Endless Knots

Why I didn't (or couldn't) become an academic

Google alert set to "virtual leader" brings us to this abstract:

Without assuming that the interaction diagraph is strongly connected or contains a directed spanning tree, this paper studies the second-order leader-following consensus problem of nonlinear multi-agent systems with general network topologies. Based on graph theory, matrix theory, and LaSalle’s invariance principle, a pinning control algorithm is proposed to achieve leader-following consensus in a network of agents with nonlinear second-order dynamics. Furthermore, a pinning consensus protocol is developed for coupled double-integrators with a constant reference velocity. In particular, this paper addresses what kind of agents and how many agents should be pinned, and establishes some sufficient conditions to guarantee that all agents asymptotically follow the virtual leader. Numerical simulations are given to verify the theoretical analysis.

I think it says that everyone follows the leader, which I believe we learned in first grade. But without the numerical simulations. Here's the citation for what is certainly a brilliant paper (no offense, authors of "Second-order leader-following consensus of nonlinear multi-agent systems via pinning control").

Who are you, J?

Earlier this week I received an ad with a post-it on it, as per what appears at the left. Hard to read, I realize, so here's the "informative" text: "JESSICA, TRY THIS. IT'S REALLY GOOD! J"

Ok, it's a marketing ploy from someone trying to sell me something. Howevuh, I've been receiving these missives, sometimes with ads, sometimes with articles, very occasionally with some kind of religious message FOR YEARS! Maybe 20 years.

I have no idea who's sending them. J, who are you? And why are you so reluctant to reveal who you are?

Anyone else ever had anything like this happen

UPDATE: Forgot to mention--all are postmarked Santa Ana, Calif, with no return address.

Nohria new dean at Harvard Business School

Harvard University President Drew Faust just announced that Nitin Nohria, an insightful academic who early on recognized the importance of networks to global business strategy, is the new dean of HBS. "He's an outstanding scholar, teacher, and mentor, with a global outlook and an instinct for collaboration across traditional boundaries," Faust said.

From the announcement* on the B-school's site:

A scholar of leadership and organizational change, Nohria has previously been the School's senior associate dean for faculty development and chair of its organizational behavior unit. Current co-chair of the HBS Leadership Initiative and a member of the HBS faculty since 1988, he will take up his new role on July 1.

Congrats, Nitin. Very happy for you, the institution, and for networks.

Mandela on the walls

Catching up on a bunch of queued-up/blog-worthy stuff this morning. Here you'll find three paintings and a note explaining them (not that you can read anything but the artist's signature) that sit on the walls in the hallway outside Interaction Institute for Social Change and, in this case, more importantly because it's responsible for their being there, Hunt Alternatives Fund. Artist is none other than Nelson Mandela who painted them while imprisoned on Robbins Island.

Unfortunately, I can't supply any more info about the paintings or why they're there except to note that Swanee Hunt, co-founder of the fund and former ambassador, has a long history of policy and social change work in Africa. Anyone who knows how Ms. Hunt came to acquire these paintings, please chime in.

I snapped these shots while lingering in the hallway at the IISC conference on networks last week.

 

 
 

And now for the wrap-up of the network session - #ntwk

...which I can't keep up with because people are saying such interesting things. A la one person just said that the portion of the brain that processes grief causes greater bonding than the portion where we process joy. Have to think about this one...

So I'm just noticing some features of this day. After lunch, where we had the chance to talk in even more small groups, we moved into the hallway for recess, complete with big balls. We circled up and followed instructions from Marianne Hughes. First we threw balls to people we knew before today. Then to people we'd worked with. Finally to anyone.

As we sit here, there's a large screen projecting all the tweets from the day. Jen Willsea is taking detailed notes on the convo and projecting them on another screen.

At this point in the day, the room is a bit of a wreck, reflecting how formality has broken down as the group moved closer to relatedness, not quite family yet (i.e. I still don't know some people's names and have only a vague sense of what most do) but the warmth of the small-group process at which Interaction Institute for Social Change is so adept shrinks the distance even between strangers.

So many more good things being thrown out but we're taking another break to join in small groups to decide what are the handful of things that we'd like to learn in the next three sessions.

