Network versus organization
Yesterday, I was talking with Kaliya Hamlin, the Identity Woman. We had both been at Nexus for Change and were debriefing. We were discussing the difference between networks and traditional organizations and how change methods developed for organizations don't necessarily apply to transforming social networks of individuals. Online community-builders and community organizers may be more familiar with influencing networks. But, organizational consultants are not generally trained to have a network mind.
Networks can be decentralized, clustering, or centralized. Traditional organizations may seem to have a clear center of power and influence. Some organizations are organized more like decentralized network. Ori Brafman's Starfish and the Spider gives a great introduction to these artful things. Now, organizations also have social networks, which are usually not apparent at first glance, but they can be identified with Social Network Analysis. In decentralized networks, individuals are more loosely coupled. So, getting everyone into the same room for a visioning process is not doable, because who is everyone in the system, anyway? Identity is fuzzy and in flux.
The way that I think about networks comes from my former life of being a Shiatsu therapist, using Chinese Medicine. Seeing the self as a network of energy meridians in a large ecosystem of meridians, I think similarly about social networks. The task of influencing change becomes one of tracking, attracting and dispersing energy to create vitality and dynamic balance. The use of self to influence becomes much more important in a decentralized network.