Feb 26 meeting notes
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Ken Vance-Borland
Feb 28, 2014, 12:28:40 AM2/28/14
to Network Practicum
Friends -- Please see below and attached. Thanks to June and others for notes. See you March 25, 9:30-11am PST, when we'll plan the big expansion; put it in your calendar now! -ken
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Mac: “In democratic countries, knowledge of how to combine
is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of
all the others.”
Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy In America
Introductions
Ken: continued to
work with clients to map their networks and I feel successful in this. The
challenge is for them to move to the weaving activity. The mapping is just a
tool or foundation for what is more important which is for people to build
relationships and form experiments together. Finding groups are hesitant to
take that step. 8 or 10 reasons why people don't...will post those.
Mac: Think about what we do after the visualizing of
networks, how is it instrumental to next step. Takes time to figure out how to
collaborate. I'm working on figuring out around organizing public events and
the email to event program and how to start conversational relationship.
June: Finding groups moving into the collaborative project
stage and more open to the network approach, but it's really hard for people to
understand the self-organizing piece. Having activities to illustrate this in a
piece-by-piece way is helpful. Also doing work on connecting movement/systems
understanding and working via networks. Also working with LLC
(www.leadershiplearning.org) on network leadership practices
Ken: Constraints on building new relationships (from Cohen
et al. 2012):
-A lack of trust
between actors
-Agencies’/organizations’ commitments to donors
-Insufficient time
-Agency/organization mandates
-Intellectual
property concerns
-Project design
-No clear common purpose for “sharing”
-Momentum with existing approaches or activities
-Prioritization of personal or organization or agency
agendas
-A lack of financial resources to bring people together from
across the geographic expanse that members operate
-Inadequate mechanisms and procedures for
information/knowledge sharing
Odin: working with networks at different stages: some are
like ecosystems, some don’t have much diversity. Also, bring networks up to speed, network
life stages assessment, where they are and what they need...some org and
leadership dev literature. Have to pivot to appropriately to work with them. In
some cases have to slow them down.
Deborah McL: working on ‘40 years after Vietnam,’ bring in
Vietnamese living here. An anthology. Been asked to look at how to use network
weaving as a way to bring people together.
Carol: worked with a network that is in hiatus. Struggling
to find those people that can take an idea and network around that. Lots of
soldiers though. Not doing any active in network. Informally, co-founder on
non-profit and build up and principles coming into play building a board. Find
people who can be visionary and weave the networks as needed.
Successes and Challenges
Mac Johnson: Here is
a Vietnamese American network in which I have relationships: http://yaya.donghanh.org/whoweare.htm
Success Stories
Ken: Alberta: did
training on doing the whole mapping process: they had financial support to pay
small stipend to 4 people who were coordinating CoP in 4 areas: ed about
climate, water quality, etc. Were able to do 3 coaching calls, asking them to
describe successes and failures, other ways they might engage. A model of
pathway from network visualization to action.
Mac: videos
communicate succinctly, great to have video from June on explaining network
approach. Mac will also post video from Marshall Ganz about cultivating/engaging
leaders (public narrative training). See below for links.
June: use ScreenR to record a 5 minute video; could be a
good v-blog for sharing learning among network practitioners
Loomio.org resource
for collaborative decision-making
Ken: a lot we can learn about what happened for practicum
participants in the last nine months. How are we walking the talk?
June: need to figure out how to capture what we are
learning? How can we know who can help each other? What can you ask of others?
Peer Assist:
Deborah: Forty Years
After Vietnam: What have we learned? Arts, theatre, poetry, etc... an important
moment for getting anti-war people around this. Interested in developing a
survey asking questions about mapping their own network, focused on learning
about what learned from war, getting young people, Vietnamese Americans. How to
do events? Who getting involved, their networks, how to get groups together.
Diverse and spread out.
Survey and outreach
1. Identify people who were central and those more peripheral
2. Network map might allow peripheral people
3. Bring in new voices and visions
4. Is some fear around sharing information?
(Mac Johnson) Public Narrative: To prepare to tell others about our interest
in Network Weaving, by short story, which lends itself to short videos.
Marshall Ganz (Harvard)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Ganz
…Public narrative is how we turn values into action -- the
discursive process by which individuals, communities, and nations construct
identity, formulate choices, and motivate action. Public narrative is a
leadership art composed of three elements: a story of self, a story of us, and
a story of now. Stories not only teach us how to act – they inspire us to act.
Stories communicate our values through the language of the heart, our emotions.
By telling our personal stories of challenges we have faced, choices we have
made, and what we learned from the outcomes we can inspire others and share our
own wisdom. Because stories allow us to express our values not as abstract
principles, but as lived experience, they have the power to move others…. See:
Want to gather information about what learned?
Knight project: see
scoopit article
Some relationship building going on, more intentionally
build a network
Two Purposes: 1) Reflection and learning. 2) Foundation for
moving forward: doing social change work in the future; who have things in
common with, who to work with in the future
Supporting Each Other
-Good re
ur
Need place to be a repository, go through series of actions
and reflections that initiate people into what we’re talking about
Need others to talk about it - what are our assumptions
Odin: Networks for the Common
Good
Want to hear from
Curating a depository
Create a community: who doing what? Who available?
How can we learn from our experiences?
Who’s where doing what?
Resources
1. Core facilitators
2. case studies/resources
3. Mapping
4. Presenters?
Help do collective fundraising
Who wants to learn about networks? Do a map of this...
Anchored BY A MONTHLY CALL
Require more structure, realistic about that, structure and
leadership
Committed core -- we are going to have a webinar and
exchange last weds of each month
Case study learning from
To support locally: Elissa Perry, etc. in LA network
consultants
Twin cities, etc.
Have a vision then start with building bocks
What needs to be in place, what learning from own
experience.
Having deliverables
Defining terms in well-crafted ways
How big? This is for anyone on x topic, can be
practitioners, these are the success stories
Start small, invite
some folks, what you would like to get
Build a map as we build the network
A standing survey and it changes the map. (Use Kumu for
this?)
ANymeeting: free account with unlimited number of
participants, but no recording; $18 account with 25 participants and recording;
$75 account unlimited participants (?) and recording.
Could do breakout conversations with a bunch of conference
call lines
What kind of commitments do we need to make?
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