Networks
Networking is a concept that has been around as long as the
hills. At the same time it is an area that is receiving current
attention with a view to using it to improve the ability of
organisations to achieve their objectives. This opportunity
has come about due to some conceptual thinking in the USA,
the ever developing abillities of computers and the forward
thinking of some key innovators with the UK.
Given that there is new thinking in this area it is worth
trying not to depend too much on the meanings that you may
attach to some of the words used here and instead look for
the meaning behind them.
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Network relationships - An individual will
have a number of relationships and those relationships could
be seen to be of a number of different types. For example
a structural relationship such as that between a team leader
and a team worker. It could be also be a support relationship,
an informal relationship or it could be an informative relationship.
And there are others.
Egocentric networks - one persons networks.
If we look at one person we could establish who they rely
upon for support and we could call that their support network.
Similarly we could establish who they talk to about their
work in general and we could call that their work network.
Levels of relationships - Depending upon
how those individuals interact we could classify each relationship
at a different level, from say 0 to 3, where a 0 denotes and
absent or dysfuctional relationship and a level 3 is the strongest
and most functional relationship from the point of view that
we are considering.
Network maps - If we put that information
into the form of a map then we get a quick snapshot that gives
us a lot of information:
Develop appropriate network relationships -
A person who has a helpful hetwork relationships will be better
placed to do a good job than soomeone who does not have helpful
network relationships. The egocentric network map will tell
us a lot of information about that person very quickly. Comparing
egocentric network maps may tell us why some people seem to
know what is going on and some don't, which people are regarded
with most respect .....
Complete networks - Rather than looking
at an Egocentric network map, ie one person's network map,
we can look at complete networks where we look at all the
network relationships between the individuals in a team or
community. Once again this will give us a lot of information
very quickly. We will start to see who the key people are
for support or information and therefore who is potentially
overloaded for reasons other than their work load.....
To learn more about Networks and how you, your team and your
organisation can develop through coaching and training:
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