Your group has been hired by a global consulting firm to analyze the degree of collaboration within that organization. This global consulting firm has been brought together by a series of several small acquisitions and recently an organizational change initiative (i.e., a reorganization to support and improve several Practices). It has now been six months since the change initiative. The Senior Partner is not happy with the way the groups are working together and he has asked you to conduct a social network analysis so that he could better understand the extent of (or lack of) collaboration and knowledge sharing across the different Practices. The Senior Partner is worried that silos exist between the European and U.S. offices. Also, by talking to members of the different Practices, he seems to think there is effective collaboration within each Practice, but not across Practices. But, he is not sure. The firm, he believes, would greatly benefit if the different Practices would work together to share best practices, conduct joint project efforts, and pass along client leads. The Senior Partner is also worried that there are a few central people that people turn to for information, and these people might be overburdened, or worse, are acting as a bottleneck. There has also been high attrition recently, especially among the new hires. The firm also viewed its IT infrastructure as “leading edge”, but a current assessment showed that IT was being used more as a way to support a taxonomy-based codification strategy than it was to support collaboration among knowledge workers. The Senior Partner was curious to know if social IT/media applications (which was lacking in the current IT platform) could help connect knowledge workers to subject matter experts, and also “unstructured” knowledge (residing both inside and outside the organization) that was playing a larger and larger role in their business. Something seems wrong with firm, and the hope is that the SNA analysis would shed some light on the situation. Once problem or opportunity areas have been identified, the Senior Partner is also expecting your group to come up with action items to address these areas. Company 1 Survey Your group has finished conducting an SNA survey with a group of 46 people in this global consulting firm. The survey consisted of 2 network questions (see below) and individual attribute questions (see Company 1 spreadsheet). The SNA survey results are in the Company 1 spreadsheet. You conducted a thorough SNA analysis by following the SNA Tutorial starting on slide 12. 1). Information Network: Please indicate how often you have turned to this person for information or advice on work-related topics in the past three months: 2). Energy Network: When you interact with this person, this person provides you with positive energy to do your work.

1. Strategy for increasing collaboration and
knowledge sharing across Practices & Locations
Mireille Boutin, Ross Hanson, Joe Plummer, Tamar Salter, Amir Samakar
Oct. 2012, Babson College

2. Situation: Several small acquisitions and a recent
organizational change initiative six month ago have
contributed to creating the following social networking
issues across the different Practices.
Issues/Hypothesis
• Silos between Regional Offices (European – U.S.)
• Ineffective collaboration across practices
• IT supports taxonomy-based codification strategy but
not collaboration among knowledge workers
• High turnover among new hires
• Few central people to go to for information

4. Geographic collaboration relies on a few
individuals
By Region

5. The US group is better connected internally
Central
By Region Person
Broker
Central
Person
Peripheral
Person
When viewing by Region – Interaction between EU and US is minimal with huge silos

6. Tenure varies significantly by region
Tenure vs. Region
16
14
12
10
8 EU
U.S.
6
4
2
0
0-2 2-5 5+

7. The US has one location, Europe has multiple
offices
When viewing by location - All are in huge silos not
communicating with one another
By Location

8. The Boston location is very diverse
Hierarchy vs. Location
10
9
8
7
6 Research
Junior
5
Senior
4
Managing
3 Partner
2
1
0
Boston London Paris Rome Madrid Oslo Copenhagen

9. By Practice
• IT Department completed isolated with very little
communication with other practices

10. The Industrial practice is diverse in terms of
roles
Hierarchy vs. Practice
7
6
5
Research
4
Junior
Senior
3
Managing
2 Partner
1
0
Health Government IT Oil Pharm Industrial

11. People with higher tenure are central
communicators
By Tenure

12. Tenure in different practices vary widely
Tenure vs. Practice
7
6
5
4
0-2
3 2-5
5+
2
1
0
Health Government IT Oil Pharm Industrial
Tenure by Practice
Industrial practice has a good mix of tenure
The Healthcare and Pharmaceutical don’t have new hires

13. Recommendations

14. Use Social Media to Facilitate Internal Communication and
Connections
WebEx Social, Yammer, IBM Connect provide the means for people to share their
knowledge, insight and experience on their terms without the hierarchical tendencies
of traditional Knowledge Management.
Allow self-forming groups/communities across
regions, practices, role, tenure
Users participate in enterprise social media because they value and identify with the
purpose. They do so because they want to, rather than being told to as part of their
job. See what happens!
Role model desired behavior and share successes
Focus on top-down usage without top-down KM. Partners should be first and active
users, encouraging subordinates by creating meaningful online content to facilitate
collaboration. Examples of how this collaboration helped teams be more successful
should be broadcast in a newsletter.

15. Encourage Collaboration Among Different Location
The social media platform will enable firm members from different locations to work
on common projects of their choosing.
Rotate Firm members Between Different Locations
Most firm members are located in Boston. All practices except IT are available in
Boston. By rotating a few people in similar practice between Boston and other
locations, network could be improved by creating new connections. Start with
rotating:
Assign Firm members a mentor in a different
location, complementary industry
Matching each Firm member with someone more senior in a different location will
encourage growth and development. A social media platform such as Qrew can be
used to keep everyone connected and track professional development goals.

16. Align Personal Goals
Assign a portion of annual bonus of all firm members to total revenue/profit of
company. It will create incentives for the people to align their personal goals with the
company , and will encourage collaboration.

17. Thank You!