Managing a network of community partners is no easy task. Unlike typical hierarchical organizations, a network is horizontal with few formal mechanisms for accountability through control. Network leaders have to rely on more abstract ideas like trust and mission alignment to keep their partners accountable,
“I assume that every collaboration will bring conflict that must be managed” ⏤ Nancy Cantor Tweet Conflict in a coalition is normal – in fact, it’s usually a sign that the coalition or network is quite strong and engaged. Its members are passionate and involved,
“Any tool can be used for good or bad. It’s really the ethics of the analyst using it.” ⏤ John Knoll Tweet Believe it or not, social network analysis has a lot of ethical pitfalls you might be unaware of. Unlike traditional survey research, social
“Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing ‘patterns of change’ rather than ‘static snapshots.” ⏤ Peter Senge Tweet Systems thinking is getting more popular than ever as more and more people realize
PARTNER continues to grow with the addition of our newest feature: Member Profiles! This exciting new tool allows you to focus in on specific members of your network, viewing all their network maps and data on a single page for easy analysis. You can download
Network Leadership is the practice of building, managing, and evaluating cross-sector community partnership with a network approach. While traditional leadership emphasizes hierarchal styles of leadership, network leaders must manage a dynamic environment without formal roles, hierarchies, or authority. There are a lot of common examples
Network centrality is among the most well-known social network analysis metrics, measuring the degree to which a person or organization is central to a network. There are three different ways to measure network centrality, and some are easier to understand than others. Centrality is a
It’s more and more common for people working towards social impact to build and work in networks to reach their shared goals. By sharing information and resources, coordinating their activity, and collectively measuring their impact, a network can accomplish far more than a single individual
The importance of the social determinants of health is becoming more and more well-known among healthcare providers and practitioners. By helping patients meet their social needs like housing, transportation, food security and education, research suggests we can improve their overall health and well-being in ways
A Network Science Brief from Visible Network Labs As the old saying goes, ‘garbage in, garbage out.’ If you aren’t asking the right questions during a social network analysis, you aren’t going to have reliable data to analyze later on. For this reason, we spent
Click one of the links below to download a free resource to strengthen your community partnerships, collaborative network, and strategic ecosystem.
Advice for building, managing, and assessing cross-sector networks or coalitions of partners.
A template to map the connections and interactions between key stakeholders in your community.
A worksheet and guide to help you think through and develop your network or ecosystem strategy.
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