Real Time SNA

I just got home from a two-hour joint presentation. Patti Anklam and I spoke at tonight's Mass Bay OD Learning Group. I get very amped up about public speaking in general and take a while to settle down after leaving the podium, so I have a feeling it could be a long night. In the meantime I figured I'd share another "spaghetti network" with you:

The exciting thing about this network is that we did it "live." I don't know many stories from people doing SNA on the fly. But now I can say from first-hand experience, it is possible to "map the room" in real-time, even with 70 people. BTW, if you want to do this, I advise you to arrange for a solid RSVP list and an energetic volunteer to handle data entry.

Now look again at the network. Can you find the people who RSVPed but didn't show up? Also, which node is the long-time coordinator of Mass Bay ODLG?

While our data entry volunteer was typing away, Patti and I also led a role-playing exercise. We invited 18 people to pretend they were specific leaders from a corporation in need of rapid response to a dangerous competitor. We asked each of the 18 role players, "Given your title, what three people do you most want to work with on this project?" They physically connected to their desired teammates with long strands of yarn, and we mapped that result in real time too:

It looked a lot messier in yarn!