1. Collaborative Efficiency:
A Critical Dimension of Network Effectiveness

2. Page 2© 2013 Activate Networks
Formal Structure
Sutherland
Sm ith
C rossley
D hillon
Zaheer
Keller
Angelo
Schultz
C ordoza
Klim chuck
M itchell
M cW atters
M yers
R am irez
Avery
M ares
H opper
H ussan
M ilavec
W aring
Informal Structure
Networks are often under-appreciated in comparison to
the formal structure.
Exploration & Production
Zaheer
Schultz
Mitchell
Klimchuck
Angelo
Keller
Smith
Geology
Dhillon
Myers
Petrophysical
Crossley
Exploration
Avery
Cordoza
Sutherland
Ramirez
Drilling
McWatters
Waring
Production
Hussan
Reservoir
Hopper
Production
Milavec
Senior Vice President
Mares

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Networks are often under-appreciated in comparison to
the formal structure.
S u th e rla n d
S m ith
C ro ssle y
D h illo n
Z a h e e r
K e lle r
A n ge lo
S ch u ltz
C o rd o za
K lim ch u ck
M itch e ll
M cW a tte rs
M ye rs
R a m ire z
A ve ry
M a re s
H o p p e r
H u ssa n
M ila ve c
W a rin g
Informal Structure
What are the downsides
to organizational or
individual performance
of too many Mitchells?
Matrix based structures
or many collaborative
tools don’t account for
imbalances in network
connectivity.

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Executive
Director
Director
1
Director
2
Director
3
Director
4
Associate
Director 1
Associate
Director 2
Associate
Director 3
Associate
Director 4
Associate
Director 5
Associate
Director 6
Portfolio
Lead
Admin
Formal Restructuring and Network Overload
18 DR 9 DR 0 DR 9 DR 11 DR 9 DR 8 DR 12 DR 0 DR 9 DR 2 DR
11 DR
65
Informal Collaboration: Including direct reports,
how many others indicate this person is an
important source of information and
collaboration?
105 75 75 66 73 41
92
Key Overloaded Individuals: would
reducing span of control to 8 DRs help
enough? More may be needed
Greater Access: What % of
collaborators indicate greater access
would be helpful or crucial?
18% 32% 25% 23% 20% 15% 22%
36%
Others seem to be doing well; maybe the solution is
unit-specific and not one-size-fits-all?
Subject Matter Experts:
Adding DRs can derail their
ability to positively impact org.
95
14%

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Too often the things that make you successful – being
accessible, a problem solver, etc – become career de-railers at
the next level of responsibility
• His effectiveness suffering…
•Health problems (overweight, high
cholesterol, pre-diabetic).
•Family problems (stress of work came
into home life).
•Interactions at work becoming more
toxic.
•Subordinates intimidated and over-
prepping.
•Peers though he was becoming an
A*(%)hole.
• His group’s performance was suffering…
• Many people on the fringe were
disheartened by missed opportunities.
• Several geographies were extremely
disconnected.
• Top team had significant blind spots
into key functions.
• Churn and gridlock on increasingly
routine decisions.
Meet Scott P.

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Scott initially focused on structural drivers of overload –
informational requests and routine decisions that he did not need
to be involved with
Project management: travel
approvals, capital approval,
budget, manuscript clearance
forms, project strategy, etc
Capital requests
and justifications
Alliance and collaboration
management
decisions (confidentiality
agreements, milestone
payments, etc.)
IT and data systems: data
management, tools,
reporting, workflow,
data processing
Performance review
and planning
processes that were
non-developmental.
Experimental planning,
protocols, setup and
design. Technical
planning and technical
alignment.

7. Page 7© 2013 Activate Networks
He also focused on behaviors –
things he did that created network reliance/overload
• Sent employees to meetings he had been attending to
either be “in the know” or protect his group.
• Began to ask more questions (and answer fewer) while
connecting people around him in the network.
• Was more selective on problems that he jumped into to
help others solve.
• Became more cautious in improving employees’ plans
(don’t do if not more than 25% impact).
• Focused on addressing conflict earlier so that problems
did not manifest deep into the network.
• Began using a blog to communicate certain ideas more
consistently.

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What Practices Promote Efficient
Collaboration In Your Organizations?
Five Minutes In Small Groups:
Identify three things you (or others) do to efficiently manage
collaborative demands and be prepared to share one from your group.
Think broadly about things like:
• Technology use (e.g., norms on email, use of collaborative tools, etc.)
and mis-use (e.g., do you move off email when sensing mis-alignment),
• Meeting planning (e.g., purpose, agenda, etc.), communication (who is
invited and prep, who is legitimately excused, etc.) and process,
• Shifting routine decision approvals or information requests (e.g., pushing
info requests to others, documentation, blogs etc.),
• Building bench strength and legitimacy of others in the network (e.g.,
taking them to meetings early so they can sub for you later) and keeping
them from pushing you back into central position by empowering.
• Checking your own tendencies (e.g., jumping in too early to solve
problems, handling bad news poorly, addressing conflict early, etc.).

