networks can have positive as well as negative effects.

“Share resources, share infrastructure costs, and engage in small collaborations where people see the benefit. Networks should be making everyone’s work and lives easier.

to articulate the purpose of the network from their perspective by completing the phrase “How do we . . . ”

As a result, they can “address sprawling issues in ways that no individual organization can, working toward innovative solutions that are able to scale,” write Anna Muoio and Kaitlin Terry Canver of Monitor Institute by Deloitte.

Fundamentally, the role of network leaders is to help diverse groups find the shared purpose that unites them, to foster self-organization, and to coordinate the actions that emerge so that they inform and reinforce one another.

E. L. Doctorow said about the process of writing a book, “It’s like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

because networks have been shown to be more creative and adaptable than hierarchial systems.6

Divergence and Convergence

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