Take care of yourself. If you need to break away for a moment, feel free to do so.
It's okay to be messy. It's the human condition.
Consider intent, honor impact.
Stories stay, lessons leave.
Turn off distractions. Bring your whole self into the room.
Take space, make space.
What you would like from us
Time to settle in and transition fully into the training.
Providing specific examples related to the topics.
Using videos when possible, to supplement content.
Using language that is universally understood, and explaining any jargon.
Offers or requests
Amanda wants to know if anyone is “working out loud” writing up their Network experience / creation as they go … the good/bad/messy!? Or interested to do so? If you would like to join Amanda in this, you can find her contact information in the participant profiles.
Are there times when a machine mindset shows up in your network where a network mindset would be more beneficial?
Network members typically work in organizations that have a machine mindset. When they come into a network, how can we invite them to shift into a network mindset?
What challenges might arise when you invite people to shift their mindset?
How could you engage with these challenges?
Try it out!
Engage with a friend or colleague and share with them the Networks Theory of Change. Reflect on how you explain this to someone new. What’s easy, what’s difficult about sharing how networks create change?
What could you do to support your team/network/organization to engage with emergence?
Why is embodying a network mindset, compared to a machine mindset, important for changing systems?
What strategies do you use to invite people to question dominant narratives and explore possibilities beyond the status quo?
How could emphasizing the principle of Trust-not-Control help to address inequities in the systems your network engages with?
Try it out!
Identify a dynamic tension in a meeting or conversation you are participating in. Practice naming the tension and notice what happens next.
When you observe a dynamic tension, offer some considerations about what's driving the divergence. Explore what's important to people on each side of the polarity.
Think about a specific initiative led by a project team or working group within your network, or a collaboration you’ve been part of, intended to advance the network’s purpose.
What process was used to select this idea for this initiative?
Was there a conversation to clarify the relationship between people’s interest in the idea and the capacity available to advance the work?
What support did you as coordinator and other network members provide to the project team?
Try It Out!
As you enter meetings this week, pause to consider how you want to show up. Choose 1-3 words to describe your desired way of being. Examples: present, loving, compassionate, patient, receptive, brave, honest, clear, grounded, energized.
During the meeting, especially if something doesn’t go as intended, what ways of being do you notice arising? Are you afraid of showing up in any particular ways?
After the meeting, reflect on how you feel. Does it match the ways of being you chose? Did you notice others around you responding to your ways of being?
Recently released action research report by Creative Metier: Africa Networks: Visible, Vibrant, Viable. Shares about transitions from organizational to network approach (based on Converge’s approach) and includes a definition of Impact Networks!
Network coordinators play an essential role in helping the network see itself as a whole living system. They do so by drawing upon the skills of framing and weaving. When coordinators offer content framed as Current Best Thinking, the next step is to invite dialogue that engages participants.
Below are some reflection prompts to consider, followed by opportunities to apply what we’ve been learning in your own context.
What activities or exercises have you tried to help your network “see the whole elephant”?
How would you design a conversation to bring forward the diversity of member perspectives about your network’s purpose or theory of change?
Has your network experienced tension between what participants from larger, well-resourced organizations think is important compared with the interests of participants with smaller “power footprints”? How have you helped the network navigate the tensions and hold diversity within wholeness?
Try It Out
In an upcoming meeting or weaving conversation, ask participants to share learning from their recent work. After listening, invite participants to reply using prompts like, “I wonder if…” “I’m noticing that…” “I have a hunch that…” Notice if reflections point to the emergence of potential collaborations. Resource on the prompts: https://shareyourhunch.org/
Many network leaders experience challenges with participant engagement in their networks.
Lack of participation can be a result of several different things. It can be a symptom of deeper issues such as: the purpose is unclear, self-interest is unclear, relationships aren’t strong enough to hold difficult conversations about systemic change, people don’t see a path to impact, or we aren’t making change visible and celebrating together.
Here are a few points on participant engagement to consider.
How are you tending to inspiration in your network?
Do you have a strong narrative about purpose and potential?
Are you making quality invitations that are personal, concrete, and point to possibility?
How are you creating conditions that support emergence?
Try It Out
We spoke about how engagement is sparked by possibility and nurtured by the magic of emergence. This week find a way to deliberately introduce emergence with a surprise or something novel. Invite your participants to engage creatively and embrace emergence.
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou
Take the survey for the Participant Engagement module! Your input really makes a difference.
Reflect on the current state of trust in your network.
To what extent do network members trust each other?
What behaviors do you see that indicate high or low trust?
Can you recognize any of the four elements; care, honesty, reliability, competence at play here?
What’s your sense of the connection between trust among participants and network participation?
Reflect on your learning journey in NLS:
What did you gain from your participation?
How does what you received compare to your intentions when you registered?
Try It Out
As the network leader what action can you take in the next two weeks to increase trust among particular members, a working group, or within the network as a whole?
As part of framing the action you will take, write out three or more talking points to make the case for cultivating trust and the hopeful outcome in your network.
