Informal Network Diagrams: Are they taking over?

It always amazes me how fast and unexpectedly massive change can be in the field of business. It's a fact that the only constant in this dynamic environment is change, but, to tell the truth, the rate of this change is ever increasing year after year and day after day. What was working yesterday might not work today, and what is working today might not work tomorrow.

The first article I read was the interview with Mr. Cross titled "Connecting to Collaborate", and I was surprised to find out that Organizational charts are insufficient and don't show the whole picture. I mean, academically speaking, we all used to think that an organizational chart is a good method to represent the structure of an organization and show the different ranks within it. However, it turned out that people who are high on the hierarchical structure of the organization are not always the most influential people in the organization. And this is why informal network diagrams have been formulated; it's because "Appearances deceive"; formal hierarchies don't necessarily reflect actual lines of influence. And although these informal networks operate on their own, without the need of any diagrams representing them, presenting a more accurate portrait of the organization helps managers focus on strength points and reallocate weakness points.

When I looked to the sample network diagram in the article, I loved how it is very similar to computer networks, which tells me how generic the term network can be that it can fit as a prefix to so many things (Technological networks, social networks, and even biological & biochemical networks ! ... etc). Everything is constantly interacting with everything; everything matters and there is no "staying the same!" which, again goes back to the principle of constant change.

Picture taken from Economist Magazine (10-18-2007):

The second article I read "Social graph-iti", does not directly refer to the informal network diagrams in a business context, although it reinforces the need for having them for their great value in some forms of marketing. It centers specifically on the role of Facebook and it made me wonder "Yes, it's true that Facebook is now worth billions of dollars. But why? Why is it getting such high valuations? and is that justifiable?" Well, in my opinion, Facebook might be overvalued in the monetary terms, but it is definitely worth a lot more than anyone expected. And the reason for that, I think, is that the person who invented it "Embraced Change"; a concept that has been proven to be a timeless success principle. (The Success Principles by Jack Canfield). The world is becoming a more and more connected world; a little one village, as they say. And the guy who made Facebook was smart enough to identify that change and its great potential in many different fields including business. So he decided to embrace that, and not only did he create a social network (many before him did), but he also opened up gates of collaboration to other fellow developers; something that created a vast amount of unlimited possibilities.