How learning ecosystems evolve and how can leaders weave the whole change process
Weaving educational ecosystems in our districts and cities has become one of the greatest worldwide challenges for our systems to enhance learning and equity for the new era. The UNESCO (2020) publication “Education in a Post-COVID World: Nine Ideas for Public Action” indicates that those communities that have responded in an innovative, effective and resilient way to the crisis of COVID-19 are those who had shown greater collaboration between teachers, and between school and community actors. These ideas are also shown by other recent studies on school networks by Daly (2020) Azorín (2020) and Ion & Brown (2020). The reality of this pandemic has reminded us as a species that we are deeply connected to one another (Lancet 2020).
Learning ecosystems are social infrastructure formed by diverse actors that share a purpose, and engage in collaboration to co-design and co-implement innovative responses to existing social and educational challenges. Learning ecosystems provide a new understanding of education from an ecosystemic perspective of actors and their relationships; they challenge traditional organizational boundaries while providing place-based focus on local schools, neighborhoods, cities, or transnational networks; they are based on systemic and cross-sectorial collaboration; and pursue systemic impact (Díaz-Gibson et al., 2020). Thus, one of the most relevant questions in the global educational sphere is how learning ecosystems can be intentionally supported, cultivated and weaved, and how these place based ecosystems grow and evolve over time.
A natural way to approach and better understand learning ecosystems’ development and growth process is to dig into how biological ecosystems change and evolve. Science shows us that collaboration between organisms and species, not struggle for survival that allows ecosystems to evolve and species to truly flourish. As Darwin defended, if humans are the most advanced species it’s because we have the most advanced means of collaborating, and our communities care for the most vulnerable, the sick, the elderly and impoverished. Thus, collaboration is actually a natural and social driver for species survival and for thriving communities.
Ecosystems evolution is drawn byecological succession, understood as the process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time, where a network of different populations and organisms coexist and interact. The time scale for a biological ecosystem to evolve can be decades -for example, after a wildfire-, or even millions of years. The community begins with relatively few pioneering plants and animals and develops through increasing complexity until it becomes stable or self-perpetuating as a climax community. The engine of succession becomes the impact of established organisms upon their own environments. In other words, intraction among species and within the environment are the drivers of change in all ecosystems.
Colleagues in the NetEduProject have been studying networks, partnerships and ecosystems that enhance learning and equity in the last two decades (Daly, 2010; Riera and Civís, 2008; Díaz-Gibson, 2014; Díaz-Gibson et al, 2017 and 2020). Our learnings show that the development of learning ecosystems and their relational networks become a taugh and complex process that needs time and efforts to be properly cultivated, weaved, and consolidated. Personal relationships require time and intention to emerge and sustain, and their growth involves devoting intentional efforts. With this in mind, Mireia Civís and I have worked on a model to cultivate and weave learning ecosystems in three non linear steps, where we identified some patterns of evolution. Thus, to weave learning ecosystems we need to focus on different conditions depending on its level of maturity:
- The initial stage of the ecosystem’s growth is shown in the image as ‘Young network’. Following the idea of ecological succession, ecosystems change depends on the initial conditions found in the social network, and the type and number of actors, and the quantity and quality of relationships draw an initial starting point. At this stage, it is necessary to develop a structural design to cultivate the social foundations that will sustain the whole ecosystem: trust, empathy, recognition of others and collective purpose. It is the moment where members share goals and expectations, adjust rhythms and levels as new relationships are woven. This social capital will sustain the future development of the whole ecosystem of people and organizations, and will become the pillars that pave the way for a new collaborative culture. At this point, collective learning is a priority flow that needs to be planned, at the same time, will be part of the network’s own working culture. Ecosystems can take from one to three years to move into a second stage, and only the construction of solid intangible pillars will allow networks to change and evolve.
