It is a clear and shared purpose that is the motivational glue that holds an organizational network together. Without purpose, a people network will fail to jell. Without renewed and sustained goals, a human network will disintegrate. Only people who think for themselves can internalize goals and act to benefit a larger shared purpose without coercion or detailed policies. In both people and technology networks, the nodes have an independence and autonomy of action separate from their cooperation as part of a successful network.
Nodes are people and devices.
Links are relationships and wires. Purposes are goals and applications. For a technology company, network language provides a way to leverage technical knowledge to bridge the gap to organizational understanding. For their customers, and for themselves as companies of people, network language provides a new way to look at the organization, one that supplements traditional hierarchical and bureaucratic views. Seeing an organization as distributed work processes and networks of people provides a natural configuration template for technology networks, and a challenge to the need for fundamental technology flexibility in adapting to changing people patterns.