And what this company was able to do was say,
well where are those numbers really really low?
In other words, where are those divisions not
collaborating very much at all with each other, and is that a problem or is it
something we would expect to see given the nature of those particular divisions?
Again, it's not the case that if you don't see collaboration it's necessarily bad,
maybe those divisions just don't need to collaborate given what they do.
But they were able to identify a number of particular
divisional pairs that should have been collaborating more.
So identifying target's specific network connections that actually held strategic
relevance for the firm, and then try to intervene to build ties, encourage people,
give people opportunities to build ties across those divisions.
And also, in this particular company, they redid the network survey, and were able to
track changes in these ties over time to assess the impact of their interventions.
So another possibility, another way to use this network data, thinking about how to
build bridges, eliminate, organizational silos by building cross-divisional ties.
And the last illustration here is
one about enhancing career paths through better performance management processes.
So this is an illustration that comes from a global consulting firm.
And this was a company that mapped the networks of its partners,
it had about 80 partners.
And what it did when it mapped these networks
was that it discovered that a lot of departments were spending a lot of time
doing some things that were very valuable for the firm in terms of collaboration.
They were working with others to help them with their work.
But those things that they were doing, those collaborative activities,
were not recognized at all in the firm's performance management processes.
In other words, partners are being rewarded in terms of how much revenue
they brought into the firm, but they weren't being rewarded at all for
collaborating with other partners.
And in particular the network analysis found two main
ways that they were collaborating that were really valuable.
One was collaborating,
other words, helping the other partners in the firm to win clients.
Obviously very important for the firm, but it's not direct revenue production by me,
so I wasn't getting the credit for
it, but I'm helping other people do it, which is very important for the firm.
And helping other people, other partners to collaborate to serve clients.
So in otherwords, I'm sorry I'm going to so, let's start again.
So collaborating to win clients, but also collaborating to serve clients.
So in other words, you have a client and somebody comes to me for advice and says,
will you help me spend a little time on this project and
help me serve this client better.
And if I spend that time It's not direct revenue production.
I'm not being rewarded for it.
But of course helping that partner serve their client better is also very
valuable for the firm.
So once the firm realized through this network survey that
partners were spending time doing this valuable activity, valuable collaborative
activities around serving and winning clients, but they weren't being rewarded.
They realized that they had to change their performance management processes and
their performance evaluation systems to recognize the contributions of partners
who helped others to win new clients or to serve current clients.