By Myra Norton on 4/29/2008 8:33 AM

The buzz is all around us these days – talk of recession and unstable markets.  How do companies weather these times, continue to increase revenues with limited resources?  In this economic environment, it is the human and relationship capital that will determine which firms rise and which will fall.  Relationships with customers, suppliers, partners; and the effectiveness of knowledge networks inside organizations become increasingly valuable when budgets are tight and we all feel the pressure to make the best use of the resources we have.

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By Myra Norton on 4/8/2008 9:56 AM

I recently came across an article about the implementation of a graduate business course entitled “Social Networking for Industry Leaders.” I’m not talking about a class in Facebook or Myspace; rather, this course stresses the importance of how to recognize and make use of the webs of relationships and trust within your organization.

 

Taught by industry leader, Dr. Karen Stephenson, this curriculum program is aimed at managers and executives who seek to optimize and re-align their organizational culture. According to Stephenson, this course hopes to leave managers with the practical steps to find answers to such questions as, “Who are the key innovators? Who naturally seeks new solutions to problems? Who bounces their ideas around with one another? Who’s hidden in hierarchy yet very effective in spite of it?”Here again we see an example of social network analysis going mainstream!

Although network analysis has been around since the 1930s, this sudden wave of popularity may actually weaken the legitimacy of this discipline. We hear managers throw around terms like dynamic relationships and tie strength, but only few know how to use that information in ways to identify authentic relationships of trust and advice-seeking on which we rely to make decisions and take action.

Organizational Network Analysis is hot topic right now. I’ve noticed more and more companies sign on in hopes to make those invisible lines of corporate communication ones of concrete leverage. As relationship capital becomes the currency in which organizations operate and are valued, I think it is imperative that firms first recognize the need to improve personal and group-level networks within their own organizations.
ONA is a fantastic diagnostic tool that aims to enhance the development of individuals and teams in support of key organizational objectives. Watch out though; this too ... Read More »

By Myra Norton on 4/1/2008 8:55 AM

As I leave Denver, I am energized by all of the great learning I was privileged to be a part of this week.  In the last two days of the Academic Impressions conference on Alumni Affinity Groups, we talked a great deal about what “affinity” means to different institutions.  For some, the term refers to alumni groups defined by their ethnic affiliations.  To others, it is the various interests of the alumni that define affinity (athletics, music, business networking, etc.).  And then there are those institutions who define affinity in terms of affinity programs – license plates, credit cards and other merchandise branded by the school.  As this new approach to engaging alumni emerges, it is clear that we need to nail down some common language – something that will take some time.

One of the interesting conversations I had was with an alumni relations professional who has been tasked with creating an “alumni affinity model.”  When I reviewed the draft model prepared by the consultant hired by her school, there were four pages and more than 100 inputs.  When I asked what the purpose of the model is, and how the various alumni relations and development offices intended to use the outputs of the model, it became clear to me that no one had asked or answered that question.  Needless to say, this was incredibly frustrating for the staff member who had been tasked with developing a model for which she had no concrete application.  My intuition is that the purpose of the model is to assess the level of “affinity” an alum has for the institution; but the recommended model combines entirely too many inputs that actually indicate different aspects of affinity, involvement and support.

This raised an issue that we talked a great deal about for the remainder of the conference – the importance of “beginning with the end in mind.”  The Stephen Covey mantra is very appli ... Read More »