Duke University School of Nursing: Leveraging Network Analysis for Change

Client Profile & Challenge

Duke University School of Nursing (DUSON) is educating the next generation of transformational leaders in nursing.

With a solid history, an impressive brand, and top-caliber teaching, research, and clinical faculty and staff, the school has many strengths and much to offer.

But the school’s goal is to be the premier school of nursing in the United States — a goal that requires engaging a representative group of leaders, at all levels, in collaborative change.

Solution & Results

Under Dean Marion E. Broome’s leadership, DUSON partnered with us to engage in a process of discovery to identify ways to better focus people, structure, and processes for greater impact. We conducted an organizational network analysis (ONA) to measure and map the informal structure and relationships that would support, or inhibit, change. 

ONA is used to understand the status quo and then determine whether the networks that currently exist are effective or not for achieving desired outcomes.

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The entire change initiative — creating the steering committee, the approach, and the restructuring outcomes — would not have been as successful without doing the network analysis first, agree Dean Broome and members of the DUSON executive team.

This type of analysis is unique to each organization and is shared liberally with all involved in the change process. We take the following approach with organizations interested in using network knowledge to drive and support change:

1. Map the naturally occurring patterns of work and social interaction using advanced analytics;
2. Match those patterns to the change initiatives organizations are trying to implement; and
3. Maximize success by developing targeted solutions that fit the organization’s natural pattern of work and catalyze the network to spur change.

Our work with DUSON has proved valuable, allowing a major change to be planned and implemented in a tight timeframe and with much support among faculty and staff.

The entire change initiative — creating the steering committee, the approach they took, and the restructuring outcomes — would not have been as successful without doing the network analysis first, agree Dean Broome and members of the DUSON executive team.

Access our companion white paper to learn more about how we applied analytics to accelerate the spread of organizational change.