1 00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:03,960 The Better Business Analysis Institute presence. 2 00:00:03,960 --> 00:00:07,760 The Better Business Analysis Podcast with Kenjamin Walsh. 3 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:15,640 Hi everybody, and welcome back to the Better Business Analysis 4 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:19,360 Podcast with Benjamin Walsh. And today we're going to be 5 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:23,640 talking about how information flows within an organization. 6 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:27,120 We're going to be touching on Node science and the various 7 00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:30,720 different kind of people. If you like, it's called the Law 8 00:00:30,760 --> 00:00:33,800 of the Few. If you've read The Tipping Point 9 00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:37,720 by Malcolm Gladwell, you'll know what I'm talking about and how 10 00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:42,600 this information comes together and helps you as ABA or anyone 11 00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:47,200 within an organization understand how information 12 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:50,040 travels. It'll give you top tips in terms 13 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:55,000 of how you present and also be will push you down the line of 14 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:59,920 being concise, clear when you communicate, which is ultimately 15 00:00:59,920 --> 00:01:02,720 what ABA should be doing all the time. 16 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:06,640 So let's get straight into it. I'm going to start and talk a 17 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:09,920 little bit around the different categories of kind of node 18 00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:12,440 science. If you don't know what node 19 00:01:12,440 --> 00:01:17,000 science is, think of a little dot on a piece of paper. 20 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:24,040 And if you drew lines between those dots, you will pretty much 21 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:26,320 outline exactly what node science is about. 22 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:31,520 So a node is a hub or a dot on your piece of paper, and the 23 00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:36,880 lines are the information flow. And if you look at, say, a 24 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:41,440 typical organization, you could think of a node being the CIO 25 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:46,480 and then nodes under that and a line being the executive team, 26 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:49,520 and then under that the management team and then the 27 00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:53,080 team leaders and then the workers, if you like. 28 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:57,880 OK, so this is, and you know a pyramid of dots is what you 29 00:01:57,880 --> 00:02:01,320 would see there. And this structure that's a 30 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:06,840 hierarchical structure of nodes is very much how an organization 31 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:11,000 is and how information travels up and down from managing up to 32 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:13,920 the management team down to the workers. 33 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:17,800 And of course, it's not just that structure. 34 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:21,440 The pyramid hierarchy structure, there is just individuals in a 35 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:23,680 line. And if you've ever played what 36 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:26,800 they used to refer to as Chinese whispers, which I think is 37 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:28,400 culturally inappropriate these days. 38 00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:31,480 But if you play a game where you're all in a line and someone 39 00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:37,720 shares maybe a story at one end of the line, and you travel down 40 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:41,520 the nodes, the people in that line, and you go, I don't know, 41 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:46,920 more than five, then you will see that the story may change as 42 00:02:46,920 --> 00:02:49,720 we pass information from person to person. 43 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:53,240 And you know, there's lots of games which involved 44 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:56,480 communication flow. And that's exactly a good 45 00:02:56,480 --> 00:03:00,080 representation of how information travels through 46 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:03,760 nodes, servers. You can think of technical nodes 47 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:09,480 as well, how information travels through different servers and 48 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:12,120 you know the cloud. But generally things are 49 00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:16,200 replicated or stored in such a way that all the information 50 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:19,000 that flows from one point to another gets transmitted. 51 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:23,040 But if one of those nodes or one of those servers is cut out, 52 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:26,800 then information doesn't travel. So node science is everywhere. 53 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:33,160 And I'm going to talk about just to start a really five year 54 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:36,680 areas in which node science is interesting. 55 00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:41,360 It's also known as network science and IT and I'm also 56 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:43,680 going to explain five ways in which that relates to 57 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:45,800 information flow in an organization. 58 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:49,440 So one is the visualization of information flow. 59 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:53,720 As I stated, you could see employees and departments as 60 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:58,960 node and information that flows between them is, you know, the 61 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:02,280 connections. Any communication, any 62 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:05,320 information that flows through them, you could see is the 63 00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:07,960 connections between the various department. 64 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:10,160 This is very, very, very important. 