. . . one of the [important] pieces… is to get that sense of ‘we’re not in this alone,’ that ‘we have more connections than we know.’
Maya Townsend is the founder and lead consultant of Partnering Resources, helping individuals, teams, and organizations thrive in our networked world. She is co-editor of the Handbook for Strategic HR: Best Practices in Organization Development from the OD Network (AMACOM, 11/2012) and her articles on networks have been published in CIO, Nonprofit Quarterly, Mass High Tech, Chief Learning Officer, Talent Management, and other online and print media. She serves on the Editorial Review Board for OD Practitioner, the premier organization development practitioner journal in the United States.
Maya was recently engaged to speak at the Annual Convention of the Ohio Association of County Boards for Developmental Disabilities (OACB). She was invited by Adam Herman, OACB’s Communications Director, who had heard her speak about networks.
Every county in Ohio has a board that funds and oversees services for people with developmental disabilities. Some of the boards are tiny and have few resources, while others, in the major metropolitan areas are larger – but all have challenges. Adam wanted to help county board staffers shift from thinking of themselves and their counties as isolated, disconnected entities. He wanted boards to understand networks and how they operate so they could use network knowledge to communicate more effectively within their counties and with their colleagues across the state. He wanted to help people understand where capabilities resided within the state so that they could draw on each other as needed. Overall, he saw a future for the county boards in which they embraced and leveraged the power of networks to do their work more effectively.
For this type of presentation, Maya typically uses network maps to illustrate network concepts.
I want people to have a concrete experience with a map, with being able to see a network. Usually, people don’t have that capacity. They’re not used to it. They can draw their ego network (the people that they’re connected to) and they have some sense of their second degree networks (who those people might be connected to).
[The ability to get a picture of a whole I think is valuable and needed now more than ever.] We’re in a volatile world…where things are changing constantly and often people need to reach out into those extended networks for help and support. In today’s world, they’re also impacted by what happens a few degrees out. So, the more they can see those extended networks, the more prepared and more resilient they can be when the unexpected happens because they’ll have a better sense of the resources available to them.
For this particular engagement, Maya wanted to help people experience networks and gain the ability to visualize them. She saw an opportunity to use sumApp and Kumu as her mapping tools to create a network map in real time. She wanted to create a network map of the session participants, starting from when they walked in the door, and culminating in a completed map for them to interact with before the session was over. She reached out to me to see if I thought that would work.
Of course I said yes! I do all kinds of cool stuff with sumApp & Kumu, and I’ve been dreaming of building a map with a live group, in real time – but haven’t found the right opportunity yet. So when Maya reached out, I was already primed to get on board & support her efforts however I could. Which turned out to be crucial, because the event ended up coinciding with the release of the new version of sumApp. That meant we were still getting the technical kinks worked out, and – in this instance – it wouldn’t have worked if I hadn’t been on hand to troubleshoot the incipient crisis.
WHY DO IT LIVE? (Wouldn’t that be a lot of hassle?)
This was Maya’s first experience working with both sumApp and Kumu. I asked her what made her choose to make that bold leap of learning in front of a group.
There were multiple reasons. The first was a very personal reason, which is that, I wanted to have experience with sumApp. I wanted to see how it worked.
The second thing is that I wanted to make networks and network mapping more accessible. I’ve been doing network mapping now for about ten years. When I first started, a lot of the tools out there were hard for people to relate to. They came out of academia. They were fantastic tools, but they talked about things like eigenvectors and stuff like that. People didn’t understand the technical terms and couldn’t make the connections to their work.
And so, over the last ten years I’ve been searching for more and more ways to make networks accessible because I think they’re very important, especially for non-profits that are so much dependent on their extended networks in order to survive. Having a visualization tool can give them a much better handle on what their ecosystem looks like and who they have to work with.
I wanted them to be able to see that we’ve moved to a place where there’s now a tool that’s fairly accessible, …fairly easy to use, and that can give them concrete value. That’s what I was really hoping, that they would come away thinking, “oh, this isn’t so hard” and “wow! this gives me something that I can really use.”
THE SET-UP
Before the conference, Maya set up a survey in sumApp & had a few testers input data. She used the sumApp ‘live .json link’ to feed the data directly into Kumu automatically, and then prepared her map views & settings in Kumu. Adam provided her with a list of the people who had signed up ahead of time for her breakout session, she loaded them into sumApp and – aside from some sumApp technical snafus she uncovered, which I dealt with on my end – she was set to go.
During the conference, Maya led a 3 hour workshop on Network Leadership and Communication. Though she had pre-loaded the early list into sumApp, she knew that some people wouldn’t show up and others would choose her session at the last minute. She prepared, so she had a paper form for new people to give her their names & email addresses as they entered, so that she could load the new names into sumApp during the activities.
