How do we reshape our business models? How do we bring digital transformation into practice? How do we do this in the most resource-efficient way possible?
Guest contribution by Prof. Dr. Kathrin Köster - Köster + Partner
Companies around the world are facing a mountain of future and current changes. In light of this, many feel overwhelmed, and exhaustion and blind activism often alternate in rapid succession.
When looking for an efficient and effective way to achieve success and joy in what we do, it is extremely helpful to set aside two deeply rooted but inaccurate assumptions:
- Good solutions have to be complicated. If they were simple, someone else would have done them long ago.
- Big changes can only be achieved through force and painful effort.
These misconceptions prevent us from recognizing and using simple solutions.
Large changes are almost always the sum of many small changes. And every tiny step we take in the desired direction brings us closer to the goal and gives us a different perspective. That is why it makes sense to start with these small steps, which are usually relatively easy to implement.
One of them is the use of so-called Network Mapping. The aim is to make the relationships and contacts of each individual team member, or even the entire organization, systematically transparent and usable.
This opens up new possibilities and paths for moving things forward quickly and effectively. You can think of it as creating and using bridges and shortcuts that shorten many paths and make some goals achievable at all within a reasonable amount of time.
What does “Network Mapping” mean in concrete terms?
Aggregating and visualizing all the contacts of all team members that are relevant to achieving a goal or working on a project. By systematically illustrating these potential contacts on the one hand and the knowledge holders that can be reached through them on the other, new ways to achieve a goal can be found quickly and measures can be implemented by drawing on existing knowledge.
What does that feel like?
“How could we have missed that our UX department in the other business unit has already been working on this?”
“I didn’t know you had programmed apps in your previous job and were really part of the scene.”
“What? You are in contact with engineering? I don’t even know Rolf Walter…”
In our experience, just two hours of network mapping at the start of a project lead to valuable insights that simplify the approach. Before you know it, new solutions are found and initial sub-tasks are taken on directly. That means a particularly important step has already happened: implementation has almost imperceptibly begun.
Using a visualized network map shows all team members in a clear and vivid way how to tackle upcoming tasks more effectively once they can see the core team, the people and groups in the periphery, and the relationships between them:
- Are clusters visible? And to what extent do they fit the project goal?
- Is it easy to reach people in the periphery who are important for further project implementation?
- Are there individual actors who influence or even slow down the flow of information (“bottlenecks”)? If so, how can this be remedied?
- Who could act as a bridge to key people outside the core?
- Which peripheral people could add significant value if they became part of the core network?
- Is the core network large enough and well connected enough to carry the project?
- Where are network members (“brokers”) who connect different groups?
- Which steps need to be initiated to activate the “optimal” network and make it reliably usable for the project?
- Who is missing from the network?
- Where should connections be strengthened and which ones should possibly be reduced?
A detailed guide for running a Network Mapping workshop can be found on the Köster + Partner website.
The Network Mapping tool belongs to the “structure” track of our 12 Alignment approach, which helps companies create a framework for their transformation of strategy, structure and culture.
As a professor, author, entrepreneur, coach and learning designer, Prof. Dr. Kathrin Köster is a true multi-talent, and we are very grateful for this contribution on the topic of digital transformation and change management, a challenge that also accompanies us at ElevateX at all times. Thank you very much!
Did you know …
- that more than two billion Android devices and over one billion iOS devices are in use worldwide?
- that the average user unlocks their smartphone 85 times a day?
- that more data traffic is now generated via mobile devices than by desktop users?
Our world is mobile - your company should be too. We would be happy to advise and support you on the path to a digitized company. Schedule a free appointment with us.
