The Value Network Approach
John Maloney (IM: jheuristic)
Hi –
Noteworthy blog.
http://www.aleksola.com/the-value-network-factor.php
The Value Network approach is all about relationships between people in their various roles, not about the systems that supposedly are in place. In examining these roles and the transactions they participate in, one focuses on the human element and the realities of system behavior, not delusional fantasies about how things are supposed to work on paper (or as mandated by mgmt or IT –j)…
-j
Eric Hoffer
I posted a thought in response to this, to take the explanation to a place for (from) the lay-person.
-Eric
[http://www.secondintegral.com/axonomics/?p=58]
Eric Hoffer, Second Integral LLC
eho...@secondintegral.com
Blog: http://www.secondintegral.com/axonomics
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/erichoffer
Verna Allee
Sorry for the slow response. In your blog noted below you said
something that is right on target.
"While it may seem that VNA is about mapping the pathways of social or
organizational interaction, such mapping only provides a framework for
analysis and discovery - revealing pathways for value.
The actual value created is through the meeting of needs of various
parties to transactions or engagement situations. In this way, I
think of VNA is a way to consider how the system dynamics of
engagement between parties facilitates a kind of currency translation
and barter - enabling each to bring to the table something that may
(perhaps in combination with something brought by someone else)
satisfy the needs of another - and similarly may have their own needs
indirectly met."
Value is an emergent property of the network. It indeed arises through
various parties engaging in transactions and exchanges.
http://valuenetworks.com/public/item/210757. The narrative language
offered by VNA provides a way to negotiate and barter in exactly the
way you describe. Now, of course, we do this anyway, but the
difference with VNA is that we have a way to make those agreements
visible and transparent to others in the network.
Just as a note, some people do refer to intangibles as "currencies"
but in the strictest sense of the work this is not quite accurate. A
currency is a medium of exchange where all value is converted to
common units, such as financial units, flyer miles and the like. VNA
is actually closer to the idea of barter where every exchange is
unique and therefore is not converted to a common unit.
Verna
On Aug 13, 9:51 am, "Eric Hoffer" <ejhof...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks John.
> I posted <http://www.secondintegral.com/axonomics/?p=58> a thought in
> lay-person.
> -Eric
>
> [http://www.secondintegral.com/axonomics/?p=58]
>
> On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 5:16 PM, John Maloney (IM: jheuristic) <
>
>
>
>
>
> > *Hi –*
>
> > * *
>
> > *Noteworthy blog.*
>
> > * *
>
> > *http://www.aleksola.com/the-value-network-factor.php*
>
> > * *
>
> > *The Value Network* approach is all about relationships between people in
> > examining these roles and the transactions they participate in, one focuses
> > on the human element and the realities of system behavior, not delusional
> > fantasies about how things are supposed to work on paper (or as mandated by
> > mgmt or IT –j)…
>
> > -j
>
> --
> Eric Hoffer, Second Integral LLC
> Blog:http://www.secondintegral.com/axonomics
> LinkedInhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/erichoffer- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
John Caswell
John
kpkfusion
emerging world of social networks and for us, enterprise social
networks, these themes can be easily understood. The moment seems to
be one of sensitivity to the importance (and power of networks) at all
levels of business, government, and virtually every organization.
The challenge is one of creating simplicity for what are very complex
and nuanced concepts. Being out on the front lines, and working with
project managers and mid level (and some upper level) executives, this
is without question, their interest. I just met with two CEO's last
week - both with multiple billion dollar corporations, and I am not
sure how much patience they would have for the expression of
complexity in this depth. This is going to be the challenge going
forward - a worthwhile challenge, but a challenge. K.
On Aug 19, 8:36 am, John Caswell <j...@grouppartners.net> wrote:
> Very interesting. It made me connect two possibly interesting thoughts which
> seem to me a creative way to consider this. There is much written on
>
> John
> >>> > > -j
>
> >> > --
> >> > Eric Hoffer, Second Integral LLC
> >> > ehof...@secondintegral.com
> >> > Blog:http://www.secondintegral.com/axonomics
John Maloney (IM: jheuristic)
Kim --
You remarked, "I am not sure how much patience they would have for the expression of complexity in this depth."
Value networks and VNA were specifically developed over more than 15 years to show complex systems for the 'impatient.' What is the alternative? No expression of complexity? Retreat to 20th Century function, org chart and process?
Quite honestly, there exist complex systems that defy expression w/o comprehensive visualization and thorough network narrative.