- The second stage, named as ‘Mature network’, is more difficult to limit in time as its duration depends on several factors beyond the initial network conditions, such as investment, political support or system coherence. Here, we need to move towards the development and sustainability of social networks, and one of the aims is to consolidate the transition from individual to institutional commitment. It becomes a stage where we want to sustain a collaborative model of action and where we must continue to feed the social intangibles generated. At the same time, new strategies are being sought to assess and increase the impact of collective action. Once networks are weaved, they must come to live and make sense for themselves, they may not depend (or only depend) on external leadership. Also, at this point they must generate clear benefits for their participants according to the established objectives. The design and the structures need to be flexible and readjust to optimize resources to respond to needs and expectations of the people and organizations involved, also drawing clarity on paths for local based outcomes to emerge.
- Finally, the third stage named as ‘Climax network’, is also imprecise in time for the same reasons. In this stage, the ecosystem creates intentional infrastructures for its sustainability beyond personal relationships, establishing institutional agreements, coordination documents, new opportunities for participation, among others. These strategies are aimed to facilitate interaction and self governed initiatives within the network. Here the ecosystem acquires an optimal level of maturity that is evidenced by consolidation of a new culture, where new rules and new ways of doing are practiced in professional and institutional levels. The network organization within the ecosystem in this stage tends to be characterized by a collaborative governance. People are empowered to open new cycles of revision and regeneration in order to create new meaning and new opportunities for individuals and for the collective.
We believe these three fluid and organic steps can inform the type of systemic support needed in the evolution of ecosystems to enhance social capital, learning and equity in our communities and cities across the globe. In the NetEduProject we are ‘hands on’ working on learning and sharing new leadership strategies that can move these social and participatory structures forward over time. As shared in the beginning of this post, science has shown that collaboration is a natural driver for species survival. In this new era we are all embracing, humans and social systems really need to improve our collaborative competences to better take care of one another and create a thriving world for all.
originally published at NET EDU PROJECT
I am a 24-hour learner, passionate collaborator and weaver. Interested in weaving between contexts, disciplines, research and practice to enhance collective impact. I believe that education is a tremendous weapon to change the world.
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Collective Mind Workshop Series
Networks and Network Management Skills
Collective Mind is launching a new series of workshops to help you strengthen your network and improve your network practice.
We hear from network practitioners every day that they need support to better understand, analyze, design, and enhance the components of their networks. They seek targeted training to deepen their understanding of how to operate effectively in a network environment. And they want to expand and hone their skills to lead and manage their networks.
Developed using our evidence-based conceptual models for understanding networks and network management, our new workshops are here to help.
Our new workshops
Collective Mind is rolling out six new trainings on the most critical components of networks and network management:
- Shared Purpose
- Membership
- Facilitation
- Coordination
- Network Leadership (in two parts)
New workshops will be launched each month starting in February 2021. The two workshops available each month complement each other and are recommended to be taken in tandem.
February workshops:
Shared Purpose, Membership
Shared Purpose and Membership are the two core network capacities of the seven capacities identified in Collective Mind’s network diagnostic framework. Shared Purpose is the visionary goal around which strategies are defined, people are mobilized, and activities are established and harmonized. Membership is the people and organizations that belong to the network in order to contribute to the shared purpose. Shared Purpose and Membership are the defining features of any network and link inextricably to one another. Shared Purpose is why members show up and contribute to the network. Who members are and how they’re engaged sets the bounds of how the Shared Purpose can be achieved and how it is continually refreshed. Getting Shared Purpose and Membership right is both fundamental for any network and constantly evolving in practice. These workshops will help you clarify and enhance how your network approaches these foundational components of all networks.
March workshops:
Facilitation, Coordination
Facilitation and Coordination are the two fundamental approaches required for effective network management. Collective Mind defines network management as facilitation, coordination, and administration. Facilitation is the act of engaging participants in a process to understand their objectives, plan how to achieve those objectives, and work together to do so. Coordination is the act of helping all those involved in a plan or activity work together in an organized fashion, harmonizing and aligning actions to synchronize efforts towards a common goal. How network managers and practitioners approach their work and the skills they employ directly influences their networks’ effectiveness and impact. Managing within the complexity that networks embody and the emergence that they foster requires facilitating members through processes such as ideation, goal-setting, and consensus building and coordinating them to design and implement joint tasks and activities. These workshops will help you expand your approaches and hone your skills for managing your network.
