The Zen, Art and Science of Organizational Networks

Free Your Mind And See Your Team Perform!

David Kershaw
VP, Cloud Services Altova GmbH

What Is An Organizational Network?

Social Network
Interests Friendships Questions Stream of thought

Organizational Network
Team membership Responsibilities Decision making Stream of action

All companies have both, but most want to improve this kind of network.

So, Why Is Teamwork Complicated?

when a task is carried out collaboratively by more than one individual, the task activities of the various individuals also need to be coordinated and integrated, further increasing the complexity of the teamwork effort
Familiarity, complexity, and team performance in geographically distributed software development, Espinosa, J. et. al., Organization Science. 18.4

What do you get when you cross a spider web with a school of fish?

Meet Metcalfes Law

Organizational Network impact is exponential
Teams are networks That means:
LinkedIn likes this!

Capability goes up when you add members Team overhead gets crazy with size
The PMBOK worries about this

Think Positive!
Organizational Networks can be 2x as good as you think!
They help things get done They help us not need to do things
n(n-1) 2!!

Do not ask me again what is already apparent in the Organizational Network!

Beckstroms Law

So, how great is your network?

The value added by each pair of teammates Then sum all possible pairs

Network value must offset the high cost of communication and organization

But Remember What Didnt Happen

The value not lost by each pair of teammates Sum all those avoided costs

Subtracting negatives results in a positive. Simple math!

Wait, What Avoided Costs?

Verifying information Making many little decisions Negotiating uncertain situations Finding or recreating lost items Asking questions Giving work to the wrong person Waiting for inputs Etc.
An organizational network minimizes these distractions!

Dunbars Number
Apparently, humans can only handle a few social relationships The number is roughly
So many likes, so little time

150

Lets Extrapolate!

There must be similar limits for all kinds of information Like tracking dozens of roles & responsibilities across teams
But you dont have to remember what the Organizational Network remembers for you!

The Allen Curve

The frequency of communication between teammates drops exponentially as distance increases!
Hold my calls, Im in another state!

Flip It Around, Frequency Enables Distance

Increased communication enables greater distance with less disengagement

An organizational network amplifies team communication!

So How Do We Do That?
Remove nuisance communication Use savings for focused communication Make the whole job collaborative
Nuisances on slide 8!

When team members jobs are integrated in an organizational network everything they do is communication!

Put It All Together For Me!

The screenshots are from MetaTeam!

Some suggestions

Small Is Beautiful
Create fine-grained teams With specific names & limited members To help team members prioritize Teams as well as items of teamwork.

Try this here! Learn more here!

Minimize Drift And Distraction

Change goals, roles & responsibilities infrequently Let tasks, decisions & definitions change freely So work is fluid & relationships arent in doubt.

Try this here! Learn more here!

Reduce, Reuse And Recycle!

Lean on role conventions, Use words that are already defined, Store files in tasks, alternatives & responsibilities And add new decisions to successful agendas.

Try this here! Learn more here!

Choose Your Words

Give instructions in the most specific places, But give feedback in aligned roles & responsibilities, To separate doing work, From improving how work is done.

Try this here! Learn more here!

Thank you!
David Kershaw, PMP
VP, Cloud Services Altova GmbH http://metateam.net