Look back to the 1980s when it took the enterprise establishment years and years to understand quality management and process engineering. It really took pervasive personal computing -- the rapid ability to author and edit fishbones, process diagrams, control charts, etc., -- before any substantial populations (including the well-manicured ones living in Naples today) to develop any comprehension or competency in quality or process. By in large, for the network transformation, it’s back to the future.
It is fine to speculate on executive patience or if your value network shift will be a challenge. However, it is far more effective to begin to adopt the alphabet, vocabulary, language and visual narratives of networks. Along with value network fluency is often a complementary ease and mastery of complexity and complex systems. Again, with value network idioms and VNA you won’t be testing executive’s patience, you will be allowing them to master value networks and complex systems for business growth, productivity and innovation.
-j
John Maloney
Sarah Jones, Administration
Tel: 978-468-0267
Fax: 206-984-2429
Eric Hoffer
You said: "this exchange, points to the differences in the values at each node as 'bartering at a unique value exchange' within that transaction. Imagine. Does this give rise to 'wicked' opportunity?"
Yes. That is one of the key bases of my perspective on, and interest in, VNs. By zeroing in on "micro-states", and considering individual motivations and currencies, activities (or subtleties in presentation) can potentially be engineered to satisfy (sometimes indirectly - i.e. as in barter exchange) objectives of the parties.
Verna - To your point about currencies not being converted to common units, I agree. That is the aspect I was trying to articulate with "currency translation" - as the engagement represents the middleware or mechanism that enables parties to operate in different currencies of the barter exchange. Within the activity of the network, differing actions, inputs and byproducts are the elements that enable parties to contribute/benefit from different parts of the exchange to satisfy different values.
Verna - You mention that the "difference with VNA is that we have a way to make those agreements visible and transparent to others in the network." Can you elaborate on the best ways you've found to capture/visualize/depict these? (As I mentioned in an earlier exchange with you, while I feel I'm philosophically up the curve, I want to get there in a practical sense. If that is too 101 or non-beneficial for the rest of the list, feel free to address offline).
-Eric
--
Eric Hoffer, Second Integral LLC
Verna Allee
deliverables between the roles. Having people collaboratively create a
value network map forces the negotiation of each transaction and
deliverable (an "exchange" happens only if there is reciprocity.) It
is not unusual now for people to actually use this visual map to
create internal service level agreements or role agreements such as
the Partnership Scorecard Lori Lock Lee has been working on.
If you are not familiar with value network mapping you might take a
look at some of the How to Guides and this article on the open site.
http://www.value-networks.com/Articles/Allee_%20Value_Conversion_JIC%20Draft%2021April07.pdf.
I submitted updates for the the How to Guides and this article as well
so hopefully they will be up in a few days. I will also be doing a
blog soon on Deliverables at www.valuenetworks.com.
Verna
Charles Ehin
Eric,
You state, "By zeroing in on "micro-states", and considering individual motivations and currencies, activities (or subtleties in presentation) can potentially be engineered to satisfy (sometimes indirectly - i.e. as in barter exchange) objectives of the parties." Careful! Social networks can't be engineered. They are emergent. You can manipulate work contexts but not their behavioral outcomes. That's what's so valuable about VNA. It makes networks visible but allows relationships and interactions between people to develop based on self-organization.
Charlie
Charles (Kalev) Ehin, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of Management
The
Gore School of Business
Westminster College, Salt Lake City
kal...@msn.com
www.UnManagement.com
----- Original Message -----From: Eric HofferSent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 12:18 PMSubject: Re: The Value Network Approach
Michael G. Cayley
> Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:47:25 -0700
> Subject: Re: The Value Network Approach
Eric Hoffer
Verna - Thanks for the document. Reiterates for me that I'm philosophically there, but need to get some mechanics. System dynamics (as I see referenced) is something that has been weighing heavily on my mind lately as perhaps a parallel universe to what is grabbing me here. I see GenIsis referenced (tabularly) but am particularly interested in an entry level tool to play with visualizing value contribution and objectives - or better yet, through which observation of these can be entered.
Charlie - I don't mean so much to imply manipulating the people in their social situations, but rather from a strategy and marketing perspective - engineering what and how things are presented so that the correct message is what comes across in communication with the intended audience (think choices in interfaces, and the descriptive text around them - to aid in parties going down the right path). Perhaps this is at a different point in the food chain (or not "VNA" at all?) - looking more at the possibilities given certain mixes of people and interests - and facilitating involvement for those who may not otherwise have noticed an opportunity, but whose participation in certain ways might be important to others' derivation of value. Would this be considered outside the scope of VNA, and if so, where would it likely fall?