65 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:14,040 I've actually made a career out of using node science to my 66 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:19,440 advantage in the last maybe 10 years and and and really the art 67 00:04:19,440 --> 00:04:22,880 of information flow is really what I practice in my BA 68 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:26,400 visualization these days. I'm going to talk about that and 69 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:29,160 give you some top tips. This is very much advanced what 70 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:32,880 I'd say senior BA plus, but understanding node science helps 71 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,640 everyone. You know, a small child, someone 72 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:38,960 trying to be ABA, someone who is a senior BA. 73 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:44,000 And I find that all information flow is actually a problem for 74 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:47,160 those B as you get stuck in a specialization. 75 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:48,400 So I'm going to talk about that too. 76 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:52,760 So in terms of visualization of information, number one, we 77 00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:56,920 talked about the nodes being the people, the departments, but you 78 00:04:56,920 --> 00:05:00,720 can also draw that up. You can draw a visual map of 79 00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:03,360 these networks. You can show how information 80 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:06,720 starts and travels and potentially gets stuck. 81 00:05:08,280 --> 00:05:12,880 It allows by visualizing that you can allow managers at a 82 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:16,200 holistic point and this kind of relates to the last episode we 83 00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:19,960 talked about in terms of you know, where do you flice off or 84 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:21,840 where do you restructure your organization. 85 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:25,840 By visualizing information flow and nodes in your organization, 86 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:28,920 you can actually see where bottlenecks are, redundant paths 87 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:33,640 are or where information is not flowing to the right people. 88 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:36,920 So if you think about your external stakeholders as just 89 00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:41,080 being another node, then you could think about how the fact 90 00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:43,600 that one of your departments is communicating with them. 91 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:49,400 Another one is and maybe having inconsistent information from 92 00:05:49,400 --> 00:05:53,840 two different nodes to one external node can cause a 93 00:05:53,840 --> 00:05:58,120 problem. So the second part in terms of a 94 00:05:58,120 --> 00:06:01,600 node science is around and this is really important. 95 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:03,880 We got to go, we got to go deep dive on this in a minute. 96 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:08,520 Thanks to Malcolm Gladwell, who I always referred to in this 97 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:13,240 podcast that's around identifying key communicator. 98 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:18,920 OK, so you probably haven't thought about it in a node 99 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:22,440 science point of view before, but there are certain 100 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:26,920 individuals or even departments in your organization usually say 101 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:32,720 maybe a marketing PR department. They're actors, hub, they 102 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:36,800 collect information from different parts of the network 103 00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:41,560 and they influence, This is a really key point here. 104 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:45,120 They influence how information spreads. 105 00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:53,400 All right. So if you imagine a situation 106 00:06:53,400 --> 00:06:59,520 where, let's think about it from a point of view of sound 107 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:02,560 engineering, which is a passion of mine and what I I studied in 108 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:06,680 London, there are different ways in which you can manipulate 109 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:12,240 audio. OK, so this recording a band and 110 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:15,920 if you've listened to any music, you will see that on your track. 111 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:19,680 And if you listen very deeply, there are different things you 112 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:23,280 can do to the various tracks and songs made-up of tracks. 113 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:27,320 Let's say they're usually lots of tracks these days, but let's 114 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:29,040 say there's an an old eight track. 115 00:07:29,040 --> 00:07:32,200 So what I mean by that is you might have vocals recorded on 116 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:36,440 one track, you might have drums recorded on a few tracks. 117 00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:39,520 Depend you want to split the drums from the high and the low. 118 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:45,120 You might have a pad, you might have keyboard, you know, piano, 119 00:07:45,120 --> 00:07:51,160 guitar based on different track. OK, And you can you can by 120 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:54,600 putting them through a mixer, putting them through a mixing 121 00:07:54,600 --> 00:07:57,920 board and manipulating that. And that's what sound 122 00:07:57,920 --> 00:07:59,800 engineering and music production's all about. 123 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:01,800 You can manipulate those tracks, right? 124 00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:05,200 Every song has this, unless you're listening to something 125 00:08:05,200 --> 00:08:09,600 directly live. And it could just be simply 126 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:12,880 putting a volume up, making one of those tracks louder than what 127 00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:15,520 you recorded it. It could be just making it sound 128 00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:18,000 more natural, normalizing the sound. 129 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:22,800 Or it could be to what we One of the major things you do as a 130 00:08:22,800 --> 00:08:27,800 mixer, as a sound engineer, is simply changing frequencies or 131 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:31,120 what we call EQ. And you would have experienced 132 00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:34,799 that probably on your phone or if you've not experienced it 133 00:08:34,799 --> 00:08:37,880 anywhere else. But sometimes stereos allow you 134 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:41,760 to set it to action or movie, and all that's doing is applying 135 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:45,400 a different amount of EQ to the sound. 