Organizational Network Analysis

What is Organizational Network Analysis? Well it’s a subset of network of teams, which you can read more about in our Structure section of our Solutions. Imagine your company is an interdependent network of people sharing information internally. You need that information to be distributed in a timely, accurate, useful, intelligent and helpful exchange. Your internal network is the lifeblood of your company. If you have a blockage anywhere in your system, the backups cause a domino effect of problems.

There are people who are natural hubs and spokes of information and others that keep it to themselves or don’t know who to share it with. This analysis helps you know how to get the most from your network.

You may have noticed that people don’t read long emails anymore. Comprehension and integrating that knowledge into your workflow is not a given.

Then to complicate your network, email is not the only method people use to relay information. They post on the CRM or in document review comments. People share via text, Slack, Facebook Messenger, What’s App, in the hallway, via the phone.

It’s almost impossible to track what is being said and know whether it was taken in and considered. Until you implicitly have these kinds of crucial conversations and get buy-in across the federation that supports the health of your business, your network is fractured.

Mapping this information flow and all the channels it moves through is a great way to find the blockage and build a solution that all participants will buy into and use. We know this is the case because nothing is worse for any employee to suddenly not have the crucial paperwork to get out an invoice, know the new lead time on a part, discover the customer changed something on the order, realize a decision you made wasn’t conveyed to a supplier, uncover a month later that shipping costs were not included in the invoice to the buyer or that your company’s reputation is being challenged in social media.

You’ve seen it many times before… delays and miscommunication suddenly become very personal. Conflict erupts. People feel disrespected and stop talking to each other. All you hear are the complaints, and the people lined up at your door wanting private conversations will consume your day, never mind your mental health, stress and life. Hemorrhage like this is hard to recover from.

There are questions CEOs and team leaders need to reflect on to evaluate:

• How well does information flow internally in my business?
• How effective are we as a team across all our departments - do I trust my team leaders to resolve these disagreements on information on their own? Do we convey the right information at the right time? Do I hold my people capable and competent? Do I need to control them? Can we describe what each of us need in each department and information what is crucial to us and know the other department will make the necessary changes to improve? Can each department describe what we do and what is important to us as a company or just their area?

Answering these questions might not be easy. But the more you allow yourself to see how your network really communicates and interacts with you and each other, the easier it is see how well you and your network of departments perform together… and make the changes so all want to be high performing as much as you want them to be.

Do you want a to resolve these bottlenecks so you can reap the benefits of an organizational network analysis? Read more to discover what that could mean in your business so you know if it’s worth investing in.

Want an outsider’s independent view of how well your team is working together? Or if you know your team is struggling, then don’t wait for something to change, because it’s likely to break and then you’ll lose great people. Call Lorraine McGregor at 604-306-7707 to discuss what’s happening in your network of teams.