The Hidden Power of Social Networks - Rob Cross and Andrew Parker

I heard Rob Cross speak on social networks at KM Cluster in NYC in March and wanted to learn more. His book , "The Hidden Power of Social Networks," is now out and my copy arrived in the mail today. In it, Rob Cross and Andrew Parker argue that most managers have little comprehension of how their employees actually interact to get work done or to subvert leadership’s objectives. Formal "org charts" do not reveal the real social networks that make or break an organization's performance. This book shows how to find, assess, and support the networks essential to getting work done.

Patti Anklam provides a useful review at the Amazon site. In it she says that this book “provides the most complete treatment of the subject of applying the understanding of social networks to organizations as you will find.” She adds, the book is the “first fully practical, actionable work on social network analysis in organizations.” Patti has extensive experience with social networks and was one of the ‘idea practitioners” listed in the back of “What’s the Big Idea” by Davenport and Prusack. She describes hearing Cross speak on social networks four years ago and, in true idea practitioner form, soon began to implement their ideas at her work. I recommend reading both her full review and the book.

Comments

[John Maloney]

Hi --

Rob's book was a premium at the Social Networks Summit in SF. It was very popular.

http://www.kmcluster.com/sfo/SFO_Summer_2004.htm

Rob also gave a talk.

One good point in the book is that SNA is descriptive, not prescriptive. Considerable mgmt skills/advice are rqr'd to achieve gains with SN techniques.

Cheers,

John

[Diane Jacobsen]

There was a very good presentation on Social Networks in developing “Communities of Practice” at an APQC KM conference in May 2004. This breakout group was very engaged and afterwards I followed up with some of the attendees that had used this methodology in their companies. I would agree with John "SNA is descriptive, not prescriptive. Considerable mgmt skills/advice are rqr'd to achieve gains with SN techniques"

In June I was lucky to meet Andrew Parker and I believe he would support the notion that the hard work is following the analysis. Gaining full understanding of the "nodes" of focus and how to proceed to achieve the desired business results is critical to success.