Last week, the Leadership Learning Community sponsored a beautifully-facilitated gathering in Boston to celebrate the launch of its new publication Leadership & Collective Impact. The room of about 25 people included network weavers, organizational consultants, funders, writers, community organizers – all working in some way to advance collective impact and network approaches to social change…. Read more
Blog
Rational and Not Rational at the Same Time
The resistance to taking action on climate change is a classic example of what in systems thinking terms is called “bounded rationality,” where people act in their rational self-interest in the short-term yet together create results no one wants. “Bounded rationality” was a term coined by Herbert Simon, an economist. Donella Meadows, the late scientist,… Read more
The Math of Climate Change: Visualizing Energy and Carbon Emissions
A lack of “energy literacy” is one of the challenges of building public support for action on climate change and for implementing climate action plans within government and business. We turn on the lights and how the energy gets to us and the impacts of that power generation are essentially invisible. Equally challenging and critically… Read more
Evaluating Networks: Interview with Susan Foster
This blog post begins a periodic series of interviews with people working on various aspects of building networks for social change. Susan Foster is a consultant who specializes in evaluating networks, who I have worked with on the Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Project. The field of evaluation has grown as foundations and governments seek to… Read more
There IS Time: How a False Sense of Urgency Gets Us in Trouble
“People are so busy, it will be difficult to get them to take the time for a longer meeting.” “C’mon, we had a majority vote, we need to make a decision and move forward, stop belaboring things, even if some people disagree.” “Enough talk, let’s move to action and get things done.” This sense of… Read more
Imaginal Cells: A Model from Nature for Transforming Systems
The transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly provides a compelling metaphor for those working to re-imagine and transform organizations and larger systems to be thriving, restorative, and sustainable. This metaphor illustrates how connecting networks of those working for change is the next step to bring about a larger transformation. Elisabet Sahtouris, an evolutionary biologist… Read more
Vermont Farm to Plate Network: Collective Impact to Transform a Food System
I have seen the future of how we can transition to a healthy local food system and it is in Vermont. Picture this: 180 people from all parts of the state’s food system, in one room, reflecting on how they have worked together over the past year in a coordinated way towards goals of doubling… Read more
Vermont Farm to Plate Network Gathering – Year 2
Last year, we had the pleasure of helping design and facilitate the launch of the Vermont Farm to Plate Network, working in collaboration with Curtis Ogden of the Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC) and the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund. During the past year, over 150 organizations have been meeting to advance the Farm to… Read more
Taking the Time to Realize the Full Value of Networks
What I appreciate about my work is that I get to team with various consultants on various projects in various sectors. We, and our clients, are all in an evolving conversation and experiment about how to work in networked ways to create social change. Whether the context is energy efficiency, local food, transportation, or education,… Read more
How to Spur Collective Innovation or Stall It
When physicist David Bohm studied what enabled Einstein and other physicists able to achieve breakthroughs, he discovered that they emerged out of free open conversations where they “exchanged ideas without trying to change the other’s mind and without bitter argument” as described in a Psychology Today article called Awakening Our Collaborative Spirit. They felt free… Read more