At the very beginning, Adam tee’d things up by telling the group they were going to do an experiment and test a new way of mapping. Then Maya did a presentation and held a discussion about networks: what they are, why they’re important, different kinds of leadership and the roles of the network weaver – building off of June Holley’s work. They talked about some of the challenges involved in a network. And then she segued into mapping with a conversation around how often it can be overwhelming to work in networks because they’re hard to visualize, they’re complex, they’re dynamic. . .
…but luckily, now we have tools to do that and we’re going to practice one here and now… and I introduced them to sumApp and Kumu. Then I said, “ok, so here we go, check your emails. There’s going to be something waiting for you from sumApp.” And they went in and checked and there it was, so, they started to fill in their information. It was a very simple one question survey around how they connected with folks in the room. It also asked them for needs and offers — what skills or connections to they need and what offers do they have to share with others in the room.
THE MAIN PARTS OF THE SESSION
After launching the sumApp survey, Maya took the participants into the hall for some experiential activities. They started with a continuum activity, asking people to go on a continuum to the place that best represented their county board on several different scales (boundaries, flexibility, inclusivity, etc.). Then they discussed leadership styles needed for networks, which are different from the styles needed in traditional functional hierarchies, and did an activity around that. Then:
We did something I do with groups often, where we experience a network physically. We identified people to be hubs and gatekeepers and went through an activity where they could see how those roles influence a network.
During that time, people still were updating their information. We had a few new people come in for the second hour. We added them. In the meantime, you and I were frantically Slacking back and forth about “what’s happening” and “is this going to work?”.
As I mentioned, we did encounter some serious technical difficulties together. While Maya guided her session participants through their activities in Ohio, I was working feverishly at my desk in Minnesota. I spent most of that day, banging away on my keyboard in Slack and Trello as our Project Manager in California and our developers on the other side of the world worked through a cascade of bugs, testing, resulting new bugs, testing, clarifications, new fixes. I was feeling really guilty for letting Maya go ahead with the plan so soon after the transition – horrified at the possibility that the final map wouldn’t be there for her at the end of the session, which seemed entirely likely up until about 5 minutes before she needed it. But I kept pounding on my keyboard and Maya took the behind-the-scenes drama in stride (much better than I did) and in the end. . .
There were a few technical problems, as always, right? For a few people, the email wouldn’t go past their firewall, so I ended up sending it to their personal email. But overall people found it very easy to navigate sumApp. They had no problem with that. Once the emails got in their inbox they could figure it out. The only thing they had questions about is, “what’s an avatar?” and, so, I had to say, “that’s a photo. You can upload a photo if you want,” because they weren’t familiar with the term avatar.
In the third hour [of the workshop], I gave them one more invitation to update their information in sumApp. At the end of the session I opened up Kumu to show them their map. By then, we had gotten the automatic feed working. So, the map was there and it was beautiful. They were very interested in seeing the patterns that existed.
THE MAPPING PRESENTATION & DISCUSSION
The very first thing I asked them was, “what do you notice when you look at this?” “What pops out to you?” . . . They had some interesting observations right from the start.
Then I said, “okay, you were able to spot the hubs and the gatekeepers when we were out in the hall, can you spot the hubs and gatekeepers here?” . . . We started exploring hypotheses like “why do we think Ryan is a hub?” People had various hypotheses, which we then checked with Ryan. It was [a] conversation of collectively trying to interpret ‘what does this mean?’. It was really fun.
I had to be very sure to tell them that the map just represented the network in the room. It wasn’t the entire network. We were able to find some critical connectors, there were some hubs, there were some gatekeepers. But I had to give the caveat that [those critical connectors were]just based on who [was in the room for the session]..
In the end, however, they were able to see what a network looks like. They were able to see how you could use the network to find skills, to find offers, and they could also use it to find connection points — who could be their entrée into areas that they might not know about?
In a follow-up [to the conference], I shared the link to the map with them and encouraged them to continue to use it; to search for needs and wants. And I created two short videos for them around the basics of Kumu and then how to do that search for needs and offers.
Maya also experienced something I see a lot – some people love this stuff and others are completely disinterested.
It was interesting because there were some people who left; who said, “you know what, this is not for me.” At the same time, word also spread and more people showed up. . . I had people who came to me and said, “oh my gosh, I love this. This is what I’ve been looking for.” So, for the people who got it, it was right on for them.
