Network Intelligence

Network Intelligence gives you a continuously updated map of how influence actually flows through your organization — not the org chart, but the real network.

Why it matters for change

Research consistently shows that peer influence is the strongest driver of behavior change in organizations. Change initiatives that activate informal influencers see significantly higher adoption rates than those that rely on hierarchical communication alone.

The challenge: traditional ONA (Organizational Network Analysis) requires manual relationship surveys that are expensive, infrequent, and subject to social desirability bias. By the time the data is analysed, the network has already shifted.

Cursus builds influence maps continuously, from metadata.

How it works

Cursus connects to communication platforms (Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Slack, Google Workspace) and reads metadata only — not message content. Metadata includes:

• Who communicates with whom
• How frequently
• In what direction (initiating vs. responding)
• Across what channels

From this, Cursus computes:

• Degree centrality — Who is most connected (volume of connections)
• Betweenness centrality — Who bridges otherwise disconnected groups (information brokers)
• Influence score — A composite measure of reach and responsiveness
• Structural holes — Gaps in the network where change communications may not flow

Privacy protections

Network analysis operates on aggregated metadata only:

• Individual communication patterns are never surfaced to managers
• Influence scores are displayed at the group level only
• Content access requires explicit organizational opt-in (default: off)
• All data collection requires employee notification before activation

See the Privacy & Data article for full details.

Using the influence map

The Network Intelligence dashboard shows:

• Force-directed graph — Visual representation of the influence network, colored by organizational group
• Influencer list — Top individuals by influence score, useful for identifying change champions
• Impact Cascade — Simulate how a change announcement would propagate through the network
• Cross-group bridges — Identify who connects otherwise siloed parts of the organization

These insights feed directly into intervention planning — Cursus can recommend which individuals to engage first for maximum change activation.