136 00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:49,000 And so it's it's it's really cutting the highs and lows. 137 00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:53,240 It's it's using science effectively to manipulate the 138 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:55,400 sound. That happens often on a track. 139 00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:59,480 You can also spread the sound so you can make things sound more 140 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:03,040 on your left side of it's stereo and more on the right side and 141 00:09:03,040 --> 00:09:07,240 some in the center and that allows you to hear all the makes 142 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:10,400 it sound a bit more like a a range of sound. 143 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:13,640 Sometimes if you record or you think hear things on the radio, 144 00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:16,920 they just use what's called the mid and everything's in the 145 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:18,480 middle. And sometimes you miss the 146 00:09:18,480 --> 00:09:21,920 guitar or the bass or the vocals because it's all stuck what 147 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:24,480 what's in the middle? And so there's a whole art to 148 00:09:24,480 --> 00:09:27,880 sound engineering and and it's science and art just like 149 00:09:27,880 --> 00:09:31,040 business analysis. The reason I I go off on that 150 00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:35,840 tangent there is that you can enhance 1 sound over another. 151 00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:40,840 OK And when you talk about key communicators in the 152 00:09:40,840 --> 00:09:45,560 organization there are no and there are hubs within the 153 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:50,760 organization that help amplify and quiet information. 154 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:54,600 They are sly they may not be doing this on purpose, they may 155 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:59,360 well be and they are influencing you know just as you influence 156 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:02,720 or change sound on a music track. 157 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:07,040 They are influencing how you hear different information. 158 00:10:08,520 --> 00:10:12,520 And so not only do you need to know that there are people that 159 00:10:12,520 --> 00:10:15,360 influence them thus, and even if you don't like it, it happens. 160 00:10:15,360 --> 00:10:20,280 By the way, you can help identify these hubs and 161 00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:24,360 influences and you should involve them strategically in 162 00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:28,680 your communication plan, right. And it allows you to use those 163 00:10:28,680 --> 00:10:32,880 hubs to spread information. And I'm going to come back to 164 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:36,680 this point with before I go too deep and we're going to be 165 00:10:36,680 --> 00:10:40,320 talking about the tipping point if you haven't read it and the 166 00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:44,080 lure of the few in a minute. And so we're going to come back 167 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:46,960 to key influence communications and going to use Malcolm 168 00:10:46,960 --> 00:10:50,320 Gladwell to expand on that outside of node science to to 169 00:10:50,520 --> 00:10:55,120 more of the tipping point. The third area is network 170 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:58,040 analysis. So you can use techniques like 171 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:04,760 communication detection and patterns and communication 172 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:08,640 networks. A real technology network you 173 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:14,120 can use look at any kind of network and this this relates to 174 00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:19,400 pandemics, this relates of you know in terms of illness like 175 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:23,720 COVID-19, but also information flow, information flows just 176 00:11:23,720 --> 00:11:29,200 like a disease or a virus flows. And so you can actually look at 177 00:11:29,640 --> 00:11:34,160 use network analysis to look at isolated groups, silos, you can 178 00:11:34,160 --> 00:11:38,520 look at areas with slow information flow, departments 179 00:11:38,520 --> 00:11:42,480 that rely on a single source of truth where maybe one manager 180 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:44,640 isn't good at communicating with their team. 181 00:11:44,800 --> 00:11:47,960 You can actually see that by tracking information flow or 182 00:11:47,960 --> 00:11:51,120 surveying those at the bottom of the worker pile. 183 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:53,480 So you can then understand those patterns. 184 00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:56,800 And this is like seriously, there's a whole business to us 185 00:11:56,800 --> 00:12:00,880 that you can get involved in and I tell you what BAS need to to, 186 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:06,600 to utilize those. The last area which is, well, I 187 00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:09,640 guess there's two other areas. One number four is around 188 00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:13,720 predicting information flows. So once you understand node 189 00:12:13,720 --> 00:12:19,400 science, you can actually use node science to predict changes 190 00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:24,080 in the network like well if we add a new hire to this area, we 191 00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:26,920 do a restructure that might change the information flow. 192 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:30,880 And you can also you look at using predictive information 193 00:12:30,880 --> 00:12:36,360 flow to anticipate adjusting communication strategies and 194 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:40,640 ensuring information exchange. So that's, I mean that's pretty 195 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:46,080 advanced and just understand no science to start off with before 196 00:12:46,080 --> 00:12:48,120 you look at predictions, but you can get there too. 197 00:12:49,040 --> 00:12:52,640 The last area is around optimizing communication 198 00:12:52,640 --> 00:12:54,080 channels. And you can do this without 199 00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:57,520 prediction. And that's really just looking 200 00:12:57,520 --> 00:13:02,440 at effective pathways, right? How can you disseminate and 201 00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:04,720 transmit information around the organization? 202 00:13:05,040 --> 00:13:08,920 How can you allow managers to streamline reporting, right, and 203 00:13:08,920 --> 00:13:11,640 choose the best ways in which you communicate? 204 00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:15,240 Communication channels like e-mail, meetings, collaboration 205 00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:17,880 platforms for information, different information types. 