InFlow X-Ray Reveals How Organization Really Works

Henry Mintzberg, a professor and organizational expert, calls these diagrams of how organizations really work: organigraphs. He explains, "An organization is not a fixed set of communication patterns, but numbers of people interacting in a complex web." Sociologists call these diagrams of human interaction: sociograms.

Want to see what is really going on inside your company? Use Organization Network Analysis [ONA] to reveal the relationships that get things done! ONA is a methodology that allows you to connect the dots in your organization and visualize the results in an organigraph or sociogram.

In the early 1990s one of our I/T clients was concerned that technology was moving very fast and they were losing their leadership position. They wanted to investigate what really happens during strategic planning for new information technology products and services -- they wanted to see how knowledge is exchanged and how innovation happens inside their complex and distributed organization.

Our client discovered many new dynamics -- they saw where the planning process worked well and where they had to improve their cross-functional information flows and knowledge exchanges. An emergent expert -- a hub of knowledge -- was discovered. The expert is highlighted by the red arrow in the x-ray.

Copyright © 1995, Valdis Krebs.