April workshops:
Network Leadership, Parts 1 and 2
Network Leadership, another network capacity, necessitates both clear roles and responsibilities (part 1) and appropriate skills and approaches (part 2) to lead effectively in a network environment. Leadership is the function of guiding, directing, and facilitating the network and its members. Effective network leadership requires understanding the leadership roles and functions of different stakeholders within the network, from staff to the governing body to members, and clarity in both principle and practice about how those stakeholders will take on those roles both formally and informally. Similarly, network leadership requires non-traditional approaches in an operating environment wherein traditional hierarchical and directive approaches aren’t appropriate and often against network effectiveness. Network leaders in all roles must ensure a network mindset, manage conflict, and foster accountability, among other skills. These workshops will articulate appropriate approaches for network leadership both structurally and in practice and deepen your skills as a network leader.
What will you achieve?
Our workshops will share evidence-based approaches to each topic grounded in extensive research and practice. Participants will clarify content in conversation with our expert moderators and discuss their own challenges and experiences in breakout sessions with network practitioner peers. A worksheet and additional reference materials will enable further reflection and application after the workshop.
Each interactive workshop will:
- Provide you with a framework and approach for thinking about the topic in order to improve your network and strengthen your network practice
- Create a space for learning, reflecting, and applying new ideas moderated by Collective Mind’s team of experts
- Introduce you to new peers amongst other practitioners in the network management space
- Deepen your understanding both through the workshop itself and the additional materials -- readings and reference materials as well as a worksheet -- that will be provided
Interested in joining with your colleagues or team? We can also organize a private session just for you. Contact Kerstin at kerstin@collectivemindglobal.org for more information.
Who should sign up?
Our workshops are designed for those working with and for networks who want to deepen their understanding of networks and bring new approaches to bear to improve their practice and increase the effectiveness and impact of their network. This can include colleagues working in formal network roles, such as staff or members of a governing body, network members, or those who support networks such as funders.
No prior knowledge or training is required for the workshops. In advance of the Shared Purpose, Membership, and Leadership workshops, we suggest that participants join our regular Networks 101 and/or review our blog on network capacities. In advance of the Facilitation and Coordination workshops, we suggest that participants join our regular Network Management 101 and/or review our blog on network management.
How much does it cost?
Each workshop is $100 US per person or bundle workshops for a discounted rate:
- Shared Purpose + Membership = $150 US per person
- Facilitation + Coordination = $150 US per person
- Networks Leadership 1 + 2 = $150 US per person
When can I join?
We’re offering the workshops at multiple times to accommodate global time zones. Double-check the time zones to make sure you sign up for the best times for you!
See all dates and times for scheduled Shared Purpose and Membership workshops here.
Schedules for the Facilitation, Coordination, and Network Leadership workshops will be released soon! Sign up for our newsletter for updates and announcements.
From Rugged Individualism to Self-Organized Connected Communities
In American culture, we tend to prize individual leadership, as illustrated by these examples: the self-made man, the hopes we put in one candidate to solve our problems, the entrepreneur with a new technology or solution, and the non-profit that comes into a community with an innovative project. In reality, any person who comes up with a new idea or initiative brings it into an existing community and/or system with many people, organizations, relationships, ideas, and dynamics already at play.
As someone who makes a living within what some call “the non-profit industrial complex,” I recognize how often the existing work and lived experience of people on the ground who know the situation best can be overlooked as the next wave of visions, strategies, and action plans gets rolled out in a community or system…with the best of intentions. I have worked with communities who have seen many initiatives and projects come and go, often led by the agenda of those with the grants rather than the desires and participation of those most affected.
