Learning Opportunities
As network leaders and managers, you require the tools, skills, and support to better understand, analyze, design, and enhance the components of your networks. We create spaces for you to learn and engage with other network practitioners through thoughtful exchange on diverse topics. Our events and community-driven content highlight the expertise within our global community, allowing professional peers to glean knowledge and insights from us and each other.
Introduction to Networks and Network Management
Want to learn about networks and what makes them effective?
Our Introduction to Networks and Network Management introduces you to Collective Mind's Network Diagnostic Framework for understanding networks and reviews the critical skills and approaches needed by network managers.
Past Events and Trainings
Our past event recordings and summary blogs are resources to glean practical insights and knowledge from Collective Mind and network peers. Each session is unique, posing different questions and challenges, drawing on diverse experiences, and offering innovative solutions and tools. The descriptions of our past trainings offer a snapshot of the breadth of professional development opportunities we offer.
Click on the + below to view past event descriptions, recordings, and links to summary blogs.
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Our Networks in Action sessions use a modified “What, So What, Now What?” format to build a shared definition of the concept (“what”), articulated how that concept applies in practice for us (“so what”), and considered what it all means going forward (“now what”).
2023April 12, 2023 - Power dynamics
Recording / Slides / Blog
Power dynamics show up in many different ways in networks. The role of the network manager and practitioner in shifting, managing, and working with (instead of against) power dynamics is slow but necessary work. It means acknowledging and putting in work to understand the dynamics of a situation before going into it, e.g. understanding how different communication and values may impact power when working in multicultural settings. This session brought the diverse experiences and insights of network practitioners together to discuss how it all plays out in their work.February 15, 2023 - Conflict resolution
Recording / Slides / Blog
Networks facilitate and operate in multi-layered environments with multiple interdependencies, naturally creating conflict. The conflict can be related to a network’s governance structure, how decisions are made and by whom, or the distribution of power and resources. Also, given that networks are composed of members, conflict can also be interpersonal and inter-organizational. All of these make managing conflicts in networks challenging but necessary to manage or resolve.
2022December 14, 2022 — Network operations
Recording / Slides / Blog
Regardless of a network’s size or level of infrastructure, effective and efficient management of its operational systems is critical to help its members and backbone leadership be supported and impactful. This session discussed what operations mean within the context of networks and how they must be fit-for-purpose to address the needs of the network and its members.October 19, 2022 — Inclusive facilitation
Recording / Slides / Blog
Inclusion isn’t just about who is at the table: it's about who is heard at the table. This requires thoughtful and intentional design of processes and convenings in terms of the choice of methods, activities, and tools to use. Participants talked about what inclusive facilitation means within networks and how network managers can use facilitation techniques to ensure processes are participatory.June 15, 2022 — Accountability in networks
Recording / Slides / Blog
Our June Networks in Action focused on the topic of accountability in networks. We discussed what accountability means within networks, who is accountable to whom and for what, and how to increase accountability.April 20, 2022 — Neutrality in network management
Recording / Slides / Blog
Our April session discussed what neutrality is in network management, whether it's even possible, and how to address the implications.February 16, 2022 — Equity
Recording / Slides / Blog
Our first-ever Networks in Action on focused equity in networks. Participants collectively provided their definitions of equity, shared the equity-related challenges faced by their networks, and noted ways to move forward. -
Collective Mind hosted regular Community Conversations with and for our global learning community from 2020-2022. The sessions were led by network practitioners who shared their experiences, methodologies, and ideas related to a range of salient network topics. These sessions were an interactive space to connect, share challenges, and cultivate solutions to common problems experienced by networks and network practitioners. The recordings and summary blogs for each conversation are linked below.
2022November 16, 2022 — Nested networks
Recording / Slides / Blog
This conversation focused on the topic of “nested networks” – networks that are created and hosted by a single organization that serves as the primary catalyst and host of the network. This set up has a wide range of implications for the network's design, strategy, and operations and has varying degrees of autonomy. Against this backdrop, our panel shared their experiences of working within nested networks.September 28, 2022 — Engaging local networks
Recording / Blog
Our September panel shared their insights and experience on how local networks - where the network’s strategic focus is on a specific geographic unit, i.e. a community, a city, a county, etc. - can be particularly impactful. Knowing where connections are, and are not, and tapping into local experience and leadership, can enable local networks to influence local interactions and also play an essential role in what flows throughout the network.May 18, 2022 — Revenue generation for networks
Recording / Blog
This conversation focused on the topic of revenue generation for networks. The panelists and participants shared their insights and experience on how networks finance themselves and the different, potentially innovative ways in which they can create funding streams.March 23, 2022 — Networks of networks
Recording / Slides / Blog
Our March conversation on the topic of "networks of networks” discussed what a network of networks looks like, what it can achieve, and how it might be structured differently than a single network. Participants joined in the conversation in a fishbowl format to share their experiences, insights, and questions. -
Participatory Approaches to Build an Engaged Membership – September-November 2023; September-December 2024
Collective Mind and our partners at Conscious Consultants developed an online course for network leaders and practitioners to develop strong member engagement strategies using participatory methodologies.
Collective Mind Academy — October-December 2021
Collective Mind Academy was a virtual professional development opportunity in the style of a semester-focused course. The Academy was designed to be flexible and adaptive, with options to join by module or for the full five-module Academy, the ability to review materials on your own time, and live “office hour” discussions sessions with recordings that could be viewed later.Workshop Series: Networks and network management skills — February-May 2021
Collective Mind held a series of workshops to help strengthen networks and improve network practice. Developed using our evidence-based conceptual models for understanding networks and network management, these workshops were designed to help network practitioners better understand, analyze, design, and enhance the components of their networks.Group coaching course on network capacities — October 2020-March 2021
Collective Mind ran its 16-week Group Coaching course focused on the seven capacities needed to ensure that networks are effective and impactful.Virtual Summer Camp — July 13-24, 2020
Virtual Summer Camp was an interactive and flexible virtual space for those who wanted to do more with and for their networks to gain new insights and tools for network management. Camp activities were a mix of engaging learning activities: video lessons, expert webinars, open plenary discussions, breakout sessions and peer learning circles.Virtual facilitation and collaboration for remote groups — March 2020
In March 2020, we ran a series of webinars to help our community better facilitate remote groups and adapt in-person events to go online. The collective wisdom from those discussions was synthesized into “A how-to guide on virtual facilitation and collaboration for remote groups.” -
Collective Mind’s working groups were designed to be participatory, collaborative, and action-oriented. Each working group format entailed collaboration premised on contributing individual reflections, exchanging experiences and ideas, and building knowledge through outputs that are collaboratively developed and collectively owned at the end of the process.
2022Working Group on Inclusive Networks — June-July 2022
The Working Group was a space for peer reflection, sharing, and learning about all the ways in which our networks can and must be inclusive. The purpose of the working group was to develop our shared knowledge about how to consider the multiple elements of inclusion within our networks and improve our networks and network practice to increase inclusion.