Network Structures
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      1. Network Design by Panarchy
      2. Understanding Networks
      3. Network Structures

      Network Structures

      Network structure predicts Network behavior. This is as true for athletes as it is for teams.

      Network structure predicts Network behavior. This is as true for athletes as it is for teams and business strategy. As Bruce Henderson reminded us, one can think of the essence of Strategy as Context and Posture.

      Network Structure Predicts Network Behavior

      Research at the Human dynamics laboratory at MIT have found the “networked team” effect will predict the outcomes of everything from business case competitions to call center productivity.   “Connect the network to itself “and it outperforms.

      Pentland has found knowing who talks to whom how often is more predictive of success than any other single factor including IQ or experience.

      MIT’s Human Dynamics Lab has found Network Structure (measured as communication flows) is more predictive of Success than any other Variable yet studied including IQ and experience. General McCrystal who successfully vanquished Al Queda from Iraq says he could only do so after he modelled his organization on the lightning fast digital enabled networks that he was fighting.

      Network scientists boil all of this down to a single truth: Network Structure Predicts Network Behavior.

      Studies of effectiveness in domain after domain have concluded that greater network awareness and skill in cultivating networks is at the heart of what separates those who excel.

      What Tennis Tells Us About Network Structures

      Geofrey X who lead the UT Women’s Tennis team to an unprecedented Four National championships explained to us that the key to a tennis champion is Posture plus BLT (balance, leverage timing)

      Having said that, Jeff is a huge believer in recruiting as the key to his unprecedented winning streak. Why? Because in Jeff’s mind Because posture is all about who you are Being.   As they say in the Navy Seals you don’t rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training (you become what you do)

      In Jeff’s mind one must recruit Strivers and not Arrivers. A Striver would keep reaching for the next level no matter how great the difficulty. As Jeff put it, he recruited high schoolers to his team who took up this challenge: “tell me about your hardest day on the court. Take that and up it a notch and consider that your training on my team starts there. Are you still interested? If so, you are a striver.

      Strivers are not there for the reward. They are there for the game*.

      *This came out in a Consilient Dialog with Mark T in comparing Mastery as taught by Cheng man ching. The great taichi painter, poet, calligrapher, doctor and martial artist agreed with Jeff that posture was the beginning of Excellence. Remember Aristitle defined excellence as Fitness to Function. And he importantly he said “Excellence is a habit and not a thing”

      On Innovation and Effective Leadership

      The classic Bell Stars Study assessed the difference between Star performers from average performers at the legendary Bell Labs. The Carnegie Mellon Study reached two conclusions:

      1. Stars developed reliable “two-way streets “ of information to experts before they were needed. They engaged in ‘preparatory exploration”.
      2. Stars networks were more diverse which allowed them to adopt more diverse perspectives in looking at a problem and more easily enter the minds of customers, competitors and others. Average performers only saw the world from their point of view and continued to push the same points

      Interestingly, BCG partner Rosalinda Torres reached the same conclusion 50 years later in her research of innovative leaders, she concluded they had more regular interaction across a more diverse networks.

      This brings us back to ZIZO and the Solomon Paradox which states that we all seem capable of wiser reasoning the more we get distance on our own Perspective.

      Optimize for Fulfillment and Results – Start with Strivers.

      Be a Striver. Not an Arriver. Be Internally driven/pulled forward by the game itself.    

      Next level posture. Striver Posture.

      It is easy to mistake the description of a Striver above as one who suffers pain. It is a more sense of leaning-in as most days wont be painful but you want a person who is leaning in to adapt with every part of their being. This is the transformational mindset.

      Motivation stacking

      All levels of motivation are motivation. . Work to engage as many motivations as you can for you and your people. Reward them with Incomes and Second Incomes.