From Networking to Thinking Like a Network

1. From Networking to Thinking Like a Network Barbara McMillan Director of Regional Strategies Community Foundations of Canada

8. Youth Community Action Program • Community Foundations of Canada and Department of Canadian Heritage • 21 community foundation youth councils • 88 projects in one year • 3,100 youth aged 12-25 directly involved • over 14,000 young people from 2 to 25 indirectly involved • over 900 adults involved • $127,000 given in grants ($250-$2500) levered over $300,000

9. Thinking Like a Network: • Network Primer • Some network activities • Some network learnings • Some network examples and stories • Some network resources

10. Networks…. • Collection of objects connected together in some fashion (Watts); an interconnected system • May be people, databases, organizations, programs, technologies, etc. • Focus is on relationship between things, not just the things themselves

11. Networks aren’t new….

12. …but network thinking, technology, and tools are relatively recent 19,434,996 actions taken since Jan '07 Avaaz.orgthe world in action

13. What do networks do? • Create– produce something new (knowledge, products, data, solutions) • Learnand disseminate– share information, identify patterns and promising practices • Innovate – generate new ideas, approaches, solutions to social problems • Generate /Allocate – match resources with needs • Advocate/influence – engage and mobilize large groups of people; influence public policy • Support/build capacity-connect individuals/ organizations to share resources, build community, foster belonging

14. We’re learning that networks can… • Act big without being big • Get things done quickly • Involve more people, skills and intelligence for common good • Produce higher quality outcomes • Increase impact

15. How do networks increase impact? • Connection: allow individuals and organizations to link in a variety of ways • Coordination: facilitate communication, information sharing, partnerships, joint action • Collaboration: bring people and/or organizations together to share resources and create value • Competition: alloworganizing around problems to create solutions

16. Some basics: • Social capital – the ties that bind us together; the formal and informal social networks within a community • Bonding capital – networks and relationships of trust within a community • Bridging capital – networks and interrelationships between communities and external organizations • Structural social capital –web of social relations or resources that surround individuals, groups, or organizations, and the characteristics of their ties

17. Map Drawing Activity • Think of a project you are currently working on and draw a circle to represent it. Then draw circles for others working with you on that project. • Next, draw lines between you and the others. Then draw lines between any of those people who know each other. This is the Project Core. • Out further, draw circles for other individuals and organizations you are working with but less frequently, and draw lines to the individuals in your project network who have the relationship. This is your Project Periphery. • Then add other individuals or groups they are connected to (who might add value to your project) and draw lines connecting them. These are Your Friends’ Friends Network. • Around the outside edge, put circles for individuals or groups you are not working with on this project, but who could add value to the project if involved. This is your Potential Network.

18. Network Structures and Components • Hubs • Nodes • Links • Clusters • Connected pairs • Triangles -Open -closed

19. Network Weavers …are people who intentionally and informally - and often serendipitously - weave new and richer connections between and among people, groups, and entities in networks. They also weave new and richer connections between and among networks. (June Holley)

21. Network purpose determines network structure…. • Connectivity network – connects people for easy flow of and access to information and transactions (all networks start this way) • Alignment network –aligns people/ organizations to develop and spread an identity and collective value proposition • Production network – fosters joint action for specific outcomes by aligned people/organizations

23. Network characteristics • centrality • coherence • range • content • directedness • durability • intensity • frequency • rearrangeability • blocking

24. Network Metrics • Awareness: How likely is it that information will spread throughout the network? • Influence: Who do people look to in the network? • Connectors: Who links people who would not otherwise be connected? • Resilience: How dependent is the network on a few people? • Integration: What is the overall health of the network?

25. Network values • Implicit or explicit • Eg. Democratic decision-making; reciprocity; sustainable practices • Important to network function, resiliency: • Clarify expectations • Foster commitment

26. Paradoxes within networks • chaos ~ order • learning ~ teaching • Stewardship ~ agency • Individual ~ organizational • Verb ~ noun (networking ~ network) • Formal ~ informal • Homogeneous ~ heterogeneous

27. Smart Networks encourage: • Self-organizing across divides • Innovation • Collaboration • Scaling of success

28. Networks as tribes • Seth Godin on The Tribes We Lead • Tribe as any group of people, large or small, connected to one another, a leader and an idea • Comparable to an alignment network • TED Talks: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html

29. Network wisdom… • Birds of a feather flock together: nodes link together because of common attributes, goals or governance • Diversity is important.   Though clusters form around common attributes and goals, vibrant networks maintain connections to diverse nodes and clusters. • Robust networks have several paths between any two nodes. • Some nodes are more prominent than others.  These are critical to network health • Most nodes are connected by an indirect link in the network. • Shorter average path lengths are better for work flow, information exchange, and knowledge sharing • Information percolates most quickly where the best connected nodes are all connected to each other

31. Strength of weak ties • Connections not as frequent, intense as strong network ties that form the network backbone • Strong ties usually found within network cluster; weak ties found between clusters • Weak ties may bridge separate clusters, or become strong ties by binding previously separate groups

32. Structural holes • areas where there are weak or no connections between groups • create value or a competitive advantage for an individual or organization whose network spans the holes (bridging social capital) • people/organizations on either side of a structural hole circulate in different flows of information • opportunity to broker the flow of information between people, and control the projects that bring people together from opposite sides of the hole.

33. Law of preferential attachment • Critical mass reached - links increasingly added to the network at higher rates and hubs emerge • How can relevance of content transmitted through links be ensured? • What filters are used to manage quality and quantity of links and content? • Saturation point –nodes or hubs become less effective; links disconnect

34. For innovation • Create links between clusters, or bridge structural holes (new ideas are often discovered outside the domain) • Find other groups that are both similar and different (similarity helps breed trust; diversity introduces new ideas and perspectives) • Pay attention to the edges and to hidden networks

35. Networks aren’t always the answer…. • Tapping relationships for contractual exchange • Authority and responsibility need to be clearly assigned • Perceived costs of participating are higher than perceived benefits of participating • Coordination costs are high and cannot be reduced • Task is clear, functionally indivisible and would not be improved by a network approach

36. …but networks are effective for • Building relationships with a diverse and dispersed group of people • Dispersing responsibility • Generating new possibilities • Capturing diverse input • Harnessing a distributed workforce • Situations where there is the time and space for self-organization

37. Activity Think of three words to describe your network

38. Getting started… • Map your network • Analyse it- look for patterns; ask questions; check the metrics - recognize shifts • Listen to your network –collect data, stories • Learn how to shape and guide the network; develop strategies to enhance the network • Be a network weaver and identify, encourage, support other network weavers

39. ToThink Like a Network: Think: • organic and intentional • individual, organizational, sectoral, and cross-sectoral • concepts, tools, learnings and promising practices • structures, mapping, patterns, weaving, listening, values

40. back in Gulu….

43. Network Resources • Monitor Institute www.monitorinstitute.com • Packard Foundation www.packard.org • Net Gains: A Handbook for Network Builders Seeking Social Change http://www.nupolis.com/public/item/220020 • TED Talks: Seth Godin on the tribes we lead: http://www.ted.com/talks/ • Thinking Like a Network video: http://vimeo.com/11831614