206 00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:20,400 So you can survey and you can actually see or just, you know, 207 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:21,720 ask people, did you hear about that? 208 00:13:21,720 --> 00:13:24,200 And they're like, well, you know, I didn't go on to the, I 209 00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:26,840 didn't read that e-mail. So you can actually use this to 210 00:13:26,920 --> 00:13:31,120 just map out your information flows across your organization. 211 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:32,720 And I actually just find this fascinating. 212 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:36,600 So they're the five areas in terms of node science. 213 00:13:37,640 --> 00:13:40,360 And we're going to go off and we're going to talk about 214 00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:42,840 identifying key communicators, which is #2. 215 00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:45,560 And we're going to talk about these different types. 216 00:13:45,560 --> 00:13:48,920 We're going to use Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point, If 217 00:13:48,920 --> 00:13:51,600 you haven't read it, read it. And we're going to use some of 218 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:57,160 the personas that he talks about and talk about why that, why 219 00:13:57,160 --> 00:14:00,160 they're important in an organization. 220 00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:04,920 They're theories, but they you will definitely relate to some 221 00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:07,600 of these personas in your organization. 222 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:13,480 And then I'm going to just give you an example of how you as ABA 223 00:14:13,480 --> 00:14:20,960 need to use these ideas, but also the amount of information 224 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:23,800 that we expect managers to understand and why it's 225 00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:26,960 important to be concise and clear, right. 226 00:14:27,280 --> 00:14:34,800 So there, when we talk about Malcolm Gladwell and the kind of 227 00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:42,360 tipping point, what we're referring to is the fact that 228 00:14:42,640 --> 00:14:45,600 there is something called the lore of the few. 229 00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:49,680 OK, So Gladwell suggests that a handful of people. 230 00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:52,520 Connectors. Connectors. 231 00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:56,840 I'm going to say that again. Maverick, Maverick, and 232 00:14:56,840 --> 00:14:59,440 Salesman. OK, Connectors, Mavericks and 233 00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:03,000 salesman. They have a disproportionately 234 00:15:03,880 --> 00:15:09,480 amount of impact on how information spreads, how ideas 235 00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:13,360 spread, how trends spread, how products spread. 236 00:15:13,720 --> 00:15:15,920 OK. And it's around the fact that 237 00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:21,680 these individuals, these three types of individuals, they are, 238 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:26,560 they are instrumental in terms of pushing an idea to a tipping 239 00:15:26,560 --> 00:15:28,880 point where it spreads like wildfire. 240 00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:31,000 OK. So the network effect, we call 241 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:36,240 it or if you like, it's a like how businesses rapidly achieve 242 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:40,320 scale, but it's also how information achieves scale and 243 00:15:40,320 --> 00:15:42,400 it's called the tipping point. And once you get to that tipping 244 00:15:42,400 --> 00:15:44,440 point, things are spread like wildfire. 245 00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:49,120 Now I'm not going to spoil the book for you in terms of the 246 00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:54,280 stories he has in it, which is what the which is what the 247 00:15:54,280 --> 00:15:56,960 enjoyment factor is. But there are great real life 248 00:15:56,960 --> 00:16:00,040 stories about how information spreads and how the the 249 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:05,200 psychology has been used for some very well known TV programs 250 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:10,880 that you may have watched. What I am going to talk about is 251 00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:13,000 the lore of the few, the connectors, Mavericks and 252 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:17,960 salesman and how that relates to organizational hierarchy and the 253 00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:21,480 reporting structure structure. OK, and how we can look at these 254 00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:23,520 different type. So let's. 255 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:26,320 OK, we'll I'll explain what the connectors and Mavericks and 256 00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:29,800 salespeople are in relation to an organization. 257 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:33,920 So connectors, these are the influences, OK. 258 00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:39,280 These are the individuals, the influential individuals, who 259 00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:42,840 have extensive network, OK, that the connectors, they have lots 260 00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:45,680 of nodes that they connect with other nodes. 261 00:16:45,680 --> 00:16:48,160 They're a node themselves and they have lots of connections 262 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:52,440 and they can bridge gaps between different teams and department. 263 00:16:54,040 --> 00:16:57,600 So in a company, connectors might be senior managers, they 264 00:16:57,600 --> 00:17:00,760 might be executives, right, Just because of their position. 265 00:17:01,080 --> 00:17:04,640 Or they just might be employees who naturally connect with 266 00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:07,079 people. Maybe the extroverts who talk to 267 00:17:07,079 --> 00:17:10,400 a lot of people, or you know, Karen from accounts who knows 268 00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:14,040 everyone. They play a critical role in 269 00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:17,000 disseminating information across the organization. 270 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:21,880 So imagine a connector, like a central harbor node of a spider 271 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:24,319 web, connecting various strengths. 272 00:17:26,440 --> 00:17:30,600 Now what's really important to say about connectors is that 273 00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:32,800 they're influential, right? And depending on their 274 00:17:32,800 --> 00:17:37,040 personality type, they're bias. They will change the information 275 00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:39,640 as well. So they might disseminate 276 00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:42,760 information. Doesn't mean it's exactly what 277 00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:48,200 they heard in the 1st place. Really important to know the 278 00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:51,920 next is Maverick. So Mavericks are the experts. 