And now for the final, real, complete and total wrap-up, meaning a plus/delta for the day:

• Kinetics (throwing stuff around) good for starters but better if real work got done as result of that
• "I got work done on all our projects;" "We workshopped our work"
• Enjoyed the small group time; quality of people in room
• Seeing lots of old friends
• Support team, cameras, food
• Would be good to actually meet everyone in room
• "Grand rounds" to go deep into a few problems
• Would it help to have other expertise in the room, i.e. expertise around communication, as well as people who know about networks
• Strongly advise having much younger people in room (said by someone who calls herself an "old" millenial)
• Idea of taking a question and going deep

Gibran Rivera is now giving a very eloquent plea for seeing the nonprofit sector as having competitive advantage, particularly in difficult times. "My practical question is once people connect authentically and then go back to the practicalities of funding, how do we do it?" Poor transcription by me but that's the general idea - how do we sustain connections, meaningfully, over time, in the face of extreme challenges like funding.

Concluding, Marianne thanks everyone for showing up the way they did with all their energy.

Since last I posted - #ntwk

...We've had our open space conversation about governance and structure, which proved fascinating with several excellent cases, including one global nonprofit in which Noelle Thurlow, an Outward Bound staffer, became involved with the World Resource Project involving 40 different affiliated organizations (all of which had the same name) but which had completely independent structures.

Noelle soon was to realize that she had to become the network weaver when she discovered that the big, well-funded organizations tended to be more guarded in sharing while the young (and poor) organizations wanted to share. With the help of consultant Tom Glazier, she launched a wiki and got an around-the-world ticket to be the wiki evangelist and to hold week-long trainings in each location called Wikifest.

Together, they did an Outward Bound Ropes Course to kick off the wiki training. The holdout representative from the US -- she hadn't wanted to buy into the wiki or share information -- was transformed by the experience. She went from refusing to share information to understanding the value of the larger network and support it whole-heartedly. As a result of Noelle's efforts and the process she designed, the person who had been the most dug into holding out moved to feeling that it was her responsibility to share info.

We need more Noelles in the world, who don't give up, who have natural affinity for networking, and have the energy to do this kind of world-changing. And, oh, by the way, who did Noelle take with her on that six-month globe circling? Her two very young children.

And now we're signing up for open space - #ntwk

Our next activity (following lunch, I hope) is open space. BTW, they're running a stopwatch on the screen to make sure that each person speaking in this section ends in the allotted time (60 seconds).

First, the principles of open space from IISC:

1. Whoever comes are the right people
2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened
3. Whenever it starts is the right time
4. When it's over, it's over

Next, the Law of Two Feet:

If you are not learning or contributing where you are, go some place else.

And now people are saying what they want to talk about:

• Governance and structure
• Difference between networks and collaborative structures
• Structural options available to organizations
• Network assessment, including internal conversation in network monitoring itself
• Competencies necessary for networks to be successful
• Language used to motivate networks -- many networks are anger-driven; how to construct language around love
• How do we convene networks that enable deep, meaningful relationships among people who already are flat out
• How communication technologies are used within and among networks

Now we're getting up to walk to the convener of each topic.

And now we learn that we have to do this exercise before lunch. Oh, no. Time for an apple. (I'm going to Governance and Structure for Networks).

Next up, most vexing questions around networks - #ntwk

We just finished a ten-minute or so segment where our small group--four in total--talked about the most pressing questions for networks. People are reporting out and I can't keep up. I hope IISC publishes the results. But meanwhile:

• Funding
• Motivating people
• Relationship between organizations and networks
• How to evaluate networks
• Field is so interdisciplinary so how do all streams come together
• How to shift to network mindset
• How to start with people's experience of being in networks not theory
• How to see relationship between hierarchy and networks
• How to encourage leadership in networks...and many more

Monitor Institute on networks - #ntwk

Great set of slides from Monitor Institute on networks here.

The beginning and ... Roberto Cremonini's hopes for the day - #ntwk

The room is packed and Marianne Hughes just reported that there was 100% response to the survey of those coming. Who's ever heard of that?

Marianne welcomes us, explains why we're here; Gibran Rivera lays out the agenda; Madeleine Taylor, who helped design the program, introduces Bruce Hoppe, who interprets a social network map that shows how connected people in the room are--some on periphery, some central. Bruce explains that the map raises the question, "Why are people on one edge not connected to people on the other?"

Here are Roberto Cremonini's opening remarks:

A favorite quote these days is from an Egyptian proverb: a basket that has two handles should be carried with two hands. Over past 7 years working at Barr, I have been carrying a lot of these baskets around – network theory, network analysis, network weavers. These have been very heavy baskets to carry around. I had the realization that there are a lot of these baskets and that it would be good to put them out for benefit of everyone. Another realization is that some baskets have more than two handles. We need to figure out ways to carry baskets many at a time. At minimum, my expectation for the day is that we connect; ideally, this is a springboard for more work together. My ultimate dream is to carry baskets together for real projects.