Every team is a network. We map networks by identifying the frequencies of exchanges of ideas, resources and help between people in the network, we do this through observation and survey. The survey questions are simple: With whom do you exchange ideas, resources and help and how often? We draw strength-relative lines between people based on the connections we discover. Every leader should do this to undertand where to focus their relationship building. This effort can take on an infinite array of forms, inlcuding basics like:
- Meeting with weakly connected people to outline how they could increase exchange frequencies
- Engaging the more connected people to connect unconnected people
- Leveraging stronger connections in new projects and efforts
The network maps become powerful tools to growing relationships on teams. This is important because the quality of the team's performance is less the the sum of individual efforts and more the quality of relationships.