279 00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:55,440 They are the go to people for specific information. 280 00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:59,760 Sometimes we talk about them in the BA world as SMEs, right? 281 00:17:59,760 --> 00:18:01,240 They really know about something. 282 00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:06,400 Oh, they're the person that really understands career 283 00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:09,400 planning. They understand how to plan a a 284 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:14,560 job, you know, career plan for kids in school. 285 00:18:16,120 --> 00:18:20,240 Now they are the ones who deeply understand their domain. 286 00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:26,160 They provide value in Pool, valuable insight and in an 287 00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:30,320 organizational context. They are the SMEs or the tick 288 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:33,600 leads or the seasoned employees, you know, the ones with the IP. 289 00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:41,120 And when they share information, others listen because they trust 290 00:18:41,120 --> 00:18:45,000 their expertise. OK, we talked about the 291 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:47,360 connectors just before and said they can change this. 292 00:18:47,360 --> 00:18:52,120 It's not a trust, it's just simply a relationship based on 293 00:18:52,120 --> 00:18:54,720 information spread and they've got people skills. 294 00:18:55,040 --> 00:18:58,080 Mavericks may not have those people skills. 295 00:18:58,080 --> 00:19:03,160 However, when people ask them something they trust, they know 296 00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:04,200 it. OK? 297 00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:08,960 And this is like a like I got a friend of mine who really good 298 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:11,560 at saving money. OK, really top tip. 299 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:13,960 And if I want to know how to save money, I will ask because 300 00:19:14,160 --> 00:19:17,600 he will know how to do that. OK, that you just trust that 301 00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:21,280 they understand the topic. You take whatever they say as 302 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:25,040 true, and it may not always be true, but they try and make it 303 00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:26,800 true. They're an expert in, you know, 304 00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:28,800 a game. Maybe, you know, they're the the 305 00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:33,640 go to and the last kind of influence in terms of 306 00:19:33,640 --> 00:19:36,480 information that's really important to know about is the 307 00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:40,360 salesman. OK, they are the persuasive 308 00:19:40,360 --> 00:19:43,320 communicator. They sell ideas, they motivate 309 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:46,480 teams, they influence decision making. 310 00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:51,640 And a company salesman can be charismatic leaders, OK? 311 00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:54,800 And they could have got to that position because they are good 312 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:57,120 at selling. They may not do, may not be the 313 00:19:57,120 --> 00:19:59,760 experts by the way. And you know these people, they 314 00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:02,640 might be project managers, they might just be enthusiastic 315 00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:07,040 colleague, They excel at convincing others to adopt new 316 00:20:07,040 --> 00:20:10,520 ideas, embrace change or rally behind a vision. 317 00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:14,160 So you know, if you can get someone who is a salesman and 318 00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:17,160 aceo, then that's awesome. And if they can be a 319 00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:19,360 communicator, even better. Right. 320 00:20:19,360 --> 00:20:22,840 So these are some individuals can be all of these things, but 321 00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:26,760 generally they are individual individuals and they generally 322 00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:28,120 individually have their strength. 323 00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:34,640 So they are really interesting in terms of communicators and 324 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:37,040 communicators of information across the organization. 325 00:20:37,360 --> 00:20:40,080 You have connectors, Mavericks and salesman, OK. 326 00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:44,040 And this is all explained, it's called the law of the few, OK, 327 00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:48,360 which again is around a small group of influential individuals 328 00:20:48,360 --> 00:20:52,400 that can significantly impact on the spread of information. 329 00:20:53,360 --> 00:20:58,440 And you, if you want information to spread, if you want to create 330 00:20:58,440 --> 00:21:02,440 a pandemic of information flow, you need to use these persona, 331 00:21:02,440 --> 00:21:04,000 you need to use these individual. 332 00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:10,200 OK, so if you understand that these are these types of 333 00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:13,400 information, you model them out that you need to get them 334 00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:18,240 involved in your change program. Now when it relates to business 335 00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:24,520 analysis, BAS can different BAS, different, generally different 336 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:27,320 BAS can be some of these things. So like when you think about 337 00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:31,720 connectors, that's really the BA is the liaison. 338 00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:35,440 BAS act as a connector between business stakeholders and 339 00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:38,160 technical teams. They bridge the gap by 340 00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:41,760 facilitating clear and effective communication between the two 341 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:44,560 group. We're influential. 342 00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:47,400 B as influential. If we're in those roles, we're 343 00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:50,600 like a social, you know, in the social network we ensure that 344 00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:54,880 information flows. We gather information from 345 00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:58,240 stakeholders, We translate them so we could manipulate. 