An Inevitable Network of Relationships

Imagine this. You arrive at work, not necessarily in an office. Following you is the usual emails, a list of recent blog posts you follow, a stream of twitter tweets, requests from colleagues to be added to your social network page and a notice of a recommendation about you on LinkedIn.

Using your internet enabled telephone you are video conferencing with colleagues and customers - maybe even involved in a remote performance review with your immediate manager, while you respond to a variety of online messages and send your own. Your social networks enable you to share information, request help for a problem, catch up with friends, collaborate on a project with colleagues in different places, make a donation to your favourite charity.

This is not a blog entry about the virtues of technology. I am creating an analogy of the emerging network of relationships. Technology is simply the means to enable you to develop a broad relationship network. Technology is not a substitute for good, face-to-face, conversation it is a means of enabling communication in a world of remote and often virtual teams. Technology enables you to develop a web of networked contacts, each able to help you in a number of different ways. These contacts are valuable. In the past a good relationship builder may have had access to a network of ten to twenty people. Now a good relationship builder may have access to literally hundreds, maybe even thousands of contacts.

I would like you to consider the impact and consequences of a a networked society or a networked workplace. Where does leadership come from in these circumstances? How is trust developed and maintained? Where are the repositories of knowledge? Who becomes the influencers? What impact might the networked community have on flow of information? The balance of power? The decision making processes? Your ability to understand the systemic nature of your organisation, off your networks?


John Coxon