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Sapling - How to run an Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) Survey

Alice McAnaw
Updated

Introduction

Sapling helps you visualize the “hidden org chart” in your company through the use of organizational network analysis (ONA). This article explains how you can use Sapling Surveys and an ONA visualization and analysis tool like kumu.io to start exploring your working relationship networks.

 

Before getting started, check out our Sapling Surveys help article.

 

*Note: We’ll assume your company is leveraging Sapling Surveys and already has an account on kumu.io for the remainder of this article. IMPORTANT: if you want your data to stay private, you’ll need a paid subscription for kumu.io.

 

In this article we’ll cover:

  • Gathering data with an ONA survey in Sapling
  • Structuring your survey results
  • Visualizing and analyzing your data in kumu.io

Gathering data with an ONA survey in Sapling

  1. Navigate from Home > Workflows
  2. Create a new workflow in the Other category
  3. Add a new task
  4. Choose "Survey" for the task content and select "Organizational Network Analysis"
  5. Click Save
  6. Optionally, add any other tasks (e.g. a task with some additional reading material on ONA) before saving the workflow
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7. Assign the survey task to your entire company, or the subset you want to include in the analysis (e.g. just a specific department or region)

 

8. Once the results are in (keep in mind you should aim for high response rates in the 75%+ range for effective ONA surveys), navigate to Reports > Surveys > Create Survey Report

 

9. Build a report using your organizational network analysis survey results, adjust your time frame filters, and export the data

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Structuring your survey results

You’ll end up creating a single Google Sheet (or CSV file) with two sections:

  • A list of your team members (called Elements)
  • A list of your ONA results (called Connections)

Follow the guidance from kumu.io here to structure your Sapling data to be ready for import or connection to your kumu.io project.

 

Visualizing and analyzing your data in kumu.io

  1. Depending on the number of team members you’re analyzing, you’ll likely want to use either the Stakeholder template or the Big data template when creating your kumu.io project
  2. Connect (or import) your structured Sapling data to form the basis of your Elements and Connections in your project
  3. Kumu.io will automatically visualize your data
  4. Run a series of pre-built Metrics or make other data and styling changes to your project
  5. Finally, complete your own analysis of the data for sharing or building an action plan for your company
  6. Optionally, if your data is safe for viewing by others in your company, you could add a link to the kumu.io project to your Company Links in Sapling for easy access

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