lvsc network strategy

Some Initial Thoughts• A living agenda

• Spiraling

• Wide vs. Deep

• New ways of thinking

• Questions

• Use the resources

Image from http://www.networkweaving.com/blog/

Network Theory

• What is a network• How they emerge• The Spectrum• Community and

Network Values• Culture• And so on….

What do you see?

Network Weaving Requires Mapping

• Mapping the existing networks in your organization/community/region.� What are our strengths?� What are our weaknesses?� Where are the disconnects?� Who are the Connectors?� Who are the Mavens?� Who is in the clusters?� How open/closed is our network?� How have we progressed since last year?

Curves, Patterns, Phases & Cycles

Military Media Machine

• Clear Goals• Heavy management but hidden• One entity drives the network

What is a network?

• This network map at highlights the connected nodes

…but what do we find when we look beyond the horizon, beyond the connected cluster at the core.

– Whole or part?– Attracted to core?– Waiting for invite?

• Various levels of ‘belonging’

• 3 Rings– Dense core– Loose connected fragments– Disconnected nodes

• Relationships

• Links

• Exchanges (Transactions)

• Prospects

• 1st circle includes people we know well - we and they have a "relationship."

• 2nd - people we know of, but don't have a relationship with. Our second circle people are usually our first circle's first circle.

• 3rd circle people we don't even know exist but we are connected in 2 steps– We know someone (in our first

circle) who knows someone (in our second circle) who know them (in our third circle)

Map of ‘departments’ within an organisation

• Formal hierarchy but an initial map looked backwards revealed clustering by department but emergent leadership and expertise

• Monthly mapping revealed bottlenecks

• Reduced reliance on hubs

Mapping helps you to make ‘meaning’ leading to focused strategic decisions

1

2

3

4

3

4

5

United States Baseball League Steroid Use

The Role of Culture

1

2

Who is in the strongest position? Diane? Heather? Someone else? It all depends on what is important?

• Fernando and Garth have fewer connections than Diane but…

• The pattern of their direct and indirect ties allow them to access all the nodes in the network more quickly than anyone else

More Centralized Networks

– Dominated by one or a few very central nodes– Nodes removed or damaged results in quick

fragmentation of the network– Central nodes (hubs, connectors, etc.) can

become a single point of failure– Hubs are nodes with high degree and betweeness

– So then who are the hubs? Fernando and Garth.

Less

Centralized

Network

• No single point of failure• Resilient in the face of random failures• Many nodes or links can fail while allowing the

remaining nodes to still reach each other over other network paths.

• Networks of low centralization fail gracefully.

• Paths are not created equal• Shorter paths in the network are more important• Horizons over which we cannot see, nor influence. • Key paths in networks are 1 and 2 steps

– Who is in your network neighborhood? – Who are you aware of– Who can you reach?– In the network above, who is the only person that can reach

everyone else in two steps or less?– Boundary Spanners - Nodes that connect their group to others

Fernando, Garth, and Heather centralized network

Network ‘Reach’

Networks are about ‘connections’

• What is the quality of connection in these two separate networks if we judge by the photos?– What do we know? – What do we suspect? – What questions must we ask?

Quality of Connections

• Alignment - how much do people have in common?

• Productivity - how much new value does the relationship create?

• Introductions - how many valuable introductions does the relationship produce?

• Learning - how much new learning do people gain from each other and collaboratively

Strength Based - Key Roles in the Creation of Change

• Innovators, visionaries, and entrepreneurs - power of dreams

• Formal leaders - power to develop people's capacity for change

• Informal leaders - develop capacity for change - invitation and facilitation

• Managers - responsibility and resources to engage people - power of assignment

• Network weavers - power of connecting

Network Weaver Skills

• 1. Opportunity seeking: sees opportunities everywhere

• 2. Loves to connect people to each other• 3. Able to unearth resources of all types and

kinds• 4. Able to remember many names and

resources• 5. Able to dialogue easily with people and get

them to disclose information• 6. Comfortable with uncertainty but persistent in

making things happen

• 7. Able to learn from experience; decides next step after reflecting on previous step

• 8. Optimistic• 9. Able to see when something doesn’t work and

moves on• 10. Has a big vision but sees the importance of

taking small steps• 11. Likes to get to know people with different

perspectives and from different backgrounds• 12. Listens well• 13. Asks a lot of questions• 14. Sees patterns, notices patterns in the network:

where there is energy, where there is isolation, who interacts with whom, etc

Some Metrics

• Network Centrality / Centralization

• Prestige / Influence

• External / Internal Ratio

• Shortest Paths & Path Distribution

• Frequency

Preliminary Map of 3SA

Preliminary Map of Cascade

Preliminary Map of LVSC

Preliminary Map of STAN

Preliminary Map of VSF