Notes

Preface

1. Heather McLeod Grant, “Transformer: How to Build a Network to Change a System: A Case Study of the RE-AMP Energy Network,” Monitor Institute, 2010, https://www.reamp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Monitor-Institute-RE-AMP-Case-Study.pdf.

2. Diana Scearce, Gabriel Kasper, and Heather McLeod Grant, “Working Wikily,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2010, https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/monitor-institute/us-monitor-institute-working-wikily.pdf.

3. Jenny Johnson, “Fresno’s New Leadership Network—Case Study Executive Summary,” 2015, http://bit.ly/nlncasestudysummary.

Introduction

1. NPR, “Transcript: Greta Thunberg’s Speech at the U.N. Climate Action Summit,” NPR, September 23, 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763452863/transcript-greta-thunbergs-speech-at-the-u-n-climate-action-summit.

2. For an expanded explanation of the Cynefin model, see David J. Snowden and Mary E. Boone, “A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making,” Harvard Business Review, November 2007, https://hbr.org/2007/11/a-leaders-framework-for-decision-making.

3. David Bejamin and David Komlos, “How to Tell If a Problem Is Complex or Merely Complicated,” Fast Company, May 7, 2019, https://www.fastcompany.com/90344944/complex-vs-complicated-problems.

4. “Unified Theory Is Getting Closer, Hawking Predicts,” San Jose Mercury News, January 23, 2000.

5. Albert Einstein, “‘The Real Problem Is in the Hearts of Men,’” New York Times, June 23, 1946, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/06/23/107138385.pdf.

6. Niall Ferguson, The Square and the Tower: Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power (London: Penguin Books, 2018), xix.

7. Ferguson, The Square and the Tower, 43.

8. Anna Muoio and Kaitlin Terry Canver, Shifting a System, Monitor Institute by Deloitte, accessed December 17, 2020, https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/5139_shifting-a-system/DI_Reimagining-learning.pdf.

9. June Holley has called them “intentional networks” in Network Weaver Handbook: A Guide to Transformational Networks (Athens, Ohio: Network Weaver Publishing, 2012). Peter Plastrik, Madeleine Taylor, and John Cleveland have called them “generative social impact networks” in Connecting to Change the World: Harnessing the Power of Networks for Social Impact (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2014).

Chapter One: The Web of Change

1. Francis Pisani, “Networks as a Unifying Pattern of Life Involving Different Processes at Different Levels: An Interview with Fritjof Capra,” International Journal of Communication 1 (2007), Feature 5-25.

2. Suzanne Simard, “How Do Trees Collaborate?” “Networks,” TED Radio Hour, January 13, 2017, https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/509349587/networks.

3. David Ehrlichman and David Sawyer, “Learn Before You Leap: The Catalytic Power of a Learning Network,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, July 27, 2018, https://ssir.org/articles/entry/learn_before_you_leap_the_catalytic_power_of_a_learning_network#.

4. Developed by Valdis Krebs and June Holley, Building Smart Communities Through Network Weaving, 2006, http://www.orgnet.com/BuildingNetworks.pdf. Re-created by Jeff Mohr, “Building Intentional Networks That Drive Impact (Part 1),” In Too Deep, Kumu, July 15, 2016, https://blog.kumu.io/building-intentional-networks-that-drive-impact-part-1-90a7271c7a2a.

5. When I use the phrase “across the system” in this book, I am referring to the many different parts or clusters that make up a larger whole, such as the distinct departments in an organizational system or the organizations and stakeholder groups engaged in a social issue.

6. Bethany Young Holt, interview with the author, January 26, 2021.

7. Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network, accessed March 1, 2021, http://scmsn.net/.

8. Paul Rogers, “Nearly 1,000 Acres of Redwood Forests in the Santa Cruz Mountains Preserved in $11.7 Million Deal,” Mercury News, March 27, 2019, https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/03/26/nearly-1000-acres-of-redwood-forests-preserved-in-11-million-deal/.

9. Lexi Pandell, “What Stewardship Looks Like in the Santa Cruz Mountains,” Bay Nature, January 6, 2020, https://baynature.org/article/what-stewardship-looks-like-in-the-santa-cruz-mountains/.

