Communication Ecosystem
A new downloadable free item is up on the Network Weaver Resources page.[ap_spacing spacing_height="20px"]
One of the most critical support structures for networks is a well-thought out communications ecosystem - a set of tools and platforms that enable everyone in the network to connect and collaborate directly with anyone else in the network.
This kind of communication system is quite different from the broadcast strategy of many organizations, where the organization sends out information via a newsletter and/or website but has no avenues for people to respond or build connections to each other.
A communication system that supports interaction among network participants needs to fill four functions:
- Provide spaces and places for discussing ideas and for sharing what has been learned. [ap_spacing spacing_height="15px"]
- Ensure that everyone has access to new ideas and innovations from other communities and networks.[ap_spacing spacing_height="15px"]
- Many places for network participants to get to know each other and deepen relationships, and to work together collaboratively.[ap_spacing spacing_height="15px"]
- Ways to track network development (network leadership, network values, collaboration and collaborative skills, stages of network development, development of network support structures, network stories, etc) and use this data to enable the network to move more rapidly to a system shifting networks. [ap_spacing spacing_height="15px"]
[ap_spacing spacing_height="15px"]You can use the free handout in the Resources section to engage participants in your network in a process to help co-design your network's communication ecosystem. Share the handout with any network participants who are interested and begin to fill out the page with blank boxes
NENAD MALJKOVIC
CLICK HERE to download Communication Ecosystem handout.
Welcome to the Network Weaving Blog
There are over 1.4 million tax-exempt non-profits in the United States, many of them working on the hard-to-shift systemic problems of our society, such as racism, poverty, immigrant rights, access to food and healthcare, inequitable education systems, and climate change.
[ap_spacing spacing_height="25px"]Systems change and networks
But many of those organizations have realized these problems are extraordinarily complex. Solving these problems requires shifting entire systems, something that is not possible for a single organization to accomplish.
We are seeing a rapid increase in the number of networks forming to work on problems collaboratively.
As a result, we are seeing a rapid increase in the number of networks forming to work on problems collaboratively. Many of these are having truly impressive results:
Increasing local food access and sustainability through networked policy councils
Increasing access to healthcare
Stopping new coal-fired power plants in the Midwest
[ap_spacing spacing_height="25px"]Network Practice is underdeveloped
The problem, as I see it, is that the field of network practice has not kept up with this dramatic increase in networks.
The field of network practice has not kept up with this dramatic increase in networks.
All too many networks are floundering, struggling with knowing how best to support network leadership, how to structure their network, and how to organize action. Too many try to adapt an organizational frame and find that network growth and innovation are inhibited.
An organization is an organization is an organization. There are ample books, associations, training programs and consultants available, so that setting up a new nonprofit is fairly straightforward.
But networks come in many shapes and sizes, and recipe books aren’t as useful for this type of entity. There are only a handful of network consultants in the entire country, only a few books on network formation, and little research has been done on the most effective structures and operations for networks. Add to this the fact that only a few foundations are supporting networks, and even fewer are supporting the development of the field.
[ap_spacing spacing_height="25px"]Let’s support networks together!
Over the course of the coming year, I hope to gather a group of individuals and foundations who understand the extraordinary potential of networks and care passionately about developing the support and knowledge that is needed so that all networks can be transformational and system shifting.
I plan to write blog posts at least weekly about every aspect of network practice I work on and send these posts out via an enewsletter. I hope I can convince some of you to contribute to this blog as well. Just respond to this post and I will explain how this can be done.
I also will be developing and offering a wide range of free materials and low-cost modules (will usually include a video, powerpoint, and activity sheets) during the coming months.
I am hoping that you will help think through the development of a platform that encourages networks everywhere to share what they have learned and where people interested in learning collaboratively can find each other.
Let us know what challenges you have faced in forming and operating a network and what would help you with those challenges.
I invite you to respond to this post with your thoughts, comments and expressions of interest in this project. Let us know what challenges you have faced in forming and operating a network and what would help you with those challenges. What would you like to learn? Explore with others?
We can only make progress on this together!
June Holley
A NETWORK OF NETWORKS
Editor’s note: I’ve become more and more convinced that networks are much more effective when they are also part of networks with other networks, where they can share information, learn, support each other with challenges and organize larger collaborative actions especially policy change. We will have a series of blog posts in the coming weeks about the different types of networks of networks and steps in developing them.
Food system networks have been in the forefront of this development. Here Ken Morse describes the Maine Network of Community Food Councils.[ap_spacing spacing_height="20px"]
Higher Level Network of Networks
I co-coordinate the Maine Network of Community Food Councils (MNCFC), made up of a growing number of community councils (currently 12, mostly multi-town) that act as local networks, with the Maine Network knitting these together in a Network of Networks.
For the last year, we have been organizing conversations with many other Maine groups with the idea of weaving together the over 100 groups, networks and non-profits working towards rebuilding Maine’s food supply. So a higher level Network of Networks, or you could almost say a Network of Networks of Networks.
We try to study biological models of organizations, seeing “networks” as a biological approach to social organization, much the way sustainable food systems are a biological alternative to industrial agriculture.
[ap_spacing spacing_height="20px"]The Shared Gifting Process
One tool we have used within MNCFC is our Shared Gifting process. MNCFC is largely grant supported and we devote about half our budget to allocations to local councils, using a Shared Gifting process that we adapted from RSF Finance in California. All Councils submit proposals for this funding, all proposals go out to all Councils, then we have a special Shared Gifting meeting, where each council presents their proposals. Each Council is assured of funding for part of their work, and then have an allocation that they can share with other Councils. [ap_spacing spacing_height="20px"]
[ap_spacing spacing_height="20px"]Here are a few documents that explain the process in more detail.
[ap_spacing spacing_height="20px"]Enriching Peer to Peer Sharing
This process mightily enriches the peer to peer sharing at the heart of MNCFC. Each Council learns about the work of the others, and then our meetings throughout the year are heavily focused on Community updates. Councils really begin to feel like they are the network, and innovation is greatly accelerated through replication of local initiatives across the Network.
We are interested in other network building tools like this. And in our “networks of networks” work, we are especially interested in questions of structure and communication ecosystems. And stories about how we can help folks who are somewhat stuck in organization or institutional frameworks to make the leap into network mindsets.
So, in any regard, we are delighted to be connecting with you and other national partners to dig deeper into this cutting edge work. [ap_spacing spacing_height="20px"]
Ken Morse
Community Food Strategies
Co-Coordinator, Maine Network of Community Food Councils
Leadership Team, Maine Farm to Institution[ap_spacing spacing_height="15px"]
Another wonderful resource Ken shared with me is a video call with four State Food Networks of Networks https://youtu.be/6wgIvqzHs8E. If would like to learn more about statewide food networks, also check out this article by University of Minnesota Extension on Cultivating Collective Action: The Ecology of a Statewide Food Network (2015)