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Structural:
1. What routine decisions are you involved in (such as travel approvals, hiring or
promotion decisions, and small capital expenditures) that could be reallocated to
less-overloaded people or embedded in a policy?
2. What information are you routinely sought for that could be made available through
others or on web sites?
3. What portions of your role could you shift to people deeper in the network as a
developmental opportunity for them?
4. Do people around you filter and focus inquiries to ensure that issues reaching you
are targeted to expertise you currently hold (and not what made you successful in
the past)?
5. Do you have buffering mechanisms (e.g., administrative assistants or calendaring
rules) that encourage collaborators to be focused and efficient when they meet with
you?
6. Do you employ periodic meetings to build vision and coordination (vs. too many
fragmented interactions that result in lost information and lack of alignment)?
7. Are you clear about what will be decided and who must be present at meetings you
run (and so relieve optional participants of the need to attend “just in case”)?
Are You An Efficient Collaborator?
(Ways of Promoting Efficiency Around You)

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Behavioral:
1. Do you drive too many decisions back to you by signaling (intentionally or not) that you need
to be in the loop? Can you create connections around or beneath you?
2. Are you too responsive or quick to help and so an easy outlet for people with problems?
3. Are you creating too great a reliance on you in expertise domains that have become less
central to your success now and in the future? Can you remove yourself from meetings or
use them as a way to develop key talent around you?
4. Do you hold people accountable for lack of execution (in as positive a way as possible)?
5. Do you act quickly to correct collaborative problems before they escalate?
6. Do you make decisions when you should – even in the face of ambiguity or less than perfect
information – so that you are not creating churn by asking others to un-necessarily study an
issue further?
7. When you make suggestions on employee’s work, do you focus on changes that will yield
significant (>25%) improvements?
8. Do you co-create solutions with employees such that they take ownership and need less
vision and motivational interactions with you over time?
9. Do you go face-to-face for high-stakes interactions and thereby reduce the need for follow-up
meetings by discovering and addressing subtle signs of dissent or mis-alignment early?
10. Do you switch from email to direct contact early when you see signs of misunderstanding?
Are You An Efficient Collaborator?
(Ways of Promoting Efficiency Around You)

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Network Overload Is An Increasingly Common Career De-railer
The Over-Loaded Leader or Expert
Issue: Intentionally or
unintentionally creates
heavy reliance on self.
Uses own time – and
others – inefficiently
Outcome: Personal
burnout, the
organization’s network is
too slow to respond to
threats or opportunities,
innovation and decision
making can stall
Decisions/Info You Can Shift
Behaviors You Can Alter

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Step 1: Identify Overload Points Driving Network In-efficiencies
Due To Style/Personality or Role.
Example: 71 people identified Person 1
as an effective source of info and 27
responded that greater access to him is
critical to improving their effectiveness.
Many of the people to whom
others desire more access are
also effective sources of
information.
This is likely driven by two issues:
– Structural: Requiring re-
allocation of decision-rights,
information access and role.
– Personal: Requiring
development of alternative
expertise and potentially
coaching.
Scatterplot based on:
• Information: Effective interactions
• Access: Greater access would improve
my efficiency
Person 1

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Decreasing Relational Load Is Important For
BOTH Performance and Well-Being At Work
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
%ofColleaguesRatingtheIndividualasan
EffectiveSourceofInformation
% of Colleagues Desiring Greater Access

14. Page 14© 2013 Activate Networks
Step 2: Identify And Remove Routine Informational or Decision-
Making Interactions (e.g., Travel Approvals).
Operations
• Demand / capacity analysis of FTEs
• Resource accessibility/request for support
• Resourcing of projects/initiatives
• Regulatory affairs and decisions
• Travel Requests
Expertise
• Best practices & historical view
• Drug metabolism
• External grants and collaborations
• Modeling and simulation
• Clinical protocol
HR Policies
• Hiring
• Personnel decisions
• Talent management
• Conflict management
• Compensation, employee status
Project Management
• Approach to protocol design
• Scientific project execution
• Consistency on analytical approach
• Communication updates
• Preparing presentations