And for those who ‘get’ it, it’s not really the techno-bells and whistles that are meaningful, it’s the mental shift these tools help support:
Something that Adam was very clear on [was that] he was hoping to affect a very particular change – and I think this did occur for many of the folks in the room – to stop thinking of themselves just as their county board, just as their county, and gain a conception of themselves as being connected to a wider movement, a wider effort, that has all sorts of resources in it. [This was important] because. . . people get wrapped up in their day-to-day, the demands of the constituents they’re serving, and the issues in their particular location. Sometimes, particularly in some of these smaller areas, it can feel stressful because there’s so much depending on a small group of people. There’s stress in the larger urban areas as well but for different reasons. And, so, I think one of the pieces here is to get that sense of ‘we’re not in this alone’ that ‘we have more connections than we know.’
They did get that larger sense of connection. Adam was happy because he had been wanting to do this for years. The combination of the sumApp plus Kumu allows him to do [this]. He was delighted that it was affordable because these network tools can be quite expensive.
MAYA’S TAKEAWAYS
I asked Maya she learned from the experience.
I learned that this can work, first of all. I learned that we can connect the dots—which is of course what networks do—but we can connect the dots between theory, a physical experiential activity with networks, and a technological platform for visualizing networks. We can bring all of those things together, which is powerful because it gives people who take in information [and learn] in multiple ways [many] ways in which to understand what a network is and why they should be aware of and in touch with their networks.
I thought it went beautifully and there was a lot of very positive feedback.
The tool was very easy to use. And what a gift to have that immediate feed in so that we can see the network as it develops. One day, I’d like to be able to put [the network map] up and watch it grow over time as people put in their data. We’re not there, yet. But being able to show that real-time, to be able to go from a project from start to finish in three hours was amazing.
What I would do differently? First of all, obviously I would have some of the kinks worked out. There were a few moments of heart palpitations, but that all worked out.
Because I was presenting, it was hard for me to do the data monitoring. I would probably bring an assistant or have someone there to enter in the emails for me and also check the handwriting. I did say to people “please write clearly, please write clearly” and, of course, there were still some scribbles that I had no idea [how to decipher]. I know that you had talked about collecting information via a Google form and I might do that next time instead, as opposed to relying on handwriting. So, I would do those things.
And, if possible, prepopulate. And that’s not always — at a conference like the one I was at you don’t know who’s going to be in the room so you can’t — but if I was doing this with an intact group where I knew who the members would be, I would have that all preloaded so that I could simply send out the information and go with it from there.
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
Maya’s experiment also gave us both a very real and personal experience of what a network awareness and sense of connection can provide.
I have to give the tip of the hat to you, because what went well was the amazing amount of support you gave. I have actually never felt so supported in this kind of work before and it gave me real confidence in the tool that you were there to help and troubleshoot.
That comment left me contemplating the beautiful irony of my acute awareness the entire time of how close to failure we were, while she was able to focus on the group and her job and let me have her back. Memories came to me of examples from my own life, revealing how enabling and powerful simple shared awareness & attention can be – even without material support, and even without successful outcomes – the difference it makes – how much more one can accomplish – simply from knowing one isn’t in it alone. I mentioned that to her – about how that sense of support is core to our purpose in making network maps.
Yes, yes. Having someone who’s checking in. Someone who knows something about what you’re going through, who is working on it as well, who may not even get it all right but at least is trying, it really helps combat that sense of isolation. And I think it also helps, honestly, counter despair, which is something that, unfortunately, I think there is a lot of right now in the world.
It reminds me of, of all things, of going to the Women’s March in DC last January. [I went] down there with this sense of despair, this sense of ‘our world is falling apart’, and then [felt] buoyed by, lifted up by, all of these hundreds of thousands of people who weren’t going to give up, who were in this fight. One of the quotes that I heard around then was that “action is the antidote to despair”. I also think it’s connection. Connection is the antidote to despair and having those connections, whether it’s the hundreds of thousands in DC or you on Slack or for Ohio county boards knowing that they’ve got people watching their back, that’s something so powerful and can help keep us going.
I asked if there was anything more that she would like to add. Her comment:
This is worth trying. It works and it can make networks so much more real for people when they can see it in front of them. I would encourage others to give people that opportunity to see [their network], which this combination of tools really allows you to do.
I want to do it more and more. I would love to have it be a regular part of conference presentations that I give.
You can reach Maya Townsend at maya@partneringresources.com.
[…] Christine Capra, interviewed me about the experience. Here’s a lightly edited version of that interview, written by Christine and cross-posted from her […]
What a wonderful "live coverage" of what happened, Christine & Maya, I felt like I was there in that room/cyberspace with you. And, yes, "connection is the antidote to despair" is what this is all about!