Overview

• Why are network approaches to leadership vital for the social sector?
• What network forms are being experimented with in the social sector and across sectors?
  
• What are common leadership challenges in catalyzing and unleashing networks?
• What is network leadership in the connected age?
• What changes in leadership development supports are needed to catalyze and unleash the power of networks?
• How can evaluation support learning about network leadership and transform the potential for collective action?

Claire Reinelt

Resources

Books and Articles

• Bruce Hoppe and Claire Reinelt, Social Network Analysis and the Evaluation of Leadership Networks
  
• Valdis Krebs and June Holley, Building Sustainable Communities through Network Building
• Skye Bender-deMoll, Potential Human Rights Uses of Network Analysis and Mapping
• Bill Traynor, Vertigo and the Intentional Inhabitant: Leadership in a Connected World
• Bill Traynor, Building Community in Place
• Monitor Institute, Working Wikily 2.0: Social Change with a Network Mindset
• Patti Anklam, Net Work: A Practical Guide to Creating and Sustaining Networks at Work and in the World
• Alison Gilchrist, The Well-Connected Community: A Network Approach to Community Development
• Lisa Weinberg, Leadership Development for Community Action: An Ethnographic Inquiry: Northwest Federation of Community Organizations
• Jennifer Dodge, Sonia Ospina and Roy Sparrow, Making Partnership a Habit: Margie McHugh and the New York Immigration Coalition
• Leslie R. Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant, "The Six Practice of High Impact Non Profits" from their book, Forces for Good (2008). The article is an excerpt from the book, as published in Fast Company magazine, and promotes "nurturing nonprofit networks" and "sharing leadership" as effective practices.
• Hygeia's Constellation: The thesis publication by Bobby Milstein, coordinator of the Syndemics Prevention Network at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Syndemics takes a critical perspective in looking at the interaction between disease, social conditions and navigating health futures.
• Heather Gowdy, Alex Hildebrand, David La Piana, Melissa Mendes Campos: Convergence: How Five Trends will Reshape the Social Sector (2009)
• Wilfred H. Drath, Cynthia D. McCauley, Charles J. Palus, Ellen Van Velsor, Patricia M. G. O’Connor, John B. McGuire:
  Direction, Alignment, Commitment: Toward a More Integrative Ontology of Leadership (2008)
  

Videos

• Software and Community in the Early 21st Century. A keynote by Eben Moglen from the Software Freedom Law Center that provides a compelling and moving story about "the weaving of open source into the century long struggle for freedom, dignity and human rights."
  

Presentations

• Social Networks for Social Change. A well-done powerpoint by the Monitor Institute (Noah Flowers, Diana Scearce and Heather McLeod Grant) on Network Basics, Understanding Your Network, Characteristics of Healthy Networks, On-Line Networks and Social Media, and Network Leadership and Mindset.
  

Initiatives

• The Annie E. Casey Foundation has been fostering and supporting social networks in its neighborhood, community, and leadership initiatives. They have overseen the publication series of five reports that looks at the definitions, research, power, practices, and insights relating the impact of social networks on family strengthening and community change as part of their Making Connections Initiative. These reports demonstrate that positive social networks is a key ingredient to creating authentic, sustainable change in struggling neighborhoods among other important outcomes.
• The Barr Foundation convened a group of experts and facilitated a study on the growing use of network strategies by nonprofit organizations, social entrepreneurs, and foundations. The report Network Power for Philanthropy and Nonprofits includes their key findings.
• Monitor Institute and the Packard Foundation partnered on a two year inquiry on Philanthropy and Networks Exploration (PNE) into how foundations can tap and support the power of networks.
• The California Endowment has launched a 10-year initiative: the Building Health Communities: California Living 2.0 I in 14 California communities. A CalConnect Social Networking Site has been created so that community members, policymakers and health experts throughout the state can share experiences and information

• Lawrence CommunityWorks -- a community network case study
  

Capacity-building and assessment tools

• Skye Bender-deMoll, Potential Human Rights Uses of Network Analysis and Mapping This paper is one of the clearest statements about how to use network approaches to have an impact on policy and transform a field of practice (e.g., human rights). Very practical tools are described and specific projects are suggested. The paper was prepared for the Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
  

• Peter Plastrik and Madeline Taylor, Net Gains: A Handbook for Network Builders Seeking Social Change. The Handbook starts with the point of view that networks provide social-change agents with a fundamentally distinct and remarkably promising “organizing principle” to use to achieve ambitious goals. The handbook provides practical advice based on the experiences of network builders, case studies of networks small and large, local and international, and emerging scientific knowledge about “connectivity.”
• Peter Plastrik and Madeline Taylor, Network Health Scorecard focuses on key aspects of any network: purpose, performance, operations, and capacity. It's designed for group use--network members answer each question and then discuss their answers--or on your own.
• June Holley, Network Weaver Checklist.
• The Monitor Institute: Network Effectiveness - Diagnostic and Development Tool
  

• The Monitor Institute -- Working Wikily: Making Sense of Networks and Social Change -- is a blog designed to provide practitioners in the social sector with a filter for the events that are pushing the field towards a more networked form of work and a perspective on how and why those events are unfolding. A number of good resources on network effectiveness.
  • Network Resources: Leadership
    
• Networks, Complexity and Relatedness -- A blog by Patti Anklam
• Interaction Institute for Social Change Network Blog
• A recent post by Curtis Ogden Leadership for Our Times describes three leadership approaches: adaptive leadership, facilitative leadership and network leadership; and the interconnections between them.
  
• Connectedness -- A blog by Bruce Hoppe
• A recent post Influence and Social Capital of 21st Century Leaders describes different network leadership strategies.
  
• Claire Reinelt's blog at the Leadership Learning Community site
• Network Weaving -- A blog by June Holley
• The Network Thinker -- A blog by Valdis Krebs
• Impact Alliance -- Network Strengthening Resources
  

• Check out a bibliography that Bruce Hoppe and Claire Reinelt created on social networks and leadership. You can search the bibliography by topic categories provided on the right-hand side of the page.
• Network Building for Social Change-- A resource list put together by the Interaction Institute for Social Change
  

• Steve Waddell, a national and international expert on global networks and social change has more than twenty years expertise as a researcher, practitioner and facilitator of global, regional and national networks. Check out his lengthy bibliography on his website Networking Action
• Resources for Connected Nonprofit Leadership: A Collection of Research. This is a collection of readings put together by Beth Beard and Janice Epstein for Impact Brokers. It includes three main sections: Networks and Leadership, Social Capital and Networks, and Social Capital and Those that Nonprofits Serve.

• Knowledge Sharing Toolkit: wiki featuring information on knowledge sharing practices.