Understanding the formal and informal communication networks in your organisation is crucial to managing successfully.
The ARRC works with organisations and people across a number of different disciplines. Recently we have been developing a partnership with Graham Durant-Law, who specialised in social network analysis. This is a fascinating area of work, and we are finding that when this analytical tool is combined with qualitative evaluation techniques, an in-depth and much more insightful understanding is gained about how relationships and networks in an organisation are helping or hindering the achievement of goals. Graham has provided us with an introduction to social network analysis that we hope you find interesting….
With businesses increasingly operating with an evolving and interconnected series of networks, the need for analytical techniques to understand these relationships is growing. Social network analysis views relationships in terms of network theory, with each network made up of individuals or organisations and their interdependency. The resulting structures are often very complicated, but when analysed can reveal knowledge flows, relationships and social capital in an organisation, as shown in the map below.
There are a number of ways of mapping the networks of interest to your organisation. Structured interviews with staff can be used to provide detailed data on communication patterns, the flow of knowledge, and power and support networks in an organisation. Other techniques use on-line surveys with a greater degree of automation, and can sometimes include data from emails and documents. For example the To: and From: fields in emails can be used along with frequency data, to generate a network visualisation and associated metrics.
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The coincidence of the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry and Information Awareness Month offers the opportunity to explore how well our communities are using information and knowledge in regard to natural disasters. In early January this year the media carried horrific images and stories of the loss of life and damage caused by flooding in the southern Queensland towns of Toowoomba and Grantham and in the cities of Brisbane and Ipswich. Surprise was expressed at how such severe events could have happened. But the reality is that these floods have their predecessors, as explored in the article Queensland floods: information, history and knowledge.
Tags: Climate, Climate History, Floods, Information Awareness Month, Information management, Knowledge and Information Management, Knowledge management, National Library of Australia, Queensland Floods, Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry, Trove
Information and knowledge management | Bruce Boyes | 
5 May 2011 8:52 pm | 
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There is so much debate around the use of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the multitude of social media channels that are available – much of it negative (and often from those who don’t use it). I am constantly surprised at the number of people who think Facebook is for teenagers only, and that Twitter is just a time waster, and they don’t care what someone had for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have to admit I have not heard as much criticism of LinkedIn.
I have now reached a stage where much of my information is gleaned from these sources, and I love the fact that often the overload of information I normally receive via email is now condensed into 140 characters. I find that by following others with similar interests to me (story, knowledge management, librarianship, information management, sustainable living), I am exposed to so much more than I would normally gain access to. For example, one person I follow only tweets journal citations on Knowledge Management – I know this saves me so much time and effort that I no longer have to search for material in this subject area as someone else does it for me. He is also a librarian, and his search results are so comprehensive I would be very foolish to attempt to duplicate his efforts. Another example is the story or narrative network members on Twitter – I am constantly exposed to new material and ways of thinking.
If you want to follow us on twitter the Australian River Restoration Centre can be found @AustRiverRestor
When it comes to Facebook, I mainly use it for maintaining connections at a personal level, but there are also some brilliant examples of corporate and environmental organisations with information rich pages which I can access. One of the best I came across during the Queensland Floods was Goondiwindi Regional Council - an old school friend lives in this area and pointed me to it, and I was stunned at how the Council kept all its community members up to date, as well as encouraging them to share their knowledge of what was happening in the region. I also love the I care about water page. So many wonderful posts about innovative practices around the world when it comes to water and water health. The ARRC also has its own Facebook Page.
My all time favourite is definitely LinkedIn, which not only allows me to keep all my business contacts and networks current but also gives me access to some of the most fantastic groups on topics such as Catchment management, Knowledge Management, Librarianship, Natural resource management and many many more. The best part is that having managed very large teams in the past, I can access many of my former staff’s profiles, write a public reference for them, and also be reminded about the dates that we worked together, and the roles they had while working together. You can even access the ARRC on LinkedIn.
These are only three of the social media sites you might like to visit. There is a terrific posting by Ross Dawson on building success in a connected world which gives a lot more detail of the social media channels you might like to use. We can integrate training on social media into our workshops, so contact us if you want to know more.
Nerida
Nerida and I have just had a really interesting week working with the Sydney Metro CMA and the Lachlan CMA. We were fortunate enough to spend time with both groups in their regions, Parramatta for Sydney, and Young for Lachlan. In both cases we were running workshops focussing on WHY we do what we do, narrative techniques, the power of story, and how to use social media to reach new and ever expanding audiences.
We had expected there to be vast differences between the two CMAs, however, apart from the contrasts of a highly urbanised community, to one that was more dispersed across a wider geographic area, we mainly found similarities. The similarities we found were in the passion and commitment of CMA staff to the work they do, and their openness to learning about how to connect even more effectively with the communities they work within.
Perhaps the most enlightening moment for all involved came when we asked people WHY they do what they do? In both workshops the responses were the same – a belief in the need to protect and care for our environment, combined with a desire to ‘make a difference’. We were delighted to see people reconnect with their reason for doing what they do – knowing what you believe in is vital to sustaining yourself and those around you – it is why we do what we do and why the ARRC exists.
Siwan
Nerida and I have been running a number of workshops over the past year, and we eagerly read the evaluation forms we collect at the end of each of these events. In the lead up to two more workshops, I revisited the evaluation forms from the recent Melbourne and Sunshine Coast Council events. These quotes are from the qualitative parts of our evaluation forms:
“Thank you, communicating verbally in groups is not my strong point, but these techniques seem easy and less threatening – very valuable” (Melbourne)
“A great workshop with real application. I look forward to using some of these tools as we engage the Sunshine Coast community in implementing our Waterway Strategy” (Sunshine Coast)
Generally we leave it at that, just read through the comments and get a general impression of what attendees felt. Today, however, I put the results into a column format and I found it easier to get a picture of what people felt about our work. This diagrammatic representation of responses gave me a very good understanding about our strenghts, areas for improvement and how to continuously adapt to meet the needs of our clients.
Overall, this exercise confirmed my view that the evaluations with greatest insights are those that use both qualitative and quantitative assessment approaches.
Our Melbourne (graph 1) and Sunshine Coast Council (graph 2) results are shown below, with the categories from left to right recording how attendees felt about a range of workshop factors – meet expectations / presenters subject knowledge / maintain attendees interest / teaching methods used / relevance to attendees work / stimulating content / well organised / supporting workshop materials. The rankings are Excellent, Good , Satisfactory - just the one satisfactory out of 30 people, and I am pleased to say that there are no Poor rankings which is brilliant! Siwan
