Our Approach to Network Leadership

In the profound words of Rev Jennifer Bailey, "Relationships are built at the speed of trust, and social change happens at the speed of relationships."

To meet the increasingly complex and intersecting challenges we face today, we need bold, bright leaders bringing innovative solutions to life. Yet many shining star entrepreneurs are working in silos and missing out on financial, creative, and technological resources that can scale their impact.

Network Leadership is the skillset, the next-generation approach, that will power a new wave of social entrepreneurs solving the world’s most complex challenges through the power of relationships.

Defined by UC Berkeley Professor Jane Wei-Skillern as the mobilization of diverse organizations and resources to deliver more impact, Network Leadership is embedded in our vision for how cohorts of Fellows working both individually and together can create collective transformation.

More than just the pathway to collaborative field development, Network Leadership is also the type of training leaders need to visualize and understand the demands of our complex, interconnected world.

“Network systems-thinking leadership taken to the next level…It requires executives to engage, empower, facilitate, and bring connectedness to an otherwise unwieldy mass of disparate elements.” (Doug Macnamara)

In 2024, we are focused on crafting our unique model of Network Leadership - one that educates Summit Fellows to become exceptional Network Leaders, and cultivates field-level capacity for collaborative, network-based progress.

As Margaret Wheatley aptly notes,

"The world doesn't change one person at a time. It changes as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of what's possible."