Anyone who has tried building or leading a coalition knows how difficult it is. Given all the work that goes into these efforts, many researchers are focused on identifying the key factors that lead to coalition success – both in terms of the social impact
“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
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
Social network analysis (SNA) has been around for many decades in academic circles, but it has only recently become a popular learning tool for networks and other collaboratives. For many decades we have built partnerships and collaboratives largely based on gut and intuition, utilizing a
The past year of the pandemic and social distancing has clearly deemonstratted the importance of social connectedness in determining health and well-being outcomes. At VNL, our years of systems mapping has included research and development specifically to develop tools for providers to use this knowledge
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.
Get monthly updates on VNL news, new research, funding opportunities, and other resources related to network and ecosystem mapping and management.
