networks

Job security is a thing of the past; to survive and thrive in today’s world we need to learn how to become entrepreneurs of our own lives. I’m acutely aware of this as I watch my young adult daughters and their friends navigate the start of their careers.  In a recent book, The Start Up of You, Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha provide insightful and valuable advice about building personal and professional networks, and why they are so important to our survival and success now and in the future.  We know that personal and professional networks are the best way to find a job, but how do we get value from our networks on a day-to-day basis?  How do we cultivate our networks so that we can easily tap the intelligence that is there to get insights about people we interact with, learn how to navigate power dynamics and cultural norms, or get emotional support and strength to keep us going?  On a personal level, I found their advice very affirming and empowering, and I vowed to give my daughters this book to read. read more »

On Collective Impact... read more »

As LLC began to explore the intersection of networks and leadership we found a perfect partner in June Holley.  June is the guru of network weaving so we jumped on the chance to participate in a 9 month virtual Network Weaving Community of Practice that June helped to organize and facilitate for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.  Deborah and June knew they were kindred spirits and sought each other out at a meeting of the Network Funders Network.  They were not sure what they would do together, but knew if they spent a little time getting to know each other that it would become clear, and it did. 

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By Claire Reinelt, Natalia Castaneda

Looking to increase your reach and influence in the social media space? Social Network Analysis (SNA), a research methodology that focuses on “mapping and measuring relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, computers, URLs, and other connected information/knowledge entities,” (Orgnet.com) may be the answer. We recently partnered with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to explore how to effectively apply social network analysis to public health online communications strategies, how communications networks operate in Twitter and the blogosphere, and how to identify strategic and influential connections that can be nurtured over time to extend the reach of public health messaging. This was an innovative project that produced detailed and insightful information about how to use SNA to strategize communications campaigns, and we wanted to share some of these insights with the community – including specific recommendations for identifying key messages, influencers, and engagement strategies.

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On Collective Leadership... read more »

• Curtis Ogden highlights four key concepts underlying the roots of the Interaction Institute's approach to collective leadership: epistemology, cosmology, ontology, technology.  Epistemology is that it’s not just about what we know, but how we know it – intuitively, intellectually, analytically. Cosmology is looking to the complex living systems and networks as the complicated reality we all live in. Ontology is the idea that each of us is evolving and capable of both learning and unlearning. Finally, technology/methodology is the idea of looking to the practices that create the best conditions for collective leadership. 
• Stowe Boyd discusses concepts from a Sara Horowitz’s talk on mutualism and creates a “mutualist manifesto”.  At the heart of the manifesto is finding common cause and growing mutual associations locally and globally, associations such as coops, unions, and policy organizations. Boyd thinks that associations supporting one another, governance by members, seeking benefits not profits, and cooperating in resource allocation will all make great headway towards directing change in a systemically chaotic world.

Presenters: Kim Ammann Howard (BTW information change), Melanie Moore (See Change), Claire Reinelt (Leadership Learning Community)

Date: Wednesday, February 15 11:00-12:00 Noon PDT (2:00-3:00PM EDT)

In recent years, leadership funders have begun experimenting widely with how to move beyond investments in programs and organizations to funding the formation and development of networks in order to catalyze greater collective impact. Drawing on the experiences and examples of three leadership and network evaluators, this session explored the following questions.

• What are the promises and perils of investing in network formation? What evaluation questions are important to ask?
• What are critical practices for supporting and nurturing the emergence and development of networks? How can evaluation inform the development and support of networks over time?
• What are promising practices for evaluating network behavior and network effects in the early stages of network formation?

This session provided useful advice on how to fund, support, and evaluate network potential and sustainability in the earliest phases of network formation.

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Peggy Holman shared some insightful reflections as a catalyst at OccupyCafe, a virtual world cafe space envisioning the future of the Occupy movement (check out her powerpoint slides on the vital conversations page).  She talked about the pattern of how change happens and she reflected on what leadership looks like in a movement for change.

All change starts with the disruption of a social system -- a disruption from coherence -- where things worked the way we thought they should, according to assumptions, principles and rules we all knew and understood.    read more »

On a recent Saturday afternoon, I spent four hours with people from many walks of life at the Occupy Boston Summit in the heart of Chinatown about 15 minutes from Dewey Square, the site of Occupy Boston.  Over three hundred people were in a school cafeteria, an overflow room, and on livestreaming to have a conversation for four hours about where the “occupy” movement in Boston goes from here.