Informal Networks and Human Connection

How I Met George Floyd

I know it’s been a long time since I last wrote. Since 2010, I have been blogging every other month with consistency until about 2 years ago, when my blogging just suddenly, unceremoniously stopped. You know I love to blog. I love it so much I wrote a blog about blogging. I promised that I […]

Would You Prefer A New Boss Over A Pay Raise?

According to research referenced by this recent HBR article, as many as 65% of us are in that boat. Yikes! It is difficult to deny the truth that how we feel about our managers and leaders has a direct impact on our well-being and performance at work. This is part of a bigger umbrella of […]

Amazing Humans – Our Hope for Humanity

Humans are amazing. Really, they are. Our news outlets have a tendency to glorify the monsters and celebrate the darkest and deadliest aspect of human behavior, but when we search our hearts and reflect on our own observations and experiences, we cannot deny that most people in this world are good. Many are great. If […]

Stepping Outside the Bubble – The Case for Open and Diverse Networks

I grew up in a new age town surrounded by meditating, herbal tea drinking, liberals. It was all I knew. This oddity was compounded by the fact that I was a child of Indian immigrants. While I was living in America, my home and community life was quite a bit outside the traditional mainstream. When […]

The Power of Connection – Bridging the Divide

Earlier this year, I wrote a post about Keyhubs’ evolving blueprint.  We have branched into new areas since we embarked on this journey in 2009, and I wasn’t sure if / how all these new hobbies / developments were going to fit together. Then, in April, I had an epiphany. I could see the puzzle […]

Keyhubs – The Next Frontier

I have a new talk. And, I am really AMPed up about it. Very. Uncharacteristically. Excited. Several months back I wrote a post about our “Evolving Blueprint”. Keyhubs has evolved – quite a bit – since we first launched as a hobby in 2007 and then as a real business in 2009. We’re coming up […]

Keyhubs – Our Evolving Blueprint

Pollen recently wrote an exceptionally hip article about Keyhubs. Unlike many business publications, Pollen is an incredibly cool, artistic and creative medium for fostering community. I had been tracking their feature stories for some time and greatly admired how they integrated visuals and story telling to put together remarkably engaging content. When they reached out […]

Tooting Our Own Horn

We are nearing the 5 year mark of when Keyhubs transitioned from being “just a hobby” to a real business. It was around this time that we started to think a lot about what our mission was going to be. What are we selling exactly? Why do we exist and what are we striving to […]

Pathways – The Future of Education?

My parents were seekers. They immigrated to Canada from India in the mid-1960s in search of a better life – broader professional opportunity, wealth and comfort. Still unsatisfied, having attained many of the trappings of western life, they shifted their attention to metaphysical pursuits. Ironically, after coming to Canada, they discovered Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and […]

People – The Greatest Books Ever

A lot of people ask me what books I read. To be honest, I don’t read very many books. I have never been a prolific reader, although I spent 7 seven years reading this book – not exactly what you would call “light reading” – 2000-plus pages of fine print. Maybe that sucked the reading life out […]

Diamonds in the Rough – See Your Organization From The Bottom-Up

Keyhubs was involved in a lot of interesting projects over the past year. We tackled reorganization challenges and big change initiatives – helped firms integrate efficiently (post-M&A) and provided strategies to help global sales teams collaborate more effectively. Everywhere we go, our clients are riveted by the unique and surprising relationship dynamics that surface when you […]

Shake The Tree and Fruit Will Fall – Entrepreneurial Lessons in Business Development

When you are launching a new business (or even if you are a fairly established business) you experience peaks and troughs when it comes to monthly or quarterly revenue.  When things are flowing, you think they are going to flow forever.  And when things dry up you feel like you might have to close shop […]

Reorg with Purpose and Insight – Step Out of Dilbert

If you have worked in a decent sized organization for any period of time, there’s a good chance you have been part of a “reorganization”. Sometimes it is unclear why the reorganization is happening. Not only does the change come with uneasiness, due to poor communication and messaging, frequently the details of who gets moved […]

Networks Eat Strategy for Breakfast…Everyday

The new year is here and businesses everywhere are in the process of developing, refining or finalizing their strategies for 2012.  That said, how many organizations are taking a close, in-depth look at their culture as a basis for driving strategy? Peter Drucker (management science pioneer and guru) has said that “culture eats strategy for breakfast everyday”. […]

The Priceless Path to Press Buzz – Why Relationships Matter

This past week The Line Media ran an article on Keyhubs.  The story is nice, but more remarkable is the way in which we landed it. When you break it down and trace the moments that make an “event” like this happen, you begin to appreciate the finer, subtler things in life – namely, the […]

Lessons in Effective “Networking” – Tales of Magic and Mystery

I quit my day job about two years ago to launch this business.  I knew that “networking” was going to be part of the growth strategy, but I had never really done it before.  I didn’t have to (or so I thought). This is a short story about how networking changed my life. Stage I:  Networking […]

Informal Networks and Social Capital in the Workplace: Keys to Driving Change

In this Magis Ventures executive roundtable event, Harold Hegg – Director of New Business Development at Thrivent Financial, discusses the role of informal networks and social capital as a key, yet often overlooked, ingredient in driving change in the workplace.

Democracy in the Workplace? It’s on the rise.

When I enrolled in business school several years back, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Contrary to my trepidation about being fed the “corporate” way of doing things, I ended up learning many new concepts that were, shall I say, pleasantly surprising. One of the most memorable of such learnings happened in my first […]

Know Your Influencers!

Some of you may have seen the following viral YouTube clip of a cute little girl and her “catchy” dance. What starts out as an ordinary “home” video, turns into a remarkable work of special effects and creativity. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK7IzfLmyco] Like most viral videos, you see it once or twice and move on, but given my […]

Talent and Influence Transcends Hierarchy

Have you ever worked in an organization where someone was extremely critical to day-to-day operations, yet surprisingly low on the ‘totem pole’?  Have you ever been shocked by a promotion/hire that was given to someone who seemed unfit for the job in light of other, more capable, internal candidates? Did you ever wonder why management […]

Partnerships at Work – A Leading Indicator of Employee Satisfaction

I have been reading the “Power of 2”, by Rodd Wager and Gale Muller, and was intrigued by some of the research cited in the book.  Specifically, how partnerships at work serve as a powerful driver for engagement, satisfaction and happiness. Some interesting findings: 1) Employees with just one collaborative relationship are 29% more likely […]

Using Social Network Analysis to Visualize Employee Engagement

There is plenty of research out there supporting the value of having close friends at work. Higher satisfaction, stronger engagement.  Intuitively it makes sense: if you like the people you work with everyday, you’ll be happier and more involved. While traditional surveys can help organizations understand level of employee engagement/satisfaction, Social Network Analysis (SNA) can […]

One of our clients used Keyhubs to understand how innovation was happening in their organization.  Quickly, they were able to see that new ideas centered around a few key individuals (22, 64 and 63).  Interestingly, these employees were not collaborating with each other.  Employee 70 was a source of collaborative invention (mutual connections between several […]

As a newcomer to MNODN, I was interested in visualizing the dynamics of this informal organization.  Using Keyhubs, we are able to get a glimpse into the Partner, Resource and Friendship network of MNODN. For OD consultants that are new to a company, can this information help in navigating the social and influence landscapes?  Is […]