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

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

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

The choice in front of us is clear: either we can let networks form according to existing social, political, and economic patterns, which will likely leave us with more of the same inequities and destructive behaviors, or we can deliberately and strategically catalyze new networks to transform the systems in which we live and work.

be strategic.

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

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.

It is in the interactions between the parts that something new is created. This process is, in a word, emergence. Emergence is the magical quality that gives networks their exponential potential for impact. To tap into the boundless creativity that emerges when people from different parts of a system interact with one another, network leaders avoid

“A new type of thinking is essential if [humanity] is to survive and

It is in the interactions between the parts that something new is created. This process is, in a word, emergence. Emergence is the magical quality that gives networks their exponential potential for impact. To tap into the boundless creativity that emerges when people from different parts of a system interact with one another, network leaders avoid