Verna Allee
I am very pleased to let you know that the new ValueNetworks.com
application is now available and is specifically designed to serve as
the entry level tool you are looking for. The original GenIsis
application was the "genesis" for this new application but we have
taken it into a whole new world of friendly and easy to use. The Excel
entry has been simplified to a single page and one push of a button
generates four reports: an animated visual in PowerPoint, a detailed
diagram in Visio with autolayout, a summary "dashboard" report of
value network indicators and a full 25 page report with over 50 value
network indicators presented in full color graphs and everyday
business language. We will be doing a more public announcement in
September but I wanted the Value Networks Google Group to get this
early access. You can check it out at www.valuenetworks.com and I have
at long last begun to do regular blogs there as well.
Even though we have designed it to be as friendly as possible the
capability of the application is very robust. You can merge any two
value networks that share the same role. Reports show both the role
based network and if you fill in individual participants it will also
show the collaborative value network. Our early users have been very
enthusiastic. Here's more http://valuenetworks.com/public/item/211387.
Verna
> > *To:* Value-N...@googlegroups.com
> > *Sent:* Wednesday, August 20, 2008 12:18 PM
> > *Subject:* Re: The Value Network Approach
> > Blog:http://www.secondintegral.com/axonomics
> > LinkedInhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/erichoffer
> --
> Eric Hoffer, Second Integral LLC
> Blog:http://www.secondintegral.com/axonomics
> LinkedInhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/erichoffer- Hide quoted text -
Dr. Edna Pasher
Congratualtions!
This is a beautiful breakthrough!
Wishing you lots of success with this new tool,
With warm regards,
Edna
Dr. Edna Pasher
Cindy Gordon
Congrats Verna
We will review and work to introduce to our clients
There should be a Nobel Prize for Value network Innovation(s). Congratulations for your many community contributions.
How do we bottle and sell your DNA and the spirits of this google group? Wow what power this would be.
Cindy Gordon Ph.D.
CEO
Helix Commerce
John Maloney (IM: jheuristic)
`Cindy –
…bottle and sell your DNA…
Here is the DNA sequencing of VNA in the Google genus.
-j
Cindy Gordon
J
Cindy Gordon
Don Steiny
I have just read a book called "Unmanaging" by Theodore Taptiklis.
He covers many of the same issues that are looked at in the version of
networks that I am interested in, more as tools to talk about emergence.
He spends some time successfully criticizing a number of things I have
had a problem with:
- Knowledge management and the tacit/explicit model
- Systems theory (he especially looks at the pernicious
influence of Peter Senge and his followers)
- Stories and their place
- The myth of instrumental management
It is a shot beautifully written book that not only shows some of the
huge problems with current theories of control, but makes valuable
suggestions about what to do about it. It turned me on to some people I
have not read and I ordered books right away, Ralph Stacey and Michael
Bakhtin. Bakhtin is a linguist and he emphasized that no one makes
utterances without the expectation of a response. Even the people that
walk down the street talking to people we can't see are talking to
someone (we just can't see them). When we talk to ourselves we are
talking to a "generalized other" or some such thing (that is Mead's
view). The point is, that if you think about language as representation
then it is possible to abstract away sentences and even ourselves as
subjects that are separate from what we observe.
That causes the paradox in something like the tacit/explicit
distinction. Explicit knowledge is a representation of tacit knowledge
which can then be re-encoded as tacit knowledge in someone else. But it
is not our words that what is going on, it is the reaction that our
words invoke that is the point. Language is activity, not symbolic
representation. It can be used that way in one very special frame, but
that is by far the exception and not the rule.
He makes some progress at the really compelling question, which is
that if organizations do not succeed by rational, top down management
(and make no mistake, Senge is very top down and rational, as is Tom
Peters), then how do they succeed? If the ideas of "vision" and "values"
are just statistical mediocrity at it's worse, then how do we find
shared directions? Or do we? How much of what we see is just our brain
organizing salient observations after the fact? How often do we shoot
the arrow and paint the target around it? How could we know?
Taptiklis suggests a method using analysis of stories. I find thing
exciting because there is a lot we can do with the traces of location
that are in speech. He makes a point that I have been making for several
years, which is that we did not have the equipment to really analyze
speech and other human actions until very recently. When I was
linguistics major at UCSC there was a sound spectrograph in the physics
department and the would not let mere linguists touch their expensive
equipment. Now there are dozens of sound spectrographs as shareware.
