{"id":607,"date":"2007-03-19T01:00:23","date_gmt":"2007-03-19T09:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/?p=607"},"modified":"2007-03-19T01:00:28","modified_gmt":"2007-03-19T09:00:28","slug":"capturing-collaboration-networks-in-hr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/?p=607","title":{"rendered":"Capturing Collaboration Networks in HR"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s much talk about collaboration networks these days. In truth, collaboration is how work gets done. Very few jobs require people to work in solitude to achieve their goals, and most work is best performed in either team environments or informal groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first problem is that almost nobody is capturing the collaboration network. How do you identify who has influence in the organization? Who has the relationships that facilitate knowledge transfer? Who do people go to for advice? Who gives the most advice that leads to successful projects?<\/span><\/p>\n

The second problem is that if you can\u2019t capture the collaboration network, you can\u2019t measure performance on it. Performance management is a very linear process. You build measurable goals and you measure them. But its very difficult to measure a person\u2019s overall influence on the organization\u2019s success. Often executives are bonused based on the financial success, but that executive might have relatively little to do with the results. Instead, the executive might have a subordinate who is highly respected and highly involved in projects and contributes through informal participation. <\/span><\/p>\n

The intersection of the collaboration network and performance management is the ability to identify who your major contributors are and rewarding them appropriately. You\u2019ll need to understand and map your collaboration network, and you\u2019ll need some really good analytics on the projects and work cross-referenced to that collaboration network. No, it\u2019s not easy \u2013 and I suppose that\u2019s why nobody is really doing it yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next step is identifying who your high collaborators are and your low collaborators, and identifying performance trends, not of the individuals specifically, but of the project teams and work they perform on. The idea is to understand the roles of high and low collaborators and best align each to specific types of work. You may also find that there are different types of collaborators \u2013 those who collaborate internally on a project, those who collaborate with customers, those who are always operating on the margins, but whose ideas provide high value.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lastly, figure out how to identify the types of collaborators you want and recruit them. This certainly isn\u2019t as smugly simple as I make it sound. In fact, I have no idea how to do it (that what the recruiting blogosphere brain trust is for). But I\u2019m guessing that in today\u2019s world of measurement and technology based talent acquisition, there\u2019s an on-line assessment out there somewhere that can do this.<\/span><\/p>\n

When someone figures this (all of the above) out in practice, please let me know\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

As usual, credit where credit is due. This article was inspired by a report in McKinsey Quarterly. ((Cross, Robert; Martin, Roger; Weiss, Leigh. \u201cMapping the Value of Employee Collaboration.\u201d McKinsey Quarterly, 2006, Volume 3.))<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s much talk about collaboration networks these days. In truth, collaboration is how work gets done. Very few jobs require people to work in solitude to achieve their goals, and most work is best performed in either team environments or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-strategies","category-talent-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}