Magus
Networker
NewFishLogo75

Developing great organisations ...
 ... in a sea of change

"While the informal structure was undoubtedly important in the traditional organisation, today it dominates."
(Champy J, Nohria N, Fast Forward 1996 HBSP, Boston)

If you stop to think about it, organisations are just empty shells or paper constructs without the people that populate them.  It is a simple truth that nothing can happen unless it is triggered in some way, at some time, by the actions of people.

Traditional thinking that was needed for a successful organisation included a well thought-out strategy; a few well-designed processes; a well-trained workforce; and a management hierarchy in a well-designed organisational structure; and all would be well for ever after.  If only ...

It is even more true today that organisations are highly complex entities, as are the people that work in them, with their multitudinous relationships.  Put all that complexity together and it is no surprise that organisations do not function the way, on paper, that might be expected.

It is becoming more and more widely accepted that the way organisations really work is through a multitude of interactions between people (often outside the formal hierarchy and across formal boundaries) who come together to get work done.  It is these informal networks that contain the power that drives value through to customers.  It is their power that is released and enabled through Magus Networker.

Magus Networker is a methodology that helps organisations reveal and understand the work-related informal networks amongst employees.  In doing so, Magus Networker taps into a major source of innovation.

We don’t claim to know the solutions to your problems, but we do know how to work with your people to help them identify causes, root causes and solutions.

The Networker process enables large numbers of people to be engaged in the identification of performance constraints and their causes; it stimulates open dialogue about issues, causes and actions; the change process begins immediately, and there is little, if any, resistance to change.  The data we provide people to work with is ‘hard data’ describing the realities of how the organisation actually functions, and how work relationships are formed to tackle built-in constraints.

All Networker applications are custom-configured to target client-specific, priority, business performance challenges, with web-based data collection to speed the application process.  Typical targets are:

  • productivity and continuous improvement
  • enabling innovation and problem-solving capacity
  • project and programme management
  • customer service quality
  • tackling social problems (public sector)
  • developing deep leadership
  • managing stress (reducing it, not coping with it)

Check the page with examples of successful Networker applications, and another with some sample case studies to see some of the types of challenge we have tackled.

The outcome is the initiation of a process of ongoing developmental change.  Since the process taps into the latent talent and energy that is present in all organisations, it means that the organisation gets a greater return on its intellectual capital and know-how.

Magus Networker:

  • Enables hidden constraints on organisational performance to be surfaced, and innovative solutions to be developed and implemented
  • Releases talent for innovation to be targeted on key business priorities and programmes
  • Enables client organisations to realise an increased pay-back from their investment in people
  • By building connectivity, enables improved collaboration and partnership working - horizontally between functions and organisations, and vertically between policy-makers, management, service delivery people and customers

For some screen-shots illustrating how Magus Networker graphical reports illuminate informal networks and stimulate focused dialogue, please click on the image to the right.

PowerSM

For a quick introduction to the concept of informal networks, please click on the image to the right

Team#1SM

For a short presentation on why informal networks are critical to performance management, and a description of one example Networker application, please click on the image to the right

NewFishLogo40

Back to top