According to the cliché, it's not what you know, but who you know, that matters. Like all clichés, this one overstates the case while also containing a measure of truth. Network connectivity plays a critical role in the performance of knowledge-based organizations and the way in which knowledge workers formulate strategy, make decisions, and both learn about and capitalize on opportunities. In fact, as much as 90 percent of the information that high-end knowledge workers receive and take action on comes from the people immediately around them. Yet these networks are often invisible, are not consciously built or tracked, and contain systematic biases that can lead to poor decisions, misguided strategies, ineffective investments, and incredible costs.
Too often, efforts to enhance employee networks are based on the flawed assumption that more collaboration is all that is needed-- a belief that leads to technology deployments or restructurings that overload employees while slowing decision making and execution. As with past movements such as re-engineering or knowledge management, many technology solutions addressing collaboration are introduced without a true understanding of how work is done or where value is created in networks. One current tool-driven approach can be seen in the headlong rush toward enterprise adoption of Web 2.0 technologies, a $1.2 billion market in 2009 that is estimated to grow to $4.6 billion by 2013. These technologies may be very helpful for people who need to build networks--for instance, those who are new to an organization. But wholesale adoption can dramatically overload established employees and undermine execution.
Over the past decade, leaders have been actively seeking a multiplier effect--ways to better leverage their organizations' talent. Yet in this pursuit, implementations of matrix structures, collaborative technologies, and cultural change programs have yielded little more than overloaded organizations and employees. A number of top organizations are now finding that they can improve performance without overwhelming employees by adopting a network perspective on talent management. Based on 10 years of research at over 100 organizations, we have identified the following five network management principles that successful leaders use to compensate for weaknesses in formal structures and to ensure that they are fully leveraging key talent and expertise.
- Managing the center--Minimizing bottlenecks and protecting hidden stars.
- Leveraging the periphery--Rapidly integrating newcomers and re-engaging underutilized high performers.
- Selectively bridging collaborative silos--Targeting key intersections in the network and leveraging brokers.
- Developing the ability to surge--Ensuring that the best expertise in a network is brought to bear on new problems and opportunities.
- Minimizing insularity--Managing targeted relations with key clients and external sources of expertise.
During my keynote at APQC's knowledge management conference next month, I will develop these principles in more detail and offer recommendations for how leaders can manage organizational networks to produce superior performance and innovation.
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Rob Cross is an associate professor in the management department of University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce and the research director of The Network Roundtable.
He will be among the keynote speakers at APQC's upcoming knowledge management conference, The Knowledge Transfer Revolution: New Paradigms, New Payoffs. You can learn more about the conference by clicking here.
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