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

Today's social and environmental challenges are complex, systemic, and structural, with no obvious solutions. They require diverse combinations of people, organizations, and sectors to coordinate actions and work together even when the path forward is unclear. However, collaborative efforts often fail because they rely on traditional strategic plans created by hierarchies that ignore how people naturally connect. Impact networks offer an alternative approach. By embracing a living-systems model of organizing, they bring people together to build relationships across boundaries, leverage existing work and skills within the group, and make progress despite unpredictable and changing conditions. As a flexible organizing system that can span regions, organizations, and silos, impact networks underlie some of the largest efforts to create change globally. David Ehrlichman draws on his experience as a network builder, interviews with dozens of network leaders, and insights from network science, community building, and systems thinking to provide a clear process for creating and developing impact networks. The book offers guidance for forming, growing, and working through networks in an increasingly complex society.