10. Kellyx Nelson, interview with the author, September 30, 2020.

11. Jane Wei-Skillern, David Ehrlichman, and David Sawyer, “The Most Impactful Leaders You’ve Never Heard Of,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, September 16, 2015, https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_most_impactful_leaders_youve_never_heard_of.

12. Dylan Skybrook, interview with the author, October 7, 2020.

Chapter Two: The Network Mindset

1. Christopher Vitale, Networkologies: A Philosophy of Networks for a Hyperconnected Age—A Manifesto (Winchester, UK: Zero Books, 2014), 20.

2. Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer, Leading from the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2013), 2.

3. Jane Wei-Skillern and Nora Silver, “Four Network Principles for Collaboration Success,” Foundation Review 5, no. 1 (2013), https://doi.org/10.4087/FOUNDATIONREVIEW-D-12-00018.1.

4. Oxford Languages, s.v. “hierarchy” (Oxford University Press).

5. Ronald A. Heifetz, Marty Linsky, and Alexander Grashow, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2009).

6. Michiel Bakker, interview with the author, November 13, 2020.

7. “Employee Networks,” Nike Purpose, accessed January 30, 2021, https://purpose.nike.com/employee-networks.

8. Rob Cross and Andrew Parker, The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2004), 3.

9. Cross and Parker, The Hidden Power of Social Networks, 10.

10. Danielle C. Belton, “Leaderless or Leader-Ful?” The Root, August 10, 2015, https://www.theroot.com/leaderless-or-leader-ful-1790860733.

11. Robert K. Greenleaf, The Servant as Leader (Westfield, IN: Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, 1970).

Chapter Three: Making Networks Work

1. Adapted from the “Core Network Thinking Concepts” document created by RE-AMP Network for the December 2019 Network Thinking Academy.

2. Katrina Pugh and Laurence Prusak, “Designing Effective Knowledge Networks,” MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 2013. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/designing-effective-knowledge-networks/.

3. Samantha Slade, Going Horizontal: Creating a Non-Hierarchical Organization, One Practice at a Time (Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2018), 56.

4. The adage “Change moves at the speed of trust” is sometimes credited to author Stephen Covey, though it is unclear if he was the first to use it.

5. Donella Meadows, “Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System,” Academy for Systems Change, accessed December 18, 2020, http://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/.

6. Vocabulary.com, s.v. “cultivate,” accessed December 18, 2020, https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/cultivate.

Chapter Four: Network Leadership

1. Max Liboiron, “Public Bibliography on Occupy Sandy,” Superstorm Research Lab, April 4, 2014, https://superstormresearchlab.org/2014/04/04/public-bibliography-on-occupy-sandy/.

2. Sharon Lerner, “How Sandy Saved Occupy,” American Prospect, November 27, 2012, https://prospect.org/civil-rights/sandy-saved-occupy/.

3. Mila N. Baker, Peer to Peer Leadership: Why the Network Is the Leader (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2014), 68.

4. Holley, Network Weaver Handbook, 171.

5. Joshua Vial, “More People Working on Stuff That Matters,” in Anthony Cabraal and Susan Basterfield, Better Work Together: How the Power of Community Can Transform Your Business (Enspiral Foundation, 2018), 20.

6. Toni Feder, “Statistical Physics Is for the Birds,” Physics Today 60, no. 10 (October 1, 2007): 28–30, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2800090.

7. Henry Mintzberg and James A. Waters, “Of Strategies, Deliberate and Emergent,” Strategic Management Journal 6, no. 3 (1985): 257–72, https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250060306.

8. George Plimpton and E. L. Doctorow, “The Art of Fiction No. 94,” Paris Review, issue 101 (Winter 1986), https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2718/the-art-of-fiction-no-94-e-l-doctorow.

9. Peter Block, Community: The Structure of Belonging, 2nd ed. (Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2018), 26–27.

10. Giles Hutchins and Laura Storm, Regenerative Leadership: The DNA of Life-Affirming 21st Century Organizations (Tunbridge Wells, UK: Wordzworth, 2019), 172.