The rise of participatory collaborative approaches and focus on equity is about switching from a focus on projects and individual leaders to a focus on building the capacity of a community and/or system to self-organize and strengthen the relationships among all those working for change. Instead of the “help from the outside” approach, (e.g., charitable and philanthropic projects,) investment goes to fund local capacity and initiatives that are suited to that particular environment, context, and culture. I’ve recently been inspired by the work of Catalyst for Peace, a foundation that funds grassroots peacebuilding work in Africa. Instead of the common philanthropy or development “outside in” approach, they focus on an “inside out” approach, as this quote from their web site highlights:
In this ‘outside-in’ approach, problem-solving resources and capacities are brought in or worse imposed from the outside and the locus of leadership stays at the national or even international level…. At Catalyst for Peace, we see local people and communities not as problems or as victims—but as leaders, peacebuilders, healers, and agents of change. We use our talents and resources to create space for local leaders and solutions to emerge. That means working in-depth, responsively, and over long periods of time, so that programming springs from locally defined needs and desires.
Sally Goerner and her co-authors in The New Science of Sustainability define “sustainable development” as a system of organized human effort that can maintain its own health and that of the environment forever (or thereabouts.) In the context of development and addressing poverty, the first goal of development is: “to create empowered individuals and groups linked in synergistic, learning relationships.”
They highlight Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya and winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, who organized local women into “virtual circles of empowerment” to plant trees as a way of addressing deforestation and its affects on family life. Goerner et al. highlight why Maathai’s approach is a powerful way to build a local community’s well being for the long term:
“It organizes people and gives them the know-how and mutual support they need to take care of themselves, their families and communities in simple, sustainable ways. It creates networks of local empowerment by organizing local energy and harnessing local intelligence. It also embodies the distributed intelligence and local intricacy principles seen in the human body. Thus, decisions are made, not at 10,000 feet, but at the most immediate level possible and distributed across a community of committed, collaborative, connected citizens.”
Collaborative networks and cross-sector initiatives are focused on creating a fertile environment of connected citizens and organizations, such food policy councils that support more resilient food systems and accountable health coalitions focused on community-wide health. Again, this is about switching the frame from the project to the environment and context that supports many people’s work.
Tom Atlee of the Co-Intelligence Institute and Peggy Holman who studied the patterns of evolution and in particular, how human social systems evolve, helped me to appreciate this shift. Looking at evolution from single celled organism over billions of years to all the many species that exist today, they note that “whatever emerges becomes part of the environment for everything else. The myth of the rugged individual is visibly—perhaps even viscerally—a fallacy from this perspective. There is nothing that exists outside the influence of what already is. For any system to form and persist, it requires its own particular nurturing environment. For any system to develop or shift, it requires its own particular challenging environment.”
Atlee and Holman point out in their paper Evolutionary Dynamics and Social Systems: “Evolution turns out to be a dance between survival of the fittest and the nuanced and less acknowledged embrace—and co-creation—of nurturing contexts.”
The development of collaborative networks along with the collective capacity of communities and those working on similar work to self-organize and collaborate is an investment in the nurturing context to support survival and evolution.
Beth Tener, Principal of New Directions Collaborative, is a facilitator and strategy coach who works with collaborative initiatives that bring together business, government, and the social sector to address complex challenges, such as transitioning to a clean energy economy and revitalizing communities. She helps organizations working on similar issues find their shared purpose, align their work, and create networks for collaboration so they can achieve greater impact. Her work weaves together strategic planning, facilitation with high levels of interaction and participation, network thinking, and leadership skills. Her skills in clear communications and graphics help to convey and communicate the clarity and alignment a group has reached .
Originally published at New Directions Collaborative
Featured Image found at medium.com/lotus-fruit
Collective Mind Community Conversations
The impact of the pandemic on networks: Learning from network managers’ experiences
Collective Mind hosts regular Community Conversations with our global learning community. These sessions create space for network professionals to connect, share experiences, and cultivate solutions to common problems experienced by networks. In November 2020, Collective Mind hosted a special series of our regular Community Conversations to learn from one another’s experiences of managing networks during the Covid pandemic.
The proverbial wrench that the Covid pandemic has thrown at us all cannot be understated. We’ve had to adapt our lives, work, and workplaces in unanticipated ways while long-term questions continue to linger. For networks and their staff, the impact of the pandemic has raised unique challenges for an already challenging field of practice.
