The role of networks in making decisions

People are linked together in networks.  Networks are held together by relationships, sometimes the links are strong and other times the links are weak, non-existent or detrimental.  Relationships act as pipelines for information, fact, opinion, beliefs, and judgements.  The quality of any information passed along is less important than the fact that the information gets passed along in the first place, and is believed. Our networks are instrumental in the decisions that we make both on a personal level and on a professional level.  And because networks play such an important role in decision making, so do our relationships.  Understanding what relationships are and how they work will help us to better understand decisions that have been made or are going to be made.

Understand the complicated

This blog sets out to be of interest to those people who have to work in environments where complicated decisions are taken: complex sales, international account and project management, journalists, people interested in politics, jobseekers, etc. It is also hopefully  going to satisfy the curious who would like to know just a bit more about how their own relationships work, without a particular goal in mind.

Overall, relationships are studied using the following lenses:

• Relationships as the glue for networking

• Analyzing relationships to understand large groups of people

• How relationships drive (or hinder) decision making

• The difference between the person, their relationships and the roles they play

• The role of social networks in relationship management

• How, as human beings, we keep track of this information

• How, as technology users, we can be assisted in keeping track of this information

• And no doubt other topics will present themselves or get introduced along the way

If you’d like to have one of your articles referenced or posted here, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at contact@advertech.fr.

Good reading!