How Global Networks become Local Networks of Relationships

The Global Impact Network as a guide to solving local problems on a global scale.

All Networks are Local

Over the years, I have been in many online network groups. Some of the folks in those groups became life-long friends. I learned and mastered skills of communication and organization that would have been difficult to learn otherwise.

Most of those networks were more casual, connection-oriented groups. We were glad to share, but the long-term commitment was not part of the plan.

The network of relationships that I conceive of is different. It is an intentional gathering of people focused on a singular purpose. There is a specific outcome or impact that the group wants to have. Typically, a person initiates the network by inviting people that he or she wants to join. A network can be a project group where the members work together to solve a specific problem or expand their awareness of a specific area of interest.

A decade and a half ago one of the best of these networks of relationships formed in our community. We called our group of seven Lessons in Leadership. Our purpose was to provide an annual world-class leadership training event for our community. We wanted it to be an event where business leaders could bring their teams to have a shared experience of inspiration and insight into teamwork and leadership. We did this as a give-back to our community that had been so integral in our individual successes. For the few years that we offered the annual event, it clearly made a difference with the people of our community. After seven years, we decided that we had done what we had set up to do, so we disbanded. For each of us, it was an experience that we each will cherish for the rest of our lives.

Initiating the Global Impact Network

In the early months of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, a Ugandan pastor reached out to me to talk about what was happening with his congregation and community. The challenge that they faced was finding food. People were already starving three months into the pandemic. I suggested that he contact his local elected official and tell him what he told me, and then say, “If you provide the food, we’ll distribute it.” Amazingly, the official came through. However, it was clear that this was an opportunity that was not going to be repeated. The experience spurred this pastor to lease some land and grow maize that provided some nutrition for his community.

A year later, we were still talking about how to care for his community, his church, and his family. At the same time, another Ugandan pastor who has an orphanage along with his church contacted me with the same concerns. His concern was that the families that had adopted children were bringing them back to the orphanage because they could not afford to care for them. Both pastors recounted deaths in their churches, community, and the orphanage from the coronavirus and starvation.

I suggested that the three of us meet. At that moment, the Global Impact Network was born. These are individual networks intended to serve leaders who in the midst of the isolation of their work need support, a way to talk about problems, and collaboratively act together. The pandemic increased this experience for many people. I facilitate the formation of the network, but it is not my network, it is their network. I am just there to provide coaching and mentoring as needed.

The Global Impact Network

I have structured the Global Impact Network this way for two reasons.

First, these networks need to be locally focused.

They need to be for people who need to work together to address situations that they face in their local context. In many cases, the organizational leader is isolated, even inside his or her company. Times of transition increase the stress and uncertainty of leading. Having a group to talk with you is helpful.

Second, creating these networks so that one of the local members “owns” the network is very important.

For Africa, I am not interested in creating another Western colonialist organization. I am not interested in exploiting people or controlling them. The principal issue is not the source of the money, but how the giving of money can create an unconscious relationship of dependency. I have seen it. I want my work to develop self-sufficiency and interdependency in their local communities. The number of people that need help far exceeds the number of funds that I have available to give. The old saying “give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and eats for a lifetime” applies here. This is the work that I’m involved in as witnessed by my interview with these women who are in a One Chicken Farming program

As a result, the purpose of my Africa network became clear.

The purpose of my work is to develop African organizations with African leadership through African funding.

Africa needs leaders who can build local social and economic infrastructures. There is a vast reservoir of talent under the age of 30 across the continent. It is why I reworked my Circle of Impact book to focus on Africa. Circle of Impact Africa will be published in 2023 in English and French in Africa, Europe, and the United States.

The Three Dimensions of Networks of Relationships

I find our conception of networks rather shallow and limited. Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms are connection points, not contexts for relationship building. It can happen, but it takes pushing against the form to make it work.

Let’s look at a network of relationships through the lens of the three dimensions of leadership of the Circle of Impact.

A Network of Shared Ideas

The Ideas dimension is based upon the four connecting ideas of Values, Purpose, Vision, and Impact. When creating a network of relationships, it is important to articulate what values are the foundation of your purpose and your understanding of impact. When they are clear, then a vision can develop through the interaction of the participants. As a result, the network begins with clarity knowing why you are together, and what and how you plan to conduct your work.

A Network of Relationships

In a network that is mere connection, the relational aspect is undeveloped. Where relationships matter, you want them to be marked by respect, trust, and mutual accountability. In other words, you care about each other.

A Structured Network

The structure is a network. A network is not just a list of participants. The network is based upon the talent that is needed and the connections that each member brings. I will say much more about this in my next post. Let Ronald Burt provide a way to see the reason that the structure of the network is so important.

“If social networks can be an advantage (the well-connected do well), and networks are jointly owned by the people in them (not equally, but jointly), there should be an advantage to affiliation with well-connected people. Your neighbors should matter.” *

The Network as Solution

A subscriber to my Substack site contacted me today. I can’t tell you her circumstances. I can say that she is faced with a challenging situation in her work. She has a strong values foundation that she thought was the same within the organization. As she has stood for these values, she has received criticism and little support from the system. Because she believes that her work matters to the people she serves, she is not going to leave.

As we talked, I realized that her situation was the classic isolated leader scenario. I suggest that she gather others who are experiencing the same challenges and that they form a network of relationships. Get everyone online and we’ll have a conversation.

This is how a network of relationships begins. With conversation, self-awareness, context awareness, and the recognition that I am not in this alone. If you are in a similar situation, reach out to me, I’m glad to have a conversation with you.

For not only is the network a solution, but it is also a setting where solutions can be found and acted upon.

* Ronald S. Burt, Neighbor Networks: Competitive Advantage Local and Persona, Oxford.