Networks — a catch-all phrase for various types of collective organizing models — function by coordinating members to actively co-create value, community, and impact toward achieving a shared purpose. Behind networks that work in climate change, education, philanthropy, and everything in between, network staff work diligently in service to and in support of their members to accomplish collective goals. In the best of times, network staff wear many hats on behalf of their members: administrator, facilitator, technical expert, cheerleader, counselor, connector, coordinator, wrangler, problem-solver, communications liaison, and more. But in the midst of an enduring global pandemic, new struggles have emerged and old struggles have become amplified.
While many real and threatening struggles persist, the pandemic has also been an opportunity for networks to learn, reflect, and evolve. Eight months in, necessity has led to innovation and the initial experience of shock and uncertainty has transformed into new practices and mindsets. These lessons, insights, and tips from a diverse, global audience of network practitioners give us hope and remind us of the power of networks.
What are networks experiencing in this pandemic, and what can we learn from network managers who have weathered this year?
Building new relationships and partnerships in a pandemic can be challenging — but the pandemic is also an opportunity for more intentional collaborations. The dearth of in-person interactions has made it more difficult to create organic connections, both among network members and with potential outside partners. In-person gatherings offer us chances to meet, engage, and collaborate with colleagues and new contacts in a way that Zoom meetings struggle to recreate. Networks often rely on the spontaneous, serendipitous connections made face-to-face as both a key benefit of being part of the network and as fuel for network engagement. Without in-person spaces, building relationships has felt stilted.
At the same time, moving most of our lives online has opened doors for accessing and discovering new people and creating value together in different ways. Relying on social media and virtual outlets to connect us has become a sort of equalizer, as has the humbling experience of letting the world into our homes through a computer camera. And instead of passive exchanges with many, we’re investing our energy more selectively. As a result, network managers have been forging action-oriented connections with more tangible goals and outcomes. They’re asking important questions such as, what could be mutually beneficial about this relationship? How can we uplift each other, share platforms, and open doors together? What is worthy of everyone’s time? The result is intentional partnerships, anchored in and driven by action and shared value — much like the impetus of a network. Within networks, staff have had to make network weaving more explicit. It can take effort to create virtual collaboration spaces, manage new means of member engagement, or step in to build links and bridge connections. But creating more diverse outlets and on-ramps for connection may also have been overdue (more on this below).
Networks can struggle to stay relevant as members retreat into their own organizations — but there has also been an opportunity to engage members differently and make creative pivots to meet the new operating environment. The upheaval of the pandemic rapidly created unknowns for organizations around funding, staff, programmatic viability, and more that, for many, shifted their focus inward and away from outside commitments. Fostering a network mindset among a membership is already a constant effort but the pandemic created new uncertainties for networks about how to stay relevant to their members, how to fulfill network obligations when participation is unpredictable, and how to maintain engagement without the same ability to bring expected value and benefits to members as before. The pandemic has also affected the missions and activities of some networks, forcing a shift in priorities to meet new demands and address pandemic-related fallout.
In this new landscape, networks understand that they cannot rest on their laurels. Staying relevant and effective requires shaking up norms and embracing new possibilities. Faced with member disengagement, network staff have reimagined opportunities for new kinds of engagement. Listening to members and seeking to understand their needs has been critical for networks to adapt, be responsive, and maintain value. Where possible, staff have gone out of their way to get to know more network members personally and learn directly from them about what an updated value proposition for the network could be. While opening up new avenues for engagement, networks have also embraced the reality of what can get done and how, choosing to postpone or adjust certain network activities.
By centering members in the process of adapting, networks have identified and created paths for leaders to emerge in new ways. They’ve been able to lean into those who have stayed at the table and empower engaged members as network weavers. Leveraging expertise from across the network — like facilitating new groups or sharing skills — has generated new kinds of leadership, and tailoring content for subgroups around their specific interests has helped keep members’ attention. Network staff have had to expand their skillsets and stretch their job descriptions for the sake of stewarding the network. But embracing emergence and relying on members to help shape the network has served to reinforce the origins and intent of a collaborative networks practice.