11. Allied Media Conference, “Introducing Critical Connections: Stories from 20 Years of the Allied Media Conference,” Allied Media Projects, May 23, 2018, https://alliedmedia.org/news/introducing-critical-connections-stories-20-years-allied-media-conference.

12. Daniel Christian Wahl, Designing Regenerative Cultures (Axminster, England: Triarchy Press, 2016), 19.

13. Yadira Huerta, interview with the author, October 26, 2020.

14. Patricia Patrizi, Elizabeth Heid Thompson, Julia Coffman, and Tanya Beer, “Eyes Wide Open: Learning as Strategy Under Conditions of Complexity and Uncertainty,” Foundation Review 5, no. 3 (2013), https://doi.org/10.9707/1944-5660.1170.

15. Fredrik Moberg and Sturle Hauge Simonsen, “What Is Resilience? An Introduction to Social-Ecological Research,” eds. Maria Schultz, Henrik Österblom, and Per Olsson, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, accessed December 29, 2020, https://www.stockholmresilience.org/download/18.10119fc11455d3c557d6d21/1459560242299/SU_SRC_whatisresilience_sidaApril2014.pdf.

16. Wahl, Designing Regenerative Cultures, 26.

17. Hutchins and Storm, Regenerative Leadership, 109.

18. Margaret Heffernan, “Dare to Disagree,” TEDGlobal, June 2012, http://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_dare_to_disagree.

19. Thanks to Amelia Pape of the Converge network for her contributions to this passage.

20. Seth Godin, What to Do When It’s Your Turn (and It’s Always Your Turn) (New York, NY: The Domino Project, 2015), 80.

Chapter Five: Clarify Purpose and Principles

1. Nick Martlew, Creative Coalitions: A Handbook for Change (Crisis Action, 2017), 43, https://crisisaction.org/handbook/contents/.

2. Lisa Brush, interview with the author, October 29, 2020.

3. These questions were developed by The Stewardship Network.

4. Jane Wei-Skillern, interview with the author, November 2, 2020.

5. Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives (New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2011), 17.

6. Peggy Holman, Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2010), 55.

7. “Sterling Network NYC,” Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, accessed February 2, 2021, https://www.rsclark.org/sterlingnetworknyc.

8. 100Kin10, accessed December 19, 2020, https://100kin10.org/.

9. Defender Network, Justice in Motion, accessed December 19, 2020, https://www.justiceinmotion.org/defender-network.

10. Holman, Engaging Emergence, 55.

11. Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (London, UK: Portfolio, 2011), 99.

12. Holman, Engaging Emergence, 80.

13. “The State of Dental Health,” Children’s Dental Health Project, accessed December 19, 2020, https://www.cdhp.org/state-of-dental-health/schoolandbeyond.

14. “About Smile Spokane,” Better Health Together, accessed December 19, 2020, http://www.betterhealthtogether.org/smile-spokane-about-us.

15. Maureen Finneran, interview with the author, September 30, 2020.

16. “Workshopping the Worldview,” Resonance Network, accessed December 23, 2020, https://resonance-network.org/workshopping-the-worldview/.

17. Alexis Flanagan, interview with the author, October 7, 2020.

18. For more details on the first two years of the network’s formation, see the case study: Matthew Spence, The Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network: A Regionwide, Cross-Sector Approach to Conservation, 2017, http://scmsn.net/s/SCMSN-Case-Study-A-Regionwide-Cross-Sector-Approach-to-Conservation.pdf.

19. adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (Chico, CA: AK Press, 2017), 221.

20. “The LISTEN Network,” Association of Science and Technology Centers, accessed February 3, 2021, https://www.astc.org/impact-initiatives/listen/.

21. Erica Kimmerling, interview with the author, September 30, 2020.

22. This process was developed by Converge member Paula Manley.

23. Stephen Newland, “The Power of Accountability,” AFCPE, November 27, 2018, https://www.afcpe.org/news-and-publications/the-standard/2018-3/the-power-of-accountability/.

