisance” communication
• Use savings for focused communication
• Make the whole job collaborative
Nuisances on slide 8!
Put It All Together For Me!
The screenshots are from MetaTeam!
Some suggestions…
Small Is Beautiful
Create fine-grained teams
With specific names & limited members
To help team members prioritize
Teams as well as items of teamwork.
Try this here! Learn more here!
Minimize Drift And Distraction
Change goals, roles & responsibilities infrequently
Let tasks, decisions & definitions change freely
So work is fluid & relationships aren’t in doubt.
Try this here! Learn more here!
Reduce, Reuse And Recycle!
Lean on role conventions,
Use words that are already defined,
Store files in tasks, alternatives & responsibilities
And add new decisions to successful agendas.
Try this here! Learn more here!
Choose Your Words
Give instructions in the most specific places,
But give feedback in aligned roles & responsibilities,
To separate doing work,
From improving how work is done.
Try this here! Learn more here!
Thank you!
David Kershaw, PMPVP, Cloud ServicesAltova GmbHhttp://metateam.net