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Agencies and universities may spend a lot of time on and invest a lot of money in restructuring organizational structure and reconfiguring processes and then be disappointed with the results. This is because a lot of the real work happens outside the formal organizational structure. What the Department of Navy has found in their research is that many times, what needs more attention is the informal organization structure.

The informal organization structure consists of the informal networks and relationships among employees that form across functions and divisions as a result of actually accomplishing tasks. A Community of Practice (CoP) is an example of the informal structure. A Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of employees with a common interest or working practice that solve problems and issues through an informal network that includes knowledge experts.

These informal groups often can cut across organizational lines and get things accomplished more quickly than formal reporting relationships. However, unless management knows how to identify, guide and communicate with these informal networks, they also can undercut or sabotage the organization by blocking communication and forming groups opposed to change.

Conducting a social network analysis makes it possible to translate these informal relationships into internal network maps that demonstrate how things get done within the organization. These maps should consist of a layout with named dots (each representing a person or group), and lines and arrows that connect the dots to represent how these relationships can interrelate.

Some guidelines to use to understand these relationships and mapping their connections are:

• The advice network is made up of the main employees or experts in an organization whom other employees often rely on to help solve problems and give technical advice.
• The trust network is the recognized or unrecognized network of employees who mutually share political knowledge.
• The communication network is the group or groups of employees who often discuss organizational matters.

Identifying and recruiting these groups of employees into the CoP implementation process will make the process flow smoothly since these employees already have a solid connection within the informal communication network of the organization.