This is an open resource from the Thriving networks course Greaterthan has been organising since 2021. We want more people to have access to the content and also to contribute to it, because there are many ways and many approaches to sustaining a network that thrives. So we want to learn from everyone engaged in this work.
In this page you can find a sample of the course content.
We think that our current institutions and organisations amplify and often worsen society’s problems, through their design, structures, cultures and ways of working. Our belief is that no new technologies, resources or new discoveries will solve these issues unless we also fundamentally change how we organise.
We need to engage with each other in old-new ways, that's where we think that networks have a key role to play. From our experience working in such networks for a decade, we know it can be relatively easy to start one, but not to maintain it. We have seen certain challenges surface in networks repeatedly: power and workload imbalances, tensions between volunteer and paid work, burnout of core members, not knowing how to develop healthy and effective leadership, feeling stuck around money and how to talk about it openly.
A Thriving network is such that makes explicit and works on power relations, using structures like levles of engagement and contribution pathways or others and engages with tension and conflict transformation. It makes contributions explicit and there are processes in place to discuss and work on how balanced the contributions feel in a given community. Members' needs are taken into account and care work is at the centre.
https://www.loom.com/share/86763fc6680a4017b1ad44ccd119a6a0?sid=9004d309-6fb0-47ff-8089-46e3f5ec90c5
In Thriving Networks, we engage in a journey that flows through eight weeks in which we unlearn some conditionings and learn new ways of thinking and possibilities. We do not give a guide on how to build and maintain a thriving network, we focus on theories, frameworks and practices each person can experiment with in their network and find what works in their own context.
Circle Practice
Crafting Roles and Contribution Pathways
The Money Game Experience
Personal reflection: reclaiming money
Making Collective Decisons around Money
Redefining leadership and recognising “Source”
We are in the process of open sourcing this course and this content. If you would like to contribute to it, please send us an email to [email protected]
<aside> 💡 If you would like to join the next cohort, here you can find out how
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