24. Ruth Rominger, interview with the author, October 5, 2020.

25. Jessica Conrad, interview with the author, October 5, 2020.

26. Gail Francis, interview with the author, January 12, 2021.

27. RE-AMP Network: Guiding Principles for Equitable Deep Decarbonization, May 19, 2020, https://www.reamp.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Guiding-Principles-ADOPTED-1.pdf.

Chapter Six: Convene the People

1. brown, Emergent Strategy, 216.

2. A. Stinchcombe, “Social Structure and Organizations,” in J. G. March, ed., Handbook of Organizations (Chicago, IL: Rand McNally, 1965), 132–93.

3. Vu Le, “The Problem with Everything Being All about Relationships,” Nonprofit AF, February 9, 2020, https://nonprofitaf.com/2020/02/the-problem-with-everything-being-all-about-relationships/.

4. Elisabeth Farrell, Tom Kelly, Joanna Burke, Curtis Ogden, and Karen Spiller, “Equity as Common Cause: How a Sustainable Food System Network Is Cultivating Commitment to Racial Justice,” Othering and Belonging Journal no. 2 (June 2017), https://otheringandbelonging.org/equity-common-cause-sustainable-food-system-network-cultivating-commitment-racial-justice/.

5. James Currier, “The Network Effects Manual: 13 Different Network Effects (and Counting),” NFX, Medium, January 9, 2018, https://medium.com/@nfx/the-network-effects-manual-13-different-network-effects-and-counting-a3e07b23017d.

6. Jeff Stibel, Breakpoint: Why the Web Will Implode, Search Will Be Obsolete, and Everything Else You Need to Know about Technology Is in Your Brain (New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2013).

7. Priya Parker, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters (New York, NY: Riverhead Books, 2018), 51.

8. brown, Emergent Strategy, 218.

9. Drake Baer, “Why You Need to Unplug Every 90 Minutes,” Fast Company, June 19, 2013, https://www.fastcompany.com/3013188/why-you-need-to-unplug-every-90-minutes.

10. Martlew, Creative Coalitions, 20.

11. Parker, The Art of Gathering, 43.

12. Block, Community, 190.

13. Adam Kahane, Facilitating Breakthrough: How to Remove Obstacles, Bridge Differences, and Move Forward Together (Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2020).

14. Craig Neal and Patricia Neal, The Art of Convening: Authentic Engagement in Meetings, Gatherings, and Conversations (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2011), 55.

15. Robert C. Solomon and Fernando Flores, Building Trust: In Business, Politics, Relationships, and Life (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001), 13.

16. Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff, Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There!: Ten Principles for Leading Meetings That Matter (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2007), 104–14.

17. Block, Community, 100.

18. Sam Kaner, Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, 3rd ed. (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2014).

19. Parker, The Art of Gathering, 74–75.

20. Cyndi Suarez, The Power Manual: How to Master Complex Power Dynamics (Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers, 2018), back cover.

21. Kelly Bates, Cynthia Silva Parker, and Curtis Ogden, “Power Dynamics: The Hidden Element to Effective Meetings,” Interaction Institute for Social Change, July 11, 2018, http://interactioninstitute.org/power-dynamics-the-hidden-element-to-effective-meetings/.

22. Bates, Parker, and Ogden, “Power Dynamics.”

Chapter Seven: Cultivate Trust

1. Cross and Parker, The Hidden Power of Social Networks, 99.

2. Pamela Brody-Heine, interview with the author, January 27, 2021.

3. Roberto Restrepo, “Andean Vision of Water—From Context to Text,” Saq’ Be’, September 7, 2016, http://sacredroad.org/andean-vision-of-water/.

4. Holley, Network Weaver Handbook, 30.

5. Sharon Farrell, interview with the author, October 15, 2020.

6. Michelle Medley-Daniel, interview with the author, September 30, 2020.

7. Peter Plastrik, Madeleine Taylor, and John Cleveland, Connecting to Change the World: Harnessing the Power of Networks for Social Impact (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2014), 90.

8. Bill Traynor, “Vertigo and the Intentional Inhabitant: Leadership in a Connected World,” Nonprofit Quarterly, February 23, 2018, https://nonprofitquarterly.org/vertigo-and-the-intentional-inhabitant-leadership-in-a-connected-world/.