346 00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:01,880 You know, we do manipulate. We do persuade and we make 347 00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:04,240 judgement calls. So we are connectors in some of 348 00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:06,640 our roles, right? And I appreciate that not all 349 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:10,640 BAS are all these things, but I do think that the BA role is 350 00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:14,040 probably, when I read the tipping point, is probably the 351 00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:17,200 one type of role that can be all these things. 352 00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:20,920 And when it comes to Mavericks as experts, there are some BAS 353 00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:25,800 or or sometimes they've come from this area or they just have 354 00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:28,000 to understand an area of business process. 355 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:33,800 And I, I, I, I sometimes can get frustrated when B as become 356 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:36,680 maverick. But naturally sometimes you just 357 00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:39,600 do, especially if you've been on a project for a while. 358 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:44,320 And when they become experts, maverick B as possess kind of a 359 00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:46,720 deep understanding of the business process, industry 360 00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:49,440 trends and regulation. They analyze the complex 361 00:22:49,440 --> 00:22:53,080 problems, They dissect requirements, They're looking at 362 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,520 solutions. So to be honest, they you know, 363 00:22:56,520 --> 00:22:59,960 we do have to become a pseudo maverick as part of our role. 364 00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:03,160 Somebody has stayed here, somebody has come from there and 365 00:23:03,160 --> 00:23:06,560 it's a dangerous place to stay. However, you know you can create 366 00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:09,440 roles in terms of becoming a specialist in different areas. 367 00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:14,400 Mavericks provide valuable insights and recommendations for 368 00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:18,480 improvement. We ensure that the right 369 00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:21,560 solutions are developed and communication, communicate 370 00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:26,280 across domains and people. And that's when you become a 371 00:23:26,360 --> 00:23:29,800 kind of an industry specialist like in banking or telco or 372 00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:33,120 pharmaceuticals. And you know, and sometimes when 373 00:23:33,120 --> 00:23:36,160 you hire BA, especially outside of New Zealand in America or the 374 00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:39,120 UK, you've actually had to become a specialist in an area 375 00:23:39,120 --> 00:23:42,320 because you know that's the, it's much bigger scale. 376 00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:45,400 Whereas we're much more generalists in New Zealand and 377 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:47,800 we have to be across different industries. 378 00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:51,440 And so you become an expert and you become a maverick, right? 379 00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:54,920 So people trust that what you say about something is true. 380 00:23:56,680 --> 00:23:58,960 And then, of course, BAS can be persuaded. 381 00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:01,440 And we're going to touch it. We're going to, again, go off on 382 00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:05,520 a tangent on this in a minute. But as salesman, BAS are 383 00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:07,400 salesman or saleswoman or salesperson. 384 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:11,920 We play a vital role in stakeholder engagement. 385 00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:16,680 We conduct workshops, interviews, collaborate with 386 00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:21,920 technical teams, right? We need to be persuasive. 387 00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:25,000 The best B, as I know, are persuasive. 388 00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:28,440 They advocate for the projects, They ensure that the business 389 00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:33,520 needs a meet, they're advocating on behalf of the business, and 390 00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:37,040 they simplify the relationship between the IT department and 391 00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:39,920 the company that bridge the gap, right. 392 00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:43,160 So in terms of connectors, Mavericks, and sales people, B, 393 00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:45,640 as can be all of these things. So this is really great. 394 00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:49,840 And you can see even as your own skill, you could say, Oh well, 395 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:53,400 actually I'm not as much of A connector as I want to be or I'm 396 00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:56,320 not a a Maverick. I need to know more about the 397 00:24:56,320 --> 00:24:59,600 industry or I just, I'm just not persuasive enough. 398 00:24:59,920 --> 00:25:02,520 These are areas where you can actually start to look at skill 399 00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:04,880 development, right? It's really a really good point. 400 00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:10,040 So these are just really interesting lore of the few 401 00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:14,320 areas that you should take on. And when you look at information 402 00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:18,160 travel, you can met that out using note science, right. 403 00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:22,120 You can see that how connectors are, you know in the 404 00:25:22,120 --> 00:25:24,600 organization where The Mavericks are, where the sales people are 405 00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:31,360 And by using these you can provide more clarity and you can 406 00:25:31,360 --> 00:25:37,240 be I guess being proactive in terms of your communication plan 407 00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:43,000 as BA but also as a project. And you know this is what change 408 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:45,800 management's all about as well as you utilizing this channel. 