While we lean on new technology more than ever before, no one tech platform seems to be a silver bullet (yet) — and this may be the lesson we needed all along. For many networks, virtual engagement and collaboration had begun trending long before the pandemic. For others, upgrading technology and transitioning to online platforms was not seen as a priority. Regardless of experience, the pandemic quickly required network staff to become savvy technical administrators and, most importantly, amplified the crises of tech barriers, inequality, and gaps in internet access and stability. Network memberships with older demographics, limited tech experience, and gaps in digital fluency have struggled. Across the board, the impact of relying on tech for participation and the implications for member inclusion and equitability have been significant challenges.
In truth, many of these issues were not new to the pandemic. Social and infrastructure disparities have always persisted (especially between global memberships and Western-led secretariats), and effective technology has been a moving target for years. A meaningful pivot toward embracing tech and finding solutions for inclusion has been a long time coming, and in this way, the pandemic has pushed us forward.
Networks have skilled up and committed to finding solutions to virtual connection, experimenting with a huge range of platforms. They’ve often found that using what people know wins out and that the path of least resistance cannot be underrated. Practitioners emphasize that it’s critical to know and center your audience: some memberships have the skills and bandwidth to use flashy tech platforms, while others will need to use what they know and can access, like Facebook and email. The key is to use what works for your network and build on it, and to accept the inevitability that it may take multiple platforms and channels to address different learning styles and communication preferences. While new platforms can feel annoying or daunting for members, practitioners have found that steadily integrating them as go-to resources, and even giving tutorials or extra guidance, can create new habits and foster successful adoption of new technology. And in the spirit of networks practice, many network managers have also learned to fight the urge to be a gatekeeper to virtual connections or to force uptake of new tools for online collaboration. Staff must often lay the groundwork, but networks flourish by observing and learning from members’ behaviors while allowing for emergence.
The pandemic has tested us — but it has also allowed for personal strengths to evolve and shine. Managing networks effectively involves hard and soft skills, like listening, facilitation, organization, and flexibility. The need to hold space for members during a pandemic has pushed network practitioners to flex these personal attributes, cultivate new skills, and learn about themselves in new ways. Many shared that they have learned to sit with uncertainty — to be resilient and agile, to accept that we might not know what’s going to happen next, and to embrace what comes. Centering practices such as learning, listening, and balance has become essential in work and in life. They’ve also learned to reject rigidity and perfection, and to allow for emergence within the network and in what demands and opportunities come to staff. Ultimately, network managers have been focused on relationships: investing in them, building them, stewarding them, and celebrating them. Relationships anchor networks and relationship management is a core and common skill of network managers. These network management skills are a constant practice, and in these challenging times, practitioners have certainly risen to the occasion.
Collective Mind seeks to build the efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of networks and the people who work for and with them. We believe that the way to solve the world’s most complex problems is through collective action – and that networks, in the ways that they organize people and organizations around a shared purpose, are the fit-for-purpose organizational model to harness resources, views, strengths, and assets to achieve that shared purpose.
Originally published on Medium / Collective Mind
June Holley's Network Weaving Institute
June Holley has created a new entity, the Network Weaving Institute, so that you can easily track and collaborate in her writing and set up time for consultations with her.
June has been weaving networks, helping others weave networks and writing about networks for over 40 years. She is currently increasing her capacity to capture learning and innovations from the field and sharing what she discovers through blog posts, occasional virtual sessions and a forthcoming book. Topics she will be focusing on in the coming year include:
- a communications system where weavers can support each other and share information
- a place to share what people are learning from their practice,
- a set of resources drawn from emergent practice,
- a set of practices to address inequities and
- a social media strategy to draw more people around the globe into the network weaving network.
Her Practice
In 1981 June discovered complexity science and became intrigued with the process of transformation. How could communities change in ways that would make them good places for everyone?
For the next two decades, she worked with others in Appalachian Ohio to catalyze cascades of network experimentation, observing and documenting the dynamics that enabled many hundreds of people to start and then expand businesses in rural Appalachia. With these newly minted entrepreneurs, she mobilized dozens of area organizations to collaborate, self-organize and create an environment that would help these businesses innovate, expand and work together to create an effective support system for networked entrepreneurs.
