New Handbooks on Leadership, Collective Impact and Networks

Many of you know that the Switzer Foundation through our Fellowship Program and Network activities, believes in the power of collective action, networked approaches to environmental leadership and that organizations of all kinds can learn much from social network theory and more networked approaches to building strategies for positive change.  Colleagues at Leadership Learning Community, a nonprofit dedicated to helping organizations strengthen their leadership development activities across different fields and sectors, recently developed two new handbooks.  The first one, Leadership and Collective Impact is helpful to leadership programs which have as an intended outcome, greater collective action, impact and networked efforts over the long-term.  I find this guide useful for our own work with the Switzer Network, and you all may find it helpful too. It is free and may be downloaded here.  The second guide, Leadership and Networks: New Ways of Developing Leadership in a Highly Connected World is a very user-friendly introduction to how network strategies can be useful in a variety of organizational settings. Both reports reference the Switzer Foundation’s network strategies and we continue to learn from other colleagues embracing similar efforts.  I’d love to hear about how others are using networks to advance their work and to find out whether Switzer Fellows engaged in leading networks would have any interest in learning together in a “community of practice”.