409 00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:50,880 So I'm going to jump now and I am being a bit jumpy, but I'm 410 00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:54,800 going to jump now in terms of persuasion, persuasive 411 00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:57,120 communication. And I'm just going to say, if we 412 00:25:57,120 --> 00:26:00,960 go back and think of our pyramid in terms of node, what you've 413 00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:04,240 got to also understand is not only does information travel 414 00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:07,240 that way and some nodes are more important than others, the law 415 00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:12,320 of the few, right, But also just the amount of information. 416 00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:17,160 And this is something that I'm really hot on, OK. 417 00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:21,520 And again, this is probably the area where I have been able to 418 00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:24,720 make a bit of a niche in, in terms of what I do for 419 00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:26,760 organizations in terms of consultancy. 420 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:31,360 And that's the fact that I understand the fact that node 421 00:26:31,360 --> 00:26:34,400 science is everywhere and that if you're a manager, and I'm 422 00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:36,800 going to give you this example, if you're a manager of an 423 00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:44,200 organization, you cannot comprehend all the information 424 00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:46,240 that is travelling throughout the organization. 425 00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:51,160 And if you are trying to communicate to a manager 426 00:26:51,360 --> 00:26:56,160 influence, be a salesman in the organization to convince or even 427 00:26:56,160 --> 00:27:00,840 communicate or even give a status update to a line manager 428 00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:04,000 and executive, you need to understand node science and how 429 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:05,480 much information they're being hit with. 430 00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:09,440 And you need to manage your communication methods through 431 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:13,280 presentations, through red amber, green rag statuses and 432 00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:17,360 concise, clear communication in order to be taken seriously or 433 00:27:17,360 --> 00:27:19,040 understood. OK. 434 00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:20,400 And I'm going to give you an example. 435 00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:22,640 Why. Why, You may ask? 436 00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:27,480 Let's take a medium sized company, just a medium sized 437 00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:31,560 company anywhere, OK. And I've got a CIO, OK, normal. 438 00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:33,880 And let's just say it's a product company. 439 00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:37,800 So we'll keep it very simple. There's five product line with 440 00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:42,280 five managers, SO5 product, different product lines, 5 441 00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:45,080 managers who own it. So maybe it's like you know 442 00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:50,480 fashion, maybe it, you know, health and Wellness, whatever 443 00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:52,440 the product lines are, it doesn't really matter. 444 00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:57,640 There are 5 managers, OK. And under those five managers, 445 00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:03,960 each manager has been set up with five team leader who manage 446 00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:09,520 the various aspects of maybe a, a, a product area. 447 00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:13,480 OK. So maybe ones around within you 448 00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:17,200 know health and beauty or you know, yeah health and beauty 449 00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:19,640 line there might be something that's around, I don't know 450 00:28:20,120 --> 00:28:23,840 personal product, OK. So one manager that runs that, 451 00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:26,120 sorry one team leader under that manager runs that. 452 00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:30,400 So 5 managers, 5 team leaders and each team leader has five 453 00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:32,600 product managers and that's as low as we go in our 454 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:34,680 organization. So just kind of a three tier 455 00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:39,360 plus the CIO and there are 5 product managers under each team 456 00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:41,360 leader and they manage a product. 457 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:45,800 So I don't know shampoo or a spit shampoo. 458 00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:48,600 So you could relate this to, I don't know, Palmolive or 459 00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:51,480 something, right. This is a small organization, so 460 00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:56,000 5 managers, 5 team leaders and five product managers each. 461 00:28:56,400 --> 00:29:02,720 So the if you do 5 * 5, it's 25 and then you do it's 525 team 462 00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:05,240 leaders times 5 product managers each. 463 00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:13,120 You end up with a total if you add the five managers in of 155 464 00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:17,520 staff members, right. Not not a huge organization. 465 00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:21,600 And in relative terms it's, it's a one of the departments that 466 00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:25,560 I'm working in at the moment at one of the ministries, 155 467 00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:28,720 people, not many, right? And that doesn't include the CIO 468 00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:30,400 or the executive. So we're just going to miss them 469 00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:34,080 out. There's 155 people in the 470 00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:37,640 organization. You say, OK, that's fine, 33 471 00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:42,280 tiers, effectively 3 tiers and you think, OK, cool, that's 472 00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:45,240 normal. How does that structure? 473 00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:48,440 How does the node, just the nodes of people, influence 474 00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:51,640 information flow? Well, if I'm a product manager, 475 00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:56,280 right there are, there are 125 of them working on 125 different 476 00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:59,600 products. Each product would have around, 477 00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:03,560 I don't know 5K PIS that you might report on and these might 478 00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:08,080 be things like customer acquisition cost, revenue, 479 00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:13,920 profit, you know, just really simple KPIs, very simple ones, 480 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:18,960 customer satisfaction margin, customer life, market share or 481 00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:21,400 sorry, customer life cycle value. 