After twenty years as executive director of the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet), she stepped down to devote her energies to helping communities around the globe form system shifting, self-organizing networks by training and supporting network weavers and helping new networks form.
The hundred or so network projects she has advised range from local networks to international ones; included networks focused on a specific sector such as food access or health access as well as cross sector initiatives such network leadership networks; reached from small rural networks with a few dozen participants to massive networks with thousands of international participants including the networkweavers network. All recent projects have had a strong equity focus and a commitment to dismantling racism and hierarchy. June has led hundreds of interactive workshops – many of them virtual – on applying a network approach and authored the Network Weaver Handbook and over 20 blog posts.
Current and Future Directions: Network Weaving Institute
In the four decades that June has been supporting networks, they have shifted from being a fringe phenomenon to being the favored way of responding to our complex world. But networks come in all shapes and sizes and we still have only rough guidance in knowing which kinds of networks are best for different situations and how they can be most effectively structured.
During the coming decade, June is stepping back from major consulting projects to focus on taking all that she and others have learned about networks with transformative capacity and writing a series of articles (which may well morph into a book or set of videos). This will be done collaboratively as much as possible – sharing her writings in google docs open to commenting and/or joint editing.
June will also continue to develop materials and modules that can be used by individuals or networks to deepen their understanding of networks.
In addition to writing June will identify a few high leverage cross network efforts (connecting more environmental networks to networks promoting equity and the need to dismantle racism and hierarchy, for example, or helping national networks provide more support to local self-organizing efforts) and will provide opportunities to explore network potentials at no cost. If you know of two or more networks that could benefit by being connected, please let June know!
Finally, June will occasionally offer 60 minute one time advice and exploration sessions to networks who have a specific challenge they would like to discuss. Visit the Consultation page to set up an appointment
Click HERE to Visit Network Weaving Institute
A New Year - A Happy Beginning
Happy New Year! The Leadership Learning Community is very happy to kick off the new year by becoming home to NetworkWeaver. This exciting new collaboration is an example of a relationship based on human connection, values alignment and trust.
We anticipate that this new relationship will help us collectively deepen our work; increasing support for BIPOC people in the network space, further exploring the intersections of networks and leadership and strengthening our connections to social justice and transformative change work.
2020 was a tumultuous year, its challenges and opportunities such as the COVID 19 pandemic, racial justice uprisings, and threats to democracy, continue in 2021.
This year, we hope to apply the learnings from 2020 about the importance and power of networks by increasing our investment in and commitment to working in equity-centered, collaborative and networked ways, and we look forward to partnering with you in the process.
Wishing you and yours a wonderful New Year,
The Leadership Learning Community & NetworkWeaver Team
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ericka Stallings is the Co-Executive Director of the Leadership Learning Community (LLC) a learning network of people who run, fund and study leadership development.
Please consider donating to our fundraiser to help us continue in this important work.
June's End of Year Message
As the year ends, so will my role at the helm of networkweaver shift as I hand over the oversight to the wonderful Leadership Learning Community.
It’s been a rewarding journey, working closely with the competent and delightful team of Marie DeMange, Jason Pollack, and Nicole Shanks to co-design the site, keep it operating and full of wonderful stories and resources from the field.
I also want to thank all the Network Weaving Consultants who have joined the site and have taken on the role of providing support and expertise to the ever expanding set of networks around the world who can become stronger and expansive with their guidance.
I will, of course, still be writing (and hopefully more frequently than in the past!) for the blog, developing new resources, and discovering writing and resources by others. Again, I encourage all of you to consider submitting anything you have written about networks - especially about networks that center equity - as we want to expand the number of people writing for the blog.
I know many of you have benefited from the networkweaver site and/or conversations with me, and I am hoping that you will give a donation in honor of that! It would be a gift I would truly treasure!
