I was reflecting on the last social network analysis we did and it occurred to me that the survey response  might be heavily influenced by what was happening just before it was completed. For example, if you’ve just spent the last last 3 months working on an intensive special project and were ask to list 7 people you collaborate with to get your job done, there is a good chance people from the last 3 months would feature prominently in your response, perhaps excluding those vital helpers not currently on the tip of your tongue.

One way to remind people of what they know is to help them remember stories of the past. So here are a couple of options for priming the respondent to remember what they know:

• convene a group of people to participate in an anecdote circle for 15–30 minutes and have them retell their stories of collaborations over the last few years, then ask them to complete the SNA survey;
• ask the survey respondent to draw a timeline representing the last few years and mark on the significant periods of collaboration or key milestones, then complete the SNA questions.

I wonder what other ways you can prepare people to respond usefully to answering SNA surveys given the many limitations of a survey technique?