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•Drafted guides on overall decision-making
principles and practices. Embedded routine
decisions or focused on new “go to” people.
•Dramatically reduced numbers and sizes of
committees (e.g., consolidated pricing and
distribution committees).
•Meeting management practices.
•A cultural and behavioral change program
demanded individual accountability and reduced
the cost of inclusion/sense of entitlement.
•Leaders encouraged risk taking amongst well-
positioned experts in the network.
Number of hours employees reported spending
with...
4941 4822
2835
2378
1116
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
Input
providers
Advice
providers
Those who
"needed to
know"
Decision
makers
Those who
"wanted to
know"
60%
Step 2: And Consider Cultural Drivers of Over-Inclusion

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Step 3: Address Collaborative In-Efficiencies Accruing
Around Roles and Low Performers Within Roles
Number of times individual produced value in
collaboration with colleague
Total Interaction time
Organizational Lead
Project Manager
Less Effective Employees
Just Helping The 20 Least
Effective Employees To
Become Average Yields
Savings of 38 FTEs

17. Page 17© 2013 Activate Networks
Improving Collaborative Efficiency – Bio Tech Example
• ONA at R&D department of major global biotech company revealed that
first-line leaders varied considerably in collaborative efficiency
• Senior leadership saw opportunity to improve collaboration practices
amongst least efficient first-line leaders
• Without senior management present, all first-line leaders were gathered
for a morning-long workshop to discover and share best practices
• Highly efficient first-line leaders were paired with least efficient first-line
leaders (without their knowledge) and asked to find 3-5 collaboration
practices that differed between them
• Each pair then focused on the one collaboration practice that they felt was
most valuable to share with the group, and produced guidance that was
then shared with all at the workshop
• In a freeform discussion at the end of the workshop, many participants
could point to 5-10 things they would do differently and some admitted
they had never appreciated how their interaction habits influenced others

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Wrap Up & Discussion
Collaboration is critical but does impose
a real and growing cost to employees
and organizations.
We are obviously just beginning to think
about this in our research – what
directions do you think we should
pursue with these ideas?

19. Page 19© 2013 Activate Networks
Proportionately More Efficient People
Proportionately Less Efficient People
If people who are proportionately less efficient improved to
the average time per interaction, just over 10 FTEs would
be gained in this group of 109 People.
Role with the Highest # Hours Spent in Internal Interactions
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
# of Incoming Ties
Total#HoursinIncomingInteractions
Avg Time =
1.9 hrs/tie
Proportionately
more efficient
Proportionately
less efficient
Name
Avg Time In
(hrs/wk)
# Incoming
Ties
Incoming Time
(hrs/wk)
Joseph 9.00 2.00 18.00
Kathy 8.17 3.00 24.50
Mauricio 5.75 8.00 46.00
Matthias 4.86 7.00 34.00
Suzanne 3.71 7.00 26.00
George 3.50 12.00 42.00
Jorge 3.35 10.00 33.50
Tamara 3.12 17.00 53.00
Peter 2.60 10.00 26.00
Louis 2.50 16.00 40.00
Juan 2.41 35.00 84.50
Sameer 2.30 22.00 50.50
Name
Avg Time In
(hrs/wk)
# Incoming
Ties
Incoming Time
(hrs/wk)
Isabella 1.11 22.00 24.50
Roman 1.07 7.00 7.50
Ray 1.02 21.00 21.50
Jeffrey 1.02 51.00 52.00
Jose 1.00 16.00 16.00
Rosita 1.00 4.00 4.00
William 0.97 54.00 52.50
Hunter 0.96 54.00 52.00
Ajay 0.90 10.00 9.00
Pranab 0.90 5.00 4.50
Grace 0.86 11.00 9.50
Carlos 0.77 11.00 8.50
Luke 0.72 16.00 11.50
Step 3: Address Collaborative In-Efficiencies Accruing
Around Roles and Low Performers Within Roles

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How We Best Help Organizations Address This
Problem With Network Analytics?
In a typical work week what percent of your time do
you spend on the following three activities:
• On the phone,
• On email and
• In meetings – virtual or face to face.
Collaboration overload is a big problem with
implications for efficiency, innovation and well-being
at work. How should we best study this together?

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Senior VP
Time Per
Interaction
1.2
1.5
1.7
2.1
2.4
2.5
Jr Analyst
30.2
25.9
17.0
15.4
10.4
9.4
2.6
2.8
33.6
29.6
Avg Incoming
Time Per Person
A Second Way To Focus On Formal Structure Is By
Diminishing The Impact Of Hierarchical Decision-Making
Solutions can take
many forms:
• Reducing formal
approval layers
• Revising
committee or
governance
structures
• Leadership training
and accountability
for timely decision-
making
• Cultural change
programs fighting
over-inclusiveness