The Value of Nodes and Node Communities in Organizations

Traditional organizations and hierarchies are defined at least in part by the boundaries they create within and without, but that needn’t necessarily be the case. Node communities have an opportunity to evolve by rearranging some of the core presuppositions of traditional organizations. These are just a few of the value propositions that nodes and node communities present for organizations when they are considered more than just disruptive.

Efficient and Effective Flow of Information

Imagine the unlimited possibilities within organizations if the node and node community were viewed as core structural elements. If the node and node community were seen as natural organizational design structures that enable and provide open flow of and access to resources as opposed to creating boundaries and barriers among individuals, the idea of a bottleneck would become almost obsolete. With node communities equipped with the capacity for each node to work with information flowing in the form of documents and words, less time is wasted waiting for orders, productivity increases as available nodes are recruited for tasks needing assistance, and the overall goals of the organization retain a more central focus. Nodes can push or pull, freely share, and accept information from others while not having to depend on a central source to fulfill work assignments.

The Expertise of the Whole Community

In his bestselling book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes the Law of the Few in explaining Milgram’s six degrees of separation. Six degrees of separation does not mean everyone is linked to everyone else within six steps. It means a very small number of people are linked to everyone else in a few steps, while the rest of us are linked to the world through those special few. The node community and its supporting technology allow us to understand and use this phenomenon to improve how we work in organizations and how we predict outcomes. If decisions could be made in a timely manner or errors corrected as soon as they were noticed, risks would be anticipated and addressed more expeditiously. Weak links in the community would be identified, repaired or replaced, and all nodes would possess the capability to perform each function effortlessly. We would no longer have to rely on a few specialized skills or designated functions but would be able to draw on an entire node community for their expertise and insights.

Nimbleness and Response to Change

If the node is the physical entity connecting and binding a community, then the node community is the primary entity in which nodes connect. It is more than a social network: it is a workflow network —the architectural and structural design of how work gets done. The strength of the organization shifts from the strength of the individual making decisions to the degree to which information can be organized and used as a tool to make informed decisions by the whole. The organization of information is the broadest concept for decision making.

Where the power of traditional hierarchy was in its static chain of command and its ability to set and maintain boundaries, the power of the node community is in its ability to be dynamic and to shift according to a set of principles that guide how information is sent, received and organized. Because of the structure of traditional organizations, relations largely have to do with the boundaries they themselves have created. In node communities, relations have to do with what is actually occurring here and now, allowing for a certain nimbleness of response to internal and external change to which larger, more traditional organizations may take months or years to respond. Additionally, the power of the node and its community means they have an abundance of information to share and receive, where each infusion (via sending and receiving) increases the strength of their connectedness.

Real-Time Feedback and Dialogue

Feedback is only important if it is relevant now. Feedback should be given in real time, focused on what is happening now, and given because it helps organizations make better and more accurate assessments and decisions for the company and the industry. Dialogue, telling stories, and sharing are types of feedback with lasting benefits. This type of feedback is important to convey the human aspect of data and improves the quality of information—it humanizes the information human and gives it context. Feedback also encourages others to pay close attention to what their constituents are doing and then find meaningful ways to convey that action.

A real-time feedback system facilitates a broader face-to-face scoring system. The node community constantly sends and receives information that can only strengthen node connective tissues; it’s an organic system for knowing how everyone is doing. The integrated nature of the node community facilitates real-time feedback and dialogue that can provide critical transfer of knowledge.