Day after day you take part and control numerous different projects. You attain your goals. But what if we deflect our attention away from the ordinary project, and reflect on and dream all together about what projects will look like in the nearest future. How will the activity of professional category of managers, including you, change? If you are interested so far, the next real stage of management progress will be networked and network-centric organizations management…

1. About networks, networked
and network-centric organizations
Passage from «Some Essays About Management»
essay
4

2. No doubt, our dreams –
that’s wonderful!

3. We dream –
modeling, designing and creating our own future thereby…

4. BUT!

5. We have not only
our own separate futures

6. Suppose that we dream all together about the future
of our profession - about whom and how we’ll manage?

7. Dreaming together
means to begin arranging about what
our future will bring us

8. What is the future of management?
What will replace industrial type of relations
at the age of global communications?

9. Complexity and ramified structure
of communication channels and interrelations
require new types of organization and business methods

10. … Methods, based on ideology
of participants’ equality
and on optimization of their abilities

11. Like in
networked organizations

12. Networks and networked organizations
represent particular and special view
on reality and reflect the general
understanding and readiness of people
to work in such logic

13. What are networks, and what they can be like?

14. Level 1. Global network
That’s global economy – which is the integrated
environment based on digital communication.
Every company or person may quickly start
to work with any other company or person
in such a way

15. Level 2. Networked organization
(«corporation without borders»)
By this time, here is meant the limited entity of
autonomous, independent and equal-in-rights partners.
Each participant is like a junction of competencies
or functional partner

16. Level 3. Network-centric organization
It is a temporary or permanent organization
with network-based connections, relations
and technologies. All elements are equal in rights,
but there is a coordinating center

17. Network-centric organizations, in their
turn, can be:
— network project group
— business organization inside
— business organization outside

18. The network project group is a temporary hierarchy
in an existing «corporation without borders».
Here is no difference between internal and external
members, others’ resources and yours’.
As a managing center here are taken an owner
of idea (of a project objective) or the company,
regarded as effective in managing the project.

19. Method of business organization inside –
the logic of networked organizations is brought
onto its internal life, structure and connections.
Temporary project groups operate here instead
of constant departments.

20. Method of business organization outside –
the key business only is gone under the organization,
the rest are brought for outsourcing.
Relations with all suppliers, contractors, clients,
customers are held in networked logic.
Coordinator is to be the business owner.

21. What’s the use from the networked organization of business?

22. Instant access
to all centers of competencies
and all resources, required for our concrete goals achievement

23. Flexible, quick and
multiversional structure,
with rights and duties dynamic assignment,
ready for any change of external circumstances

24. Rational structure of expenses –
only what we need for the moment works

25. What is common for networked
and network-centric organizations,
what enables that they appear?

26. The principal backbone factor for network initiation
is ideology
– «engineered» reality

27. Between backbone factors for networked organizations
initiation are also:
— macro-process (e.g. energy development of a country)
— a global program aimed for concrete result (e.g. hydro
plant construction)
— common interests of participants
— joint aspiration to the same objective (e.g. colony on the
Moon)

28. What concerns network-centric organizations,
very often such factor is a
concrete objective

29. What elements does the network consist of?
It includes
agents, knots and actors

30. Agent (network minimal element)
– an individual, who fulfills some actions,
including ones which direct
and influence others.
He can play some kind of social or business roles,
or a person making decisions, a person influencing
the process of decision making and accomplishment.

31. Network knot (activity center, center of competencies)
is the multitude of potential agents who are involved
in common process, in common function performance,
who all together own a certain unique resource
or have similar interests, relations within the network

32. Actor
is a leader facing all the knot, being, as a matter
of fact, a bearer of the actual resource needed
in the networked structure.
Actor is regarded as a representative
of a certain category.

33. In natural borders, the borders of a company,
a certain department, for example,
or if there is a strong leader,
independent knots
or natural knots may appear

34. Temporary artificial knots we create on our own
for the purpose of a certain function accomplishment –
are functional knots.
Since the function is finally accomplished,
there is no need usually in such a knot, and it disappears.

35. To provide and coordinate the functional knots performance
there is need in one more artificial element –
architect
He creates all conditions for the knot effective functioning

36. It’s important to remember
that in collective work all independent
and functional knots are
of equal value and equal in rights!

37. How are elements of networked organization connected?

38. They are connected by equal-in-rights connections
which are constant or temporary mutual restrictions
on behavior of both sides

39. What may be such freewill connections and
relations like?

40. They may be real – due to experience of collective work in past,
or arrangements which give the ground to gather anytime
in any structure for collective work

41. They may be potential – time and efforts spent for arranging
them are so slight that it can be easily discounted
and considered that such connection exists already.
They are based on easy-to-access and common for everybody
information about abilities of any company, accepted standards
and conditions of interaction and willingness to interact

42. Framework of a networked organization is the
rules of interaction
and cooperation («Rules of game»)
shared and arranged by all members

43. Framework of a network-centric organization is the
concrete arrangements
concluded about joint activity

44. As a coordinating body of networked organizations
the collective structure is taken, which coordinates
in general all its members.
For example, advisory board of actors,
or temporary coordination boards of experts.

45. Such coordination structure:
—aims targeting conformity of joint efforts
— observes for «Rules of game» compliance
— arbitrates conflicts
— adapts the networked organization to the surrounding
reality

46. It’s important, all connections, being ordered (interactions),
and direct control mechanism (hierarchy)
in networked organizations represent
temporary phenomenon,
and they appear only when a certain problem resolving
or a separate project performance

47. What is the principal difference between
networked and network-centric organizations?

48. The thing is, that in the networked organization –
control mechanism is coordination,
in the network-centric one – that’s hierarchical coordination
where one of all elements is responsible
for managerial functions

49. What unites and connects all members of networked
and network-centric organizations?
What marks the limits of networked interaction
and networked form of activity against the background
of surrounding reality?

50. appropriate environment

51. Networked (network-centric) organization is artificial
system. It consists of multitude of networked elements
and environment of their activity. Both are related one
to another by resource, information
and knowledge exchange

52. All networked elements are found
on physical layer of interaction while
integrated network space represents
invisible layer of networked (network-centric) organization

53. What domains does this space consist of inside?

54. The domain of communication –
where all members interact inside as well
as outside of their organization due to easy
communication and direct connections

55. The domain of information –
where information and knowledge
are initiated, transferred, processed
and distributed

56. The domain of perception – is the most difficult
and incomprehensible, but, at the same time,
indispensable domain of consciousness
of each separate member of a networked
(network-centric) organization.
And first of all, that’s the way of reality cognition
and perception and routine ways
of information processing

57. The primary goal is – to do achieve
conscious integration of these three domains
with physical layer, and to increase effectiveness
of networked (network-centric) organization functioning

58. What can help us?

59. IT-platform bringing together the communication
and the information domains of networked environment

60. Is all of that enough for network initiation and
its effective functioning?

61. Not quite

62. It’s enough only in case we provide all members’
development via mastering all inflowing
knowledge and competencies which make
it possible to interact and work effectively
in a networked logic

63. And this development has to be
continuous
It’s important to get rid of difference between work
and training, and join the flats

64. and then…

65. Networks, networked and network-centric
organizations will
become our reality

66. Thanks for your attention!
P.S. You got to know the passage of our book «Some Essays About Management»
The book is available in whole on the page «Vision» of our site www.kommandcore.com

67. Lively management of projects