Example Business Application

Integrating Networks Across Core Processes or Expertise

Informal networks across core processes are often fragmented by functional boundaries. Both cognitive and organizational barriers often keep groups from effectively integrating unique expertise, which can damage quality, efficiency, and innovation. As the process map did for re-engineering, ONA provides a diagnostic assessment of information and knowledge flow both within and across functions critical to a core process.

Challenge: In one global consulting organization we worked with a highly skilled group commissioned to provide thought leadership and specialized support to the organization's knowledge management consultants. This group was composed of people with either advanced degrees or extensive industry experience in strategy and organizational design or technical fields such as data warehousing or information architecture. By integrating these highly specialized skill sets, leadership of the consultancy felt the firm could provide a holistic knowledge management solution that would differentiate it from competitors focusing on solely technical or organizational solutions. However, the partner leading this group felt intuitively that the team was not leveraging its abilities as effectively as possible and asked us to conduct an organizational network analysis of information flow within the group.

Key Findings: It is obvious from the picture on the left that the consulting practice is broken into two different sub-groups with one person acting as a boundary spanner. Interestingly enough the practice was divided on precisely the dimension it needed to be connected, their unique skill sets. The group on the left side of the network was skilled in the 'softer' issues of strategy or organizational design, whereas the group on the right was composed of people skilled in 'harder' technical aspects of knowledge management such as information architecture, modeling and data warehousing.

Changes: A lengthy facilitated session with this group allowed them to assess and discuss the relative isolation of the two specialties. As a result of this discussion various changes were made to the group's operations. First, a variety of internal projects - ranging from white papers to development of a project-tracking database - were jointly staffed with one person from each group. Second, the partner implemented mixed revenue sales goals so that each of the managers were accountable for selling projects that included both a technical and organizational component. Finally, several new communication forums were created --- including weekly status calls, a short update e-mail done weekly and a project-tracking database. The result of these interventions was significant. Over the course of the next several months, the group began to sell more work that integrated technical and organizational skills and a network analysis conducted nine months later revealed a well-integrated group that was sharing information much more effectively.

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