Network (Design and Operating) Principles
I’m working with a social change network that is evolving its structure to make better use of existing resources, and we have talked about how aligning more explicitly with network principles, both in its structural design and operations, might help with this. Culling through a variety of principles from other networks with which I’ve worked, I’ve come up with the following dozen examples:
- Always make opportunities to build connections/relationships/trust
- Welcome/incorporate diversity and divergent thinking
- Design for serendipity/emergence
- Make room for sharing, reflection and learning
- Model and encourage generosity (generosity leads to generativity)
- Promote and practice distributed leadership
- Value contributions over credentials (“expertise” takes many forms)
- Make it easy for people to take initiative/self-organize
- Ensure equitable access (to ideas, resources, one another)
- Honor diverse forms of knowledge and expression
- Make the periphery the norm
- Adaptability, not control