482 00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:26,840 So these are just very simple totals with no information 483 00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:28,360 behind them, right. We're not doing about user 484 00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:34,880 stories here or particular stats and that's it. 5K PIS per 485 00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:37,960 product. That means that one of our 486 00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:43,320 lineman, OK or the executive, the CEO of this company has to 487 00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:48,480 deal with 625 product KPIs being reported to them. 488 00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:52,240 That's a lot. How do you even keep ahead of 489 00:30:52,320 --> 00:31:00,240 625 different KPIs? So that is why we only report up 490 00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:02,960 very small information. That's why we do red and the 491 00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:04,640 green. And that is why we need to be 492 00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:07,760 concise with our communication and use things like PowerPoint 493 00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:10,400 and slides. And about three or four slides 494 00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:14,160 is enough with an appendix if someone wants to dive deep. 495 00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:17,120 But usually people only want to dive deep if there's something 496 00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:19,040 unusual, as in things are going badly. 497 00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:21,240 What can we do about it? What's our recommendation? 498 00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:24,680 You know, here's the analysis we recommend. 499 00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:28,480 We ask that you make some decisions on the following 500 00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:32,360 there's 625 KPIs here and they they could have a huge amount of 501 00:31:32,360 --> 00:31:34,360 work behind each of them. There could be whole teams 502 00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:37,600 behind these development teams. So that is why you need to 503 00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:39,960 understand node science and the amount of information you're 504 00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:43,040 communicating and make sure you're concise when you 505 00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:46,880 communicate up. Now, the other day, I'll end on 506 00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:50,520 a story. The other day I was talking to a 507 00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:54,920 manager, a line manager with about 155 staff and one of the 508 00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:56,400 workers, one of the product managers. 509 00:31:56,400 --> 00:31:58,800 Actually it's me. So even under a product manager, 510 00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:04,880 even another tier was kind of suggesting that it was silly 511 00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:09,160 that the manager didn't understand what was going on and 512 00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:12,800 they were making a decision around a specific user story. 513 00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:16,760 Now in that example, the particular project we're on 514 00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:21,560 doing at the moment, they're around, I don't know and that 515 00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:22,960 haven't even been elaborated yet. 516 00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:27,240 At a high level, 100, maybe 100 user stories, OK, wrapped 517 00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:31,400 around, I don't know 16 Epic. So it's not a huge project, but 518 00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:34,960 there is a lot going on, a lot of people involved and a lot of 519 00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:39,600 different managers involved. Now, if you think about the 155 520 00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:42,400 people in our organization and this person's, you know there, 521 00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:44,720 there's another tier in this organization. 522 00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:47,760 If you use times that by 100, right, you're getting up to 523 00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:51,120 about 15,000 different user stories. 524 00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:54,760 This manager could be fed. They've shown all the user 525 00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:57,080 stories. They can't know about 526 00:32:57,080 --> 00:33:00,360 everything, let alone the what and the how and why you're doing 527 00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:02,760 it. So just give them a break. 528 00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:05,480 It's really hard. As a manager, you've got to have 529 00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:07,760 a trust model, and the only way it works is the manager has to 530 00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:10,920 trust down and trust in these experts, right? 531 00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:12,960 But don't expect them to understand it all. 532 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:15,720 There's no way. And with the different tiers 533 00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:18,280 you've got these different influences that they may not be 534 00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:21,240 hearing what you hear. So as ABA, you need to try and 535 00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:26,880 move your way directly to the person that matters and you need 536 00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:30,240 to be concise and hope that your information is so concise and 537 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:32,640 straight to the point it doesn't need to be manipulated. 538 00:33:32,960 --> 00:33:35,760 So this talks about having been very small in your documentation 539 00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:39,800 and managing up through one to three slides with an appendix. 540 00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:43,880 OK, so I just wanted to enter that note and I hope you've 541 00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:46,480 learned a bit more about node science and how you can relate 542 00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:50,000 it to your job as a VA EE you next time.