9. These ingredients have been influenced by multiple sources, including June Holley, Network Weaver Handbook, 150; Timo Järvensivu, Managing (in) Networks: Learning, Working and Leading Together (Books on Demand, 2020); Robert C. Solomon and Fernando Flores, Building Trust: In Business, Politics, Relationships, and Life (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001); Rachel Botsman, Who Can You Trust?: How Technology Brought Us Together and Why It Might Drive Us Apart (New York, NY: PublicAffairs, 2018); and Converge network members Paula Manley, Carri Munn, and David Sawyer, among others.

10. “Taking Accountability: How Do We Change Violence?” in Creative Interventions Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Stop Interpersonal Violence (Creative Interventions, 2012), 311–96, https://www.creative-interventions.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/CI-Toolkit-Final-ENTIRE-Aug-2020.pdf.

11. Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, “History,” accessed December 23, 2020, http://amahmutsun.org/history.

12. Amah Mutsun Land Trust, “Our Mission,” accessed December 23, 2020, https://www.amahmutsunlandtrust.org/our-mission.

13. Valentin Lopez, interview with the author, January 15, 2021.

14. Valentin Lopez, interview with the author, September 30, 2020.

15. Lexi Pandell, “What Stewardship Looks Like in the Santa Cruz Mountains,” Bay Nature, January 6, 2020, https://baynature.org/article/what-stewardship-looks-like-in-the-santa-cruz-mountains/.

16. “The Ladder of Inference,” created by Chris Argyris, is a sobering reminder of how quickly the brain leaps to erroneous conclusions about other human beings. See “The Ladder of Inference: How to Avoid Jumping to Conclusions,” MindTools, accessed February 6, 2021, https://www.mind-tools.com/pages/article/newTMC_91.htm.

17. Malcolm Gladwell, Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know (New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2019), 60.

18. In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey identifies five levels of listening: (1) ignoring, (2) pretend listening, (3) selective listening, (4) attentive listening, and (5) empathetic listening. Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (New York, NY: Free Press, 2004), 240.

19. Lindsey MacGillivray, “I Feel Your Pain: Mirror Neurons and Empathy,” Health Psychology 6, no. 1 (2009): 16–20, https://mdprogram.mcmaster.ca/docs/default-source/MUMJ-Library/v6_16-20.pdf.

20. Debra Erenberg, interview with the author, October 15, 2020.

21. Frances Dunn Butterfoss, Coalitions and Partnerships in Community Health (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2007), 186.

22. Lisa Brush, interview with the author, October 29, 2020.

23. Katharine Mieszkowski, “Opposites Attract,” Fast Company, December 31, 1997, https://www.fastcompany.com/33191/opposites-attract.

24. Parker, The Art of Gathering, 233.

25. James Baldwin, “As Much Truth as One Can Bear,” New York Times, January 14, 1962, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/01/14/118438007.pdf.

26. My thanks to Yoojin Lee for this thoughtful question.

27. “Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing,” December 1996, https://www.ejnet.org/ej/jemez.pdf.

28. The term “brave space” is increasingly used to describe a space where participants are able to explore issues of race, privilege, and oppression and their roles within them. For the conversation guidelines of a brave space, see Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens, “From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces: A New Way to Frame Dialogue around Diversity and Social Justice,” in The Art of Effective Facilitation: Reflections from Social Justice Educators, ed. Lisa M. Landreman (Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, 2013), 135–50.

29. “Conversation Agreements,” Living Room Conversations, accessed December 23, 2020, https://www.livingroomconversations.org/conversation_agreements/.

30. “Guidelines for Effective Cross-Cultural Dialogue,” VISIONS, Inc., accessed December 22, 2020, https://fusn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Guidelines-for-Effective-Cross-Cultural-Dialogue.doc-1.pdf.

31. Barbara Frederickson, Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do, and Become (New York, NY: Hudson Street Press, 2013), 8.

