Impact Networks: Create Connection, Spark Collaboration, and Catalyze Systemic Change

Networks are webs of relationships connecting people or things. When they seek to address social and environmental issues, they are called impact networks.

hierarchical structures are a poor choice for multistakeholder collaborations. By holding on to control, the people at the top of hierarchies limit the self-organizing potential of the rest of the system.

hierarchical structures are a poor choice for multistakeholder collaborations. By holding on to control, the people at the top of hierarchies limit the self-organizing potential of the rest of the system.

Networks are webs of relationships connecting people or things. When they seek to address social and environmental issues, they are called impact networks.

These networks deliberately connect people and organizations together to promote learning and action on an issue of common concern. We call them impact networks to highlight their intentional design and purposeful focus, and to contrast them with the organic networks formed as part of our social lives.9

be strategic.

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

move to higher levels,” as Einstein famously said.5

Impact networks take three primary forms: learning networks, action networks, and movement networks.