Even 5 years ago I had to buy special equipment to slow down digital for
hundreds of dollars. Now there are many programs that do that for less
than $30. That means that for the first time in history it is possible
to record real talk and access it randomly. The challenge is that there
is no way of thinking that allows this. Our conventions for text are
hundreds of years old. We write differently than we talk (though perhaps
less so on IM). Taptklis looks at this and some ways he is working with
this.
Interestingly, this strongly relates to networks. One reason, I am
convinced, that network analysis is not being used much is that
databases work by searching on attributes so it is a pain to access
things in terms of relation. You can't just ask "give me the 2 step
nodes from this node" in Oracle without jumping through hoops. Likewise,
most people conceive of networks in a very flat way, as nodes and
connections between them. It is difficult to capture the
phenomenological importance, that we do have a sense that someone is
connected to others, that they are part of a community and such. We do
not see the specific connectivity, but we can guess it. We are often
wrong, but we do it anyway. That is why White talks of "stories" as the
ties in networks and as the raw material to account for reality. They
are not links in the sense of wires, but in the sense of relationships
we "know" are there. Though Taptiklis has never heard of White and does
not mention networks in his book (I asked him about White) he also sees
how "stories" are markers of our local reality.
It is a fascinating example of networks to find two people talking
about things in such a similar way (though Taptiklis is MUCH more
readable) and neither are aware of each other (or were not until a week
or so ago, I introduced them to each other). At the same time there is
sort of another layer, an insight that is starting to emerge in
different forms in different places, like an event horizon.
-Don
jheuristic
Thanks for the thoughtful message.
Just wanted to note that the popular ValueNetworks.com application is
available in an academic, student and non-profit configuration. It is
the identical powerful and easy-to-use VNA application, Help System
and Services. It is just offered to these populations in a more
attractive subscription configuration. See:
http://valuenetworks.com/public/item/209780
Description:
Non-profit and academic uses of ValueNetworks.com is encouraged. An
application discount is available to qualified applicants. To qualify
for this discount, the purchaser and user must be an employee of an
established non-profit organization or academic institution. The
application must be for exclusive use of the non-profit or academic
institution.
If you wish this option, you do need to apply with this form:
http://buyvaluenetworks.com/index.php?t=academic
and pass a painless vetting process.
Cordially,
-j
On Aug 23, 1:40 pm, Verna Allee <verna.al...@valuenetworks.com> wrote:
> Entry Level tools.
> I am very pleased to let you know that the new ValueNetworks.com
> application is now available and is specifically designed to serve as
> the entry level tool you are looking for. The original GenIsis
> application was the "genesis" for this new application but we have
> taken it into a whole new world of friendly and easy to use. The Excel
> entry has been simplified to a single page and one push of a button
> generates four reports: an animated visual in PowerPoint, a detailed
> diagram in Visio with autolayout, a summary "dashboard" report of
> value network indicators and a full 25 page report with over 50 value
> network indicators presented in full color graphs and everyday
> business language. We will be doing a more public announcement in
> September but I wanted the Value Networks Google Group to get this
>
> Even though we have designed it to be as friendly as possible the
> capability of the application is very robust. You can merge any two
> value networks that share the same role. Reports show both the role
> based network and if you fill in individual participants it will also
> show the collaborative value network. Our early users have been very
> > I label the below toVernaand Charlie, in respons to their posts - but
>
> > > translation" - as the engagement represents the middleware or mechanism that
> > > enables parties to operate in different currencies of the barter exchange.
> > > Within the activity of the network, differing actions, inputs and byproducts
> > > are the elements that enable parties to contribute/benefit from different
> > > parts of the exchange to satisfy different values.
>
> > > Can you elaborate on the best ways you've found to capture/visualize/depict
> > > these? (As I mentioned in an earlier exchange with you, while I feel I'm
> > > philosophically up the curve, I want to get there in a practical sense. If
> > > that is too 101 or non-beneficial for the rest of the list, feel free to
> > > address offline).
>
> > > -Eric
>
> > > --
> > > Eric Hoffer, Second Integral LLC
> > > ehof...@secondintegral.com
> > > Blog:http://www.secondintegral.com/axonomics
> > > LinkedInhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/erichoffer
>
> > --
> > Eric Hoffer, Second Integral LLC
> > ehof...@secondintegral.com
> > Blog:http://www.secondintegral.com/axonomics
>
> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -