This service will appeal to service organisations that focus on traditional performance improvement services like Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, Benchmaking, TQM and Business Process Re-engineering. The organisational networking approach to organisational performance is people centred and focused on improving on collaboration. Prospective partners would be looking for new people and network centred methods to drive additional performance for their clients and themselves.
Traditional approaches to business improvement are largely top down and business process focused. The Organisational Network Analysis approach works from the bottom up, analyzing how work is actually performed, starting at the operational level. By complementing the traditional top down methods, exploitation partners will be able to offer a more comprehensive suite of tools and approaches for improving the performance of their clients.
Case Study - European Energy Company
Context European headquartered integrated energy company operating in 77 countries with nearly 80,000 employees.
The Problem As a mature industrial organisation the firm is continually on the lookout for productivity improvements. While traditional top down analysis techniques were currently being employed across a number of sites, the organisation was keen to explore what an organisational networking approach to performance improvement might surface.
The Solution An organisational network analysis conducted across a single site was able to identify capability areas at risk, areas of non-engagement with service providers like Health and Safety and organisational inefficiencies across all organisational units. A trust index analysis was provided to benchmark collaborative intensity.
The Benefits Many of the findings from the study were completely invisible to traditional business improvement techniques. For example, traditional methods assess organisational competencies by summing the individual capabilities of the staff. Network analysis can show how connected these individuals are. Highly connected networks infer a much stronger organisational capability than a group of isolated specialists. The organisation is now going on to repeat the exercise at other operational sites.
Case Study #2
Context Global natural resources company , Rail infrastructure and Operations division
The Problem Operating mainly in remote sites, sustaining a highly collaborative specialist engineering and technical capability is always a challenge. The challenge was to at first baseline the organisation and then provide recommendations on organisational improvements
The Solution An organisational network analysis was conducted initially to baseline the current operating groups in terms of core competencies and collaborative performance. A trust index analysis was provided to benchmark collaborative intensity. A follow on value network analysis was conducted between two organisational units using the Optimice Partnership Scorecard method to help facilitate better co-operation between the identified units.
The Benefits The organisational network baseline was able to identify areas of potential risk amongst the key disciplines required to run an effective railway. The Partnership Scorecard enabled the two units to articulate profitable value exchanges between the groups that would be required to develop and sustain a more trustful relationship.
Case Study #3
Context Internal IT division with some 4,000 staff, of a major European bank
The Problem The division had developed a well articulated organisational hierarchy with roles identified and described down to four layers of management. The Chief Information Officer however was concerned about the collaborative performance between units.
The Solution An organisational network analysis was conducted to identify the relative interdependencies between the operational units. Using a supply/demand analysis a number of overloaded and underloaded units were identified as potentially contributing to less than optimal performance.
The Benefits
The supply/demand dependency analysis provided new insights into the efficiency of the organisational design. By collecting data from 700+ middle management staff we were able to articulate more precisely where the inefficiencies existed. The analysis was validated when we were informed that one of the units we identified had been disbanded in the previous week.
Deliverables
The mapping of collaborative relationships is a key element of this pack. The most common method is via a direct survey. Access to Optimice’s ONA Survey tools with a pre-defined template of key questions is provided. A key survey question is to ask the degree to which an organisational role relies on other roles in order to maximize its performance. This simple question is able to deliver insightful role dependency maps which identify how the organisation is actually performing its tasks and activities. Partners are able to add additional questions as they see fit, but as a minimum, the template questions are required.
Example outputs - Dependency Network
The dependency network maps shows how individuals and organisational units depend on each other for performing their day to day work. Colours represent organisational units. If the organisation’s formal business processes aren’t visible in these maps then there is likely to be a mismatch between business design and business performance. Large nodes indicate key staff. Single large nodes in a unit indicate critical points of potential failure.
Trust Network Benchmarking Index
The trust index is developed from looking at the number of collaborative links that are reciprocated (two – way) as a proxy for trust. As can be seen from the above chart the trust network density can vary significantly between organisations. Strong hierarchically managed organisations tend to perform poorly on this index. Highly networked organisations tend to perform well.
Organisational Efficiency
A key principle when assessing organisational efficiency from a network perspective is the supply/demand balance between organisational units. The dependency map identifies which units are most depended on and which units are most dependent. Theoretically if an ideal organisational design would see a good balance of supply and demand for each organisational unit i.e. no waiting for overloaded units or no units under-utilised. This bar chart identifies those organisational units that are most imbalanced from either an excess of demand or severe under-utilisation.
The above network map identifies the key value sources and sinks. It shows those units that are major sources and who their demand is coming from; and those value sinks and which units they are drawing from the most.
This density chart shows where the interactions between units or locations are occurring. The diagonal shows the % of interactions that are internal.
This chart looks at a single business unit and identifies the nature of interactions both inside and outside the unit. The chart classifies the roles individuals are playing in the unit. The chart can be used to ensure that resources are balanced for optimal organisational performance.
A complementary pie chart representation can show where the supply and demand for the unit is going and coming from.
