If you are part of the corporate world, you know very well what an "organization chart" is. You have probably seen dozens of them. They are graphs or diagrams that show the structure of an organization with respect to relationships between people or departments, representing the lines of authority and responsibility.
They are very useful for visualizing the structure of a company or organization and are a tool that usually help managers supervise employees. However, traditional organization charts simply do not show the full story of a successful organization. While they can clearly show anyone in a matter of seconds that John reports to Mary, who reports to Thomas, they hide all the invisible connections that John, Mary, and Thomas have throughout their daily exchanges of activity.
We call these invisible connections informal hidden networking. In other words, this is the “unknown” side of the company that does not appear in any organization chart. This occult informal organization is defined by the patterns, behaviors, and interactions that result from both personal and professional relationships.
In the hidden informal network, the emphasis is on people and their relationships, while in the formal organizational chart, the emphasis is on official organizational positions, power, politics, and influence. In informal organization, power is attached to specific individuals, whom they know, what they know and how they work. In almost all informal organizations there are at least three main networks:
* the famous coffee group chat
* informal connection groups
* connect them
Coffee Talk Groups
Oh yes, the famous coffee ... Imagine if he could talk! All the rumors and stories told when employees gather around the coffee shop to find out what "really is going on in the company." These informal communication networks naturally form within almost every organization. They are completely separate from the formal communication channels of the organization and sometimes much faster than them. The topics discussed around coffee can cover a wide range of subjects, from the latest managerial decisions to what happened at the World Cup game - or simply the good old gossip.
Informal Connection Groups
Employees can create an informal group to go bowling, start a trade union or discuss work challenges, or even have lunch together every day. The group can last several years or just a few hours. These employees often participate in these informal networks of connections simply because of a common purpose. Other times, they simply want to be with other people who are similar to them or because they want to be accepted by their co-workers.
The connectors
These are the employees who have a natural knack for knowing who is who in the company, who knows what, what their skills are, and how to apply that knowledge. Usually the connectors are socially adept, have good presentation and are very smart. However, these professionals are of a rare kind in any organization and it is often difficult to keep you in business.
In formal organization charts, communications usually follow the dots and lines between the boxes that represent each employee. Compared to the hidden informal network, information and collaborations can be transmitted in any direction - up, down, left, right, around, diagonally and even horizontally throughout the formal organizational structure.
Here's an example of this analysis where employees are connected in a three-dimensional way:
Using the example discussed above, John can pass (and receive) information to and from Paul, an employee of a completely different department. While this is unusual, John has heard that Paul has specialized technical knowledge that can increase his chances of launching a successful product.
As you can imagine, the informal networks hidden within a company are far more important than a leader can possibly imagine. In fact, leaders can leverage these informal networks in many ways. For example, they can identify the people in the organization who are critical to the effective flow of information and feed them with information to spread to others.
Managers can also identify who the other “hidden talents” are in the company (Paul in the example above) and ensure that they collaborate with others in the organization, making a real impact on the business (John in our example).
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of discovering your hidden informal networks (and talented professionals within them).
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