32. Wahl, Designing Regenerative Cultures, 245.

33. Interaction Institute for Social Change, “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” YouTube, April 24, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_7MvnWEkAk.

34. For more practices to cultivate love, see Curtis Ogden, “Networks for Social Change: A Love Story,” Interaction Institute for Social Change, February 19, 2019, https://interactioninstitute.org/networks-a-love-story-2/.

35. With apologies to the great Tina Turner for borrowing the phrase, despite her assertion that love is “but a second-hand emotion”!

Chapter Eight: Coordinate Actions

1. Curtis Ogden, “Getting with the Flows: ‘Net Work’ as Change,” Network Weaver, September 23, 2019, https://networkweaver.com/getting-with-the-flows-net-work-as-change/.

2. Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer, ed. Diana Wright (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008), 173.

3. Emily Troisi, interview with the author, September 30, 2020.

4. Michelle Crozier Kegler, Allan Steckler, Sally Herndon Malek, and Kenneth McLeroy, “A Multiple Case Study of Implementation in 10 Local Project ASSIST Coalitions in North Carolina,” Health Education Research 13, no. 2 (1998): 232, https://doi.org/10.1093/her/13.2.225.

5. Jessica Conrad, “How Collaborative Networks Lead Through Crisis—Part II,” Garfield Foundation, Medium, May 20, 2020, https://medium.com/@garfield_foundation/how-collaborative-networks-lead-through-crisis-part-ii-6d609d599d26.

6. Debra Erenberg, interview with the author, October 15, 2020.

7. Fernando Martinez, “Significant Damage as Fires Burn 40% of Redwoods in Santa Cruz Mountains,” SFGATE, October 7, 2020, https://www.sfgate.com/california-wildfires/article/Where-do-we-start-Santa-Cruz-wildfires-damage-15628620.php.

8. Kellyx Nelson, interview with the author, September 30, 2020.

Chapter Nine: Collaborate for Systems Change

1. Merriam-Webster.com, s.v. “system,” accessed February 9, 2021, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/system.

2. Margaret J. Wheatley, Who Do We Choose to Be?: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity (Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2017), 11.

3. “Influencing Complex Systems Change,” Change Elemental, accessed December 23, 2020, https://changeelemental.org/influencing-complex-systems-change/.

4. This process has been called “sensemaking,” a term first introduced by organizational theorist Karl E. Weick. See Karl E. Weick, Sensemaking in Organizations (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995).

5. For detailed descriptions of these and many other tools, see the Systems Grantmaking Resource Guide, developed by GEO (Grantmakers for Effective Organizations) and Change Elemental (then called Management Assistance Group), found at systems.geofunders.org/tools-resources, as well as in Peggy Holman, Tom Devane, and Steven Cady, eds., The Change Handbook: The Definitive Resource on Today’s Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems, 2nd ed. (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2007).

6. Farrell, Kelly, et al., “Equity as Common Cause,” Othering and Belonging Journal no. 2.

7. Talia Milgrom-Elcott and Eric L. Berlow, “Ending Teacher Shortages with Network Mapping,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, April 25, 2018, https://ssir.org/articles/entry/ending_teacher_shortages_with_network_mapping.

8. 100Kin10, “Field Guide for Catalyzing Change,” accessed February 22, 2021, https://2019annualreport.100kin10.org/.

9. Steve Waddell, Change for the Audacious: A Doer’s Guide (Boston, MA: NetworkingAction Publishing, 2016), 15.

10. Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun, Dismantling Racism: 2016 Workbook (Dismantling Racism, 2016), 35, https://resourcegeneration.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/01/2016-dRworks-workbook.pdf.

11. brown, Emergent Strategy, 216.

12. Alexis Flanagan, interview with the author, October 7, 2020.

13. Damon Centola, How Behavior Spreads: The Science of Complex Contagions (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018), 2.

14. Damon Centola, “The 25 Percent Tipping Point for Social Change,” Psychology Today, May 28, 2019, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-behavior-spreads/201905/the-25-percent-tipping-point-social-change.

15. Steve Pantilat, interview with the author, October 8, 2020.

16. Leslie R. Crutchfield, How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don’t (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2018), 58.

