That's great! So now what?...

Articles read:
"Valdis Krebs on Social Network Analysis from 1987 to 2007"
"A Practical Guide to Social Networks"

The slide show on Valdis Krebs points out that Social Network Analysis can be valuable in presenting patterns and links in a visual manner. What was once invisible has now been reavealed to us. How great! We can see why a company can have high turnover rates, how a business is set up and how that affects their effectiveness, we can even see how performance can be measured and discover that a slight drop can be due to the annual Christmas party. Wow, how valuable, isn't that neat?

Think of how innovative we can be now, think of all of the organizational changes we can make to be at the top of our game. Although I guess there is one problem, how are we going to do that? And are we really going to go through with all of these changes?

While interning at a local non-for-profit one summer I was told to make a chart with the company's employees names so that in the next meeting a board can be set up with the hierarchy so could be viewed, switched around, and ultimately reshaped. No problem, I heard the meeting was a success and the board was a real help. That happened in May and I left in August, I heard through the grapevine that everything is still the same. Of course this is isn't true in all cases. The Practical Guide to Social Networks tells us how Fannie Mae and Novartis, among others, were able to enjoy great accomplishments through social networking. There are now great tools that can help us in business but what I found most crucial is how we use them. We can chart, diagram, and reorganize all we want but what is most important is the people within these networks. It is crucial that we don't forget that we are ultimately the power behind these networks that cause that to succeed or fail.