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The Project Social Network
Sainath Nagarajan (November 29, 2007)

Why do social networks matter as much, or even more, than the hard-wired kind? What are they? How can you put them to productive use? Simply creating, storing and disseminating information will not enable project idea-sharing and involvement. We need to go beyond establishing information architectures, and examine interaction structures in order to create “contagiousness” and change that enable successful project outcomes.

In his book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Malcom Gladwell examines the transmission of ideas and shows how different kinds of roles are required to generate, spread and sell an idea — each requiring a different kind of agent to enable the successful transformation of an idea into a “social epidemic.” Project managers need to be all of the three types of people that Gladwell talks about — mavens, connectors and salesmen — creating, connecting and selling ideas personally, and through the project team. In doing so, a project manager will be able to influence the social capital of groups and sub-groups within the project context.

This dynamic is all the more crucial for internal project managers who need to share common ceiling tiles with those staffed on their projects. For a line resource in a weak matrix organization that is staffed on a project, any project task could turn out to be an “addition to the day job” with the rather unpleasant accountability to report to two (or more) authorities.

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