People Analytics: How to Find Your “Hidden Leaders” with Organizational Network Analysis (ONA)

• Your Org Chart Is Lying to You
• Expertise: What is Organizational Network Analysis (ONA)?
• The Flaw in Traditional ONA: Passive, Expensive, Static
• The AlbiMarketing Solution: “Active ONA” in Real-Time
• Checklist: Are You Managing “Blind”?

Your Org Chart Is Lying to You

Gallup estimates that companies fail to choose the right candidate for management positions 82% of the time. This results in ineffective managers costing the global economy hundreds of billions annually in lost engagement.

Why do we get it wrong so often?

Because we promote people based on incomplete data. We look at KPIs (individual output) and “visibility” (how persuasively they talk in meetings).

AlbiMarketing’s expert analysis shows that the traditional org chart lies. It shows you who reports to whom, but it doesn’t show you who trusts whom or who people go to for advice. By promoting the “loudest” instead of the most “influential,” we are systematically making bad talent decisions.

Expertise: What is Organizational Network Analysis (ONA)?

To make decisions based on data, not gut feel, “Transformation Leaders” and COOs are turning to Organizational Network Analysis (ONA).

ONA is a data-science method that maps the real networks of influence in your company. It ignores formal titles and shows how information actually flows. ONA helps find two types of “hidden leaders” who are critical for business but invisible to KPIs:

1. “Hubs”: These are your “go-to” experts. ONA identifies them by measuring their Network Centrality. These are the people a disproportionately large number of colleagues rely on. Research by Rob Cross, a pioneer in ONA, shows these Hubs are the key knowledge-holders.
2. “Bridges”: These are the people who connect otherwise isolated departments (e.g., R&D and Sales). ONA measures their Network Betweenness. Research from MIT Sloan found that employees who act as effective bridges generate 3x more innovative ideas than their peers.

The problem is, you don’t know who they are.

The Flaw in Traditional ONA: Passive, Expensive, Static

If ONA is so powerful, why isn’t everyone using it? Because traditionally, it is “Passive ONA”: a massive, expensive consulting project.

• It’s slow: Analyzing email servers and running surveys takes 3-6 months.
• It’s expensive: The cost of these projects often exceeds €100,000.
• It’s static: By the time you get the report (which is essentially an autopsy), the influence map has already changed. It’s not a live tool.

The AlbiMarketing Solution: “Active ONA” in Real-Time

At AlbiMarketing, we believe ONA shouldn’t be a project; it should be a daily tool for managers. We specialize in “Active ONA.”

Instead of analyzing stale email logs, we use richer, faster data sources: the “digital footprints” from your daily tools, including Slack, Jira, Teams, and your LMS.

Our “Total Recognition Tracker” is this engine. It’s not “another tool” but a lightweight, “integration-first” plug-in that turns your work tools into a real-time ONA platform:

• It “listens” to digital footprints: who thanked whom in Slack, who helped with a task in Jira, who was tagged as an expert on a new topic.
• It automatically measures “social capital,” identifying your “Hubs” and “Bridges” every day.
• It turns this data chaos into a simple dashboard for leaders.

Instead of waiting 3 months for a consultant’s report, you can open your dashboard and see who today is the most influential employee in R&D.

You stop guessing. You start making promotion decisions based on objective data about who actually influences your organization.

Checklist: Are You Managing “Blind”?

1. Is your high-potential (HiPo) program based on KPIs and subjective opinions, not real influence data?
2. Can you, right now, identify the key “Hub” and “Bridge” in your most critical department?
3. Have you ever promoted a “KPI star” who turned out to be a terrible manager (like Gallup’s 82% statistic)?
4. Do you have a tool to measure “social capital,” or are you still relying on “gut feel”?
   Get a Free Expert Consultation with AlbiMarketing to learn how our Tracker can build an ONA map of your team.

References

1. Using People Analytics to Uncover Hidden Influencers
2. The Org Chart Is a Lie
3. Measuring the ‘Soft Skills’ That Drive Success
4. Identifying High-Potential Employees with ONA
5. Social Capital in Organizations: A Network-Based Approach