For those who are interested in what I’m going to be writing:
- The current title is Transformation: Co-creating a world that is Good for All of Us
- I’m starting first with the idea of a network self, what that means and how we might see ourselves and interact differently once we start speaking from our network self. More in the coming months….
- If you know of articles, books, websites or other resources you think I should be looking at, please send to me juneholley@gmail.com.
- I’m hoping to experiment with various forms of collaborative writing and will let you know soon how you can be involved, if you are interested.
I’ll be releasing a new site for my writing and consultation soon.
Thank you for you for your continued support of Network Weaver. I look forward to a new year of growth and transformation.
June Holley
Network Weaver Voices
We thought you might like to hear why some of our 45+ donors gave money to support the networkweaver site, the equity pool and the Network Weaver Community of Practice.
We hope that these voices will persuade you to join them in giving to support to our continued initiatives!
Network Weaver is a valuable resource for people yearning to build a better world and wanting to learn from the best of what's already being done. I appreciate the spirit of inquiry, openness, generosity, and sharing that animates the people who make up this vibrant community.
Brain Stout
Network Weaving brings a body of knowledge, with voices and practices of change makers in the field, to develop new social forms and ways of working in the world. This is both timely and critical for the work ahead of us right now, for the well-being of all people and the earth.
Mary Roscoe, Children in Nature Collaborative
Thank you for all the important work you do!
Kristin.barendregt-ludwig
Thank you for taking this on. In my region in Canada, Network Weaving is still a very new concept (although many of us have been practicing it for a long time!). The site and the guide have been immeasurably helpful for my development as a network leader.
Sarah Leeson-Klym
Thank you for this wonderful resource!
Avery Cleary
Thank you NetworkWeaver for your years of incredible content and resources! June has been so positively influential in my network work.
David Erlichman, Converge converge.net
Thanks for all your great writing and sharing over the years, June. It has been meaningful to the work of our organization, Leading From Within, and the regional network of civic and nonprofit leaders we have been weaving since 2008.
Ken Saxon, www.leading-from-within.org
Well worth the modest support to a magnificent testimony.
Vernon Ringland
As someone who holds and hosts spaces for many communities, especially marginalized voices, it is important to have as many tools as possible to help groups navigate processes and push for social justice and liberation. I love having a national resource in Network Weavers and wanted to donate to give back from a resource that has given me so much.
Terri Thao
I have benefitted a great deal from the Network Weaver website and want it to continue! I have shared this website with many of my evaluation clients as it provides fantastic resources for organizations starting and supporting networks.
Marcia L. Nation, Ph.D. , Principal and Owner, Nation Evaluation Consulting, LLC
We appreciate the great impact our work with June and networks has had on the development of our mission and services, and this is a literal way to pay tribute! As a social enterprise, the reach of this network has helped clients find us who might not have otherwise.
Circle Forward, circleforward.us
Interaction Institute for Social Change Virtual Offerings
Mark your calendars! Registration for virtual offerings is going live.
Registration for Facilitative Leadership for Social Change (a series of seven three-hour sessions, launching on February 17) and Fundamentals of Facilitation for Racial Justice Work (a series of five three-hour sessions, launching on February 23) will open at 1:00 PM EST on December 18th. Space is limited so be sure to register right away. Additional dates will be posted as they become available and registration for those trainings will open on a rolling basis.
Two more rounds of IISC’s highly sought-after capacity building workshop, Advancing Racial Justice in Organizations: An Online Series, are also coming soon! Final confirmation of the March 2021 launch dates for two cohorts of this six series offering will be released the week of January 11, 2021, along with the application link.
All three of these workshops also are available for delivery to groups within your organization or network. For more information, please send us a detailed message.
Network Training Slide Decks
We are offering a new section in our Resources section: a set of presentation slide decks that can be used by you for training or sharing with people who want to learn more about networks.
You can edit or mix and match any of the slides into a custom slide deck that will work best for your audience. All the slides are creative commons but please do credit the networkweaver site in your final slide deck.
The first two decks are Network Basics and Network Skills.
If you have presentations that you have created and are willing to share please send to NetworkWeaverManager@gmail.com and we will include in our Resources section.