17. Leslie Crutchfield, “Why the Best Leaders Give Their Power Away,” Fortune, May 12, 2018, https://fortune.com/2018/05/12leadership-parkland-shooting-nra-gun-control-laws/.

18. Mark Engler and Paul Engler, This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century (New York, NY: Nation Books, 2016), 71.

19. Encyclopaedia Britannica, s.v. “Iroquois Confederacy,” accessed February 10, 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Iroquois-Confederacy.

20. Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples, “Who We Are,” accessed February 10, 2021, https://7genfund.org/who-we-are/.

21. “Charles Eisenstein: Serving the More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible,” Sounds True, accessed December 24, 2020, https://www.resources.soundstrue.com/transcript/charles-eisenstein-serving-the-more-beautiful-world-our-hearts-know-is-possible/.

22. Wendell Berry, “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front,” in A Country of Marriage: Poems (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2013), 14.

23. brown, Emergent Strategy, 52.

24. brown, 59.

Chapter Ten: The Enabling Infrastructure

1. Manuel Lima, Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information (New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011), 48.

2. Debra Erenberg, interview with the author, October 15, 2020.

3. Ruth Rominger, “Systems Principles for Collaborative Networks,” Medium, Garfield Foundation, March 11, 2020, https://garfield-foundation.medium.com/systems-principles-for-collaborative-networks-d86fb3f22a2a.

4. Weisbord and Janoff, Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There!, 5.

5. Lennon Flowers, K. Scarry, and D. J. Sims, Virtual Racial Justice Journey (The People’s Supper, 2020), https://static1.squarespace.com/static/595e51dbd1758e528030285b/t/5f721b9838eddc5c29cf7e83/1601313708177/RacialJusticeGuidebook_FinalSept2020.pdf.

6. Derek Sivers, “First Follower: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy,” YouTube, February 11, 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ.

7. Charles Vogl, The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging (Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2016), 33.

8. Enspiral, Enspiral Handbook, accessed February 16, 2021, https://handbook.enspiral.com/.

9. Anthony Cabraal and Susan Basterfield, Better Work Together: How the Power of Community Can Transform Your Business (Enspiral Foundation, 2018), 42–43.

10. Suarez, The Power Manual, 59.

11. This section on network evaluation was developed in partnership with Converge member and professional evaluator Kelly Jarvis.

12. It’s important to keep in mind that social network analysis provides a representation of how participants perceive their connections with one another at a given point in time, but it is not a true reflection of reality. This is both because connections are changing all the time, so the data is never perfect, and because different people are likely to have different interpretations of how they would score their connections with others on the survey.

13. Michael Quinn Patton, Developmental Evaluation: Applying Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and Use (New York: Guilford Press, 2011).

14. “Join the Alliance,” the Intertwine, accessed February 18, 2021, https://www.theintertwine.org/about-joining-The-Alliance.

15. Philip Li, interview with the author, November 2, 2020.

16. Liz Wilson, interview with the author, December 3, 2020.

17. Jennifer Husbands, interview with the author, December 10, 2020.

18. David Nee and Curtis Ogden, “Distributing Leadership, Promoting Stewardship,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, September 30, 2015, https://ssir.org/network_entrepreneurs/entry/distributing_leadership_promoting_stewardship.

19. Ruth Rominger, interview with the author, October 5, 2020.

20. Edgar Villanueva, Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance (Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2018), 77.

21. Embracing Complexity: Towards a Shared Understanding of Funding Systems Change, Ashoka, Catalyst 2030, Co-Impact, Echoing Green, Schwab Foundation, Skoll Foundation, January 2020, https://www.ashoka.org/sites/default/files/2020-01/Embracing%20Complexity_Full%20Report_final.pdf.

22. Philip Li, interview with the author, November 2, 2020.

23. Susan Wolf Ditkoff and Abe Grindle, “Audacious Philanthropy,” Harvard Business Review, September–October 2017, https://hbr.org/2017/09/audacious-philanthropy.

24. Jennifer Husbands, interview with the author, December 10, 2020.

25. Liz Wilson, interview with the author, December 3, 2020.