Nurture Networks
July 18, 2014 Leave a commentWe partnered with a foundation as they built a network of leaders who shared a deep passion for their city. In the beginning, many of the leaders wanted to do something together quickly. We encouraged them to pause, build deeper relationships, and see what emerged.
We facilitated international learning journeys and local workshops where they confronted racism and poverty in direct and powerful ways.
To nurture networks, we:
- Cultivate and strengthen relationships. Encourage people to make new connections and to link others together.
- Facilitate agreement about big ideas, create shared communications and analytical tools to support action, and encourage people to move forward in decentralized ways.
- Model and encourage collaborative, distributed leadership.
- Ensure just enough structure to provide freedom to act with confidence and fidelity to the network’s purposes.