The Nourishment of Networks
WRITTEN BY GILLIAN ATTWOOD, Canon Collins Trust (NLS Alumni)
For some time, I have wrestled with the challenges of building and organising networks as spaces for creative exchange and collaboration. What does it mean to be a network builder? How do I approach this work effectively? What are the best strategies? How do I know if we are succeeding?
In October 2024, I jumped at the chance to join Circle Generation’s Network Leadership Series (NLS), a cohort training designed specifically to deepen understanding and practice of network coordination. Over the course of this eight-week programme, I gained valuable insights and learnings that I wish I had known earlier.
Context
By way of introduction – my identity is embedded in a community of scholars and researchers committed to using research for social justice. When I entered this space as a PhD scholar in 2002, I was fully immersed, even myopic, in attending to my research questions and field work. I had yet to grow the perspective of my positioning as a seed within a larger forest of change-makers. It wasn’t until years later that I began to appreciate the depth and diversity of a wider community of scholar-activists who shared a commitment to justice and transformation from many different angles.
Recognising this broader landscape of engaged scholars was an awakening - like discovering a place at a shared table with rich sustenance from diverse perspectives, disciplines, identities and geographies. How could this fusion feed into collectively addressing the complexity of evolving challenges? How could we expand possibilities and opportunities for one another? What unexpected insights might emerge from a conversation between a prison education theatre practitioner, a history teacher and an IT expert? And most importantly, how could I, as a network leader, help facilitate such exchanges to enrich perspectives and widen solutions?
Launch
At our first NLS session, I quickly realised I was not alone in seeking answers to these questions. My fellow NLS learners brought a wealth of inquiries, understandings and experiences of networks. Drawn from across the globe - Africa, North and South America, Europe and the UK, this cohort represented a mosaic of communities – pop culture collaboratives, climate justice stewards, farmers, impact-focused wealth holders, educators, entrepreneurs, refugees, and Colombian artisans.
From linearity to complexity
Our first learning ‘offering’, was somewhat unfamiliar to my palate. This was the challenging invitation to shift our thinking away from the norm of seeing dualities: inclusions and exclusion, stability and change, order and chaos. Could we consider a space amid the problem and solution, a liminal space where connection and conflict coexist, where an individual is a fleeting fragment of colour in a bigger kaleidoscope of changing possibilities?
Understanding change as systemic, dynamic and perpetually in motion, was intriguing but also unsettling. It points to making space, rather than taking space; leaning into what I don’t know rather than anchoring myself in what I do. Confronting complexity invites letting go of a sense of one’s self-importance, and the comfort of clear-cut binaries. It’s about allowing uncertainty, disorder, and disproportion as part of the change process. Could I embrace what I don’t understand and can’t yet see, and admit that my tightly held assumptions and beliefs are just that: assumptions and beliefs? How to loosen my grip long enough to move beyond my own restraints?
Cultivating conducive conditions
Letting go is scary, especially into uncertainty. Creating conditions where people feel safe, supported and valued is a foundational element of network building. Enabling the evolution of ideas through dialogue necessarily depends on fostering trust and meaningful connection. It’s the antithesis of control and prediction, which feel so much more familiar. There is comfort in the deliberate pursuit of definite outcomes, far more so that in embracing complexity and allowing emergence amid multiple interests. Yet it is precisely within the complexity of nurturing relationships and connections that possibilities unfurl.
Relationships influence everything – how information is shared, how decisions are made and how work gets done. Trusting and a sense of mutuality are the bedrock of relationships. It is only when we trust each other enough to move beyond our own immediate self-interests can we begin to recognise new possibilities and alternative ways of doing things.
One of the most profound aspects of the NLS learning process was observing how this trust-building and intentional engagement was modelled for us. We were invited and guided step-by-step through practical experiential processes and tools. We were shown the way into safety through safety. Over eight weeks, I witnessed how trust, when nurtured, opens pathways for collective problem-solving and expansive possibilities.
Recognising the value of what we each brought to the table, reminded me of the miracle of the loaves and fishes– a humble meal, when shared in a spirit of generosity and trust, becomes something far greater. This paradoxical mindset of trust asks us to think beyond the linearity of zero-sum logic, to hold the tension between facts, imagination and creative problem-solving. The mindset asks us to believe in the abundance of possibilities that can emerge when trust and connection are prioritised.
The slow simmer of unseen work
Towards the end of the programme, we were encouraged to reflect on how we would share the nourishment gained from our learning in our respective contexts. Feasts, after all, don’t just happen. Much preparation is required. Behind the scenes, skilled chefs and their helpers need not just ingredients, but time and resources to prepare, cook, and clean. And they need kitchen space. Similarly, as network weavers, we need not only knowledge and skills, but also thought, time and resources to curate nourishing spaces for effective engagement where participants are held with care.
Listening to our convenors and cohort openly voice the strains of working invisibly in an underfunded environment was both validating and sobering. We talked about the unseen ‘architecture’ of networks: data management, engagement tracking, and communication infrastructure. We discussed the need to invest in a robust knowledge management system—essential scaffolding for not only a thriving network but also for showcasing impact and mobilizing resources. Yet this aspect of work is often unrecognised and under-resourced. Equally unrecognised is the emotional labour of relationship building, yet it is as crucial as the logistical efforts. Without the architectural and emotional components, the pieces of a network cannot coalesce into something greater.
Imagining sufficiency
Even as I write this, I am acutely aware of my struggle to articulate the intangible rewards of networks: the joy of unexpected connections, the sparks of inspiration from shared insights, the hope that springs from hearing of others’ successes. Trying to describe what networks offer is like imagining new flavours from unknown ingredients. This work is an act of faith and imagination. It’s a mindset of sufficiency and sustainability, rather than scarcity.
In conclusion, building responsive networks is not just about providing nourishment but about fostering a cycle of reciprocity that strengthens our capacity to meet shifting needs and ensure collective survival. This becomes possible only in a just system that is healthy - environmentally, socially, economically and politically. As individuals, we are transient guests at a much larger table. In committing to the work of building responsive networks, we embrace sufficiency and sustainability, vital to not only human health, but the health of our planet.
Learn more about the Network Leadership Series and register for the next cohort!