Thriving Networks is an 8-week immersive online course that will help you take your network to the next level and find support from peers to address common challenges around money, value and resource flow.
In the last two years, our world as changed at a dramatic pace. Fueled by urgency, passion and technological breakthroughs, we are seeing new types of organizations pop up all over the globe, challenging the notion of traditional organizations: from freelance collectives, to impact networks, to distributed communities and DAOs. But to truly fulfill their potential, these network structures and group cultures need to face difficult questions around money, power and value flow. And they don't have to do it alone.
From our experience working in such networks for almost a decade, we know that these are some of the most difficult topics for these organizations to address: maintaining motivation and energy among members, enabling highly-active and less-active members to share workload and power, the tension between volunteer and paid work, freeriding, burnout of core members, lack of and mismanagement of funds, and conflicts around money.
This course will help you take your network to the next level and support you to address these (sometimes uncomfortable) challenges in a cohort of peers.
8 Weeks
Up to 30
1-2 hours per week
2-4 hours per week (incl. live sessions)
Regular 450-900 €+ VAT
Late Bird 550-1050 € + VAT
You are starting or part of a nascent network that is facing questions of value exchange and money flow for the first time.
You are a network leader or highly active member of a mature network and want to take it to the next level.
You are a curious explorer who wants to learn about this topic in a concrete, applied way.
You are starting or part of a nascent network that is facing questions of value exchange and money flow for the first time.
You are a network leader or highly active member of a mature network and want to take it to the next level.
You are starting or part of a nascent network that is facing questions of value exchange and money flow for the first time.
Francesca is an ecosystem builder, facilitator and organization designer working in the field of distributed leadership and participatory work. During the last decade, she has been a leading member of the self-organized communities Ouishare and Enspiral, and has supported dozens of other networks with her hands-on experience in network governance and community building.
J.D. is a facilitator, coach, consultant, and community builder working at the intersection of somatics, self-management, social justice, and regeneration. He is a Greaterthan Associate, a somatic coach trained at Strozzi Institute, the principal of Open/Up Hospitality, and a founding member of Building Belonging.
Alícia is a designer and facilitator of distributed leadership, community building and decentralised governance. In addition to practicing these in her own communities, she co-authored research on these topics with the Institute for the Future. Her work is focused on how self-organised teams and communities can be places for personal growth. In the past five years, she has been a catalyst for several social innovation organisations, from social start-ups, to a women network, to social movements.
There are many elements that make up a thriving network. To be able to go into depth and build on other courses that address some of those, this course focuses on one of them only, the area of money, resources and value exchange. Each week we will dive into a different topic, learn from the experience of our guests, ask them questions and apply what you are learning in your own community and network projects.
After this course, you will walk away with:
This course is for what we call "Purpose Networks" and "Impact Communities". This ranges from professional to livelihood-focused networks, online to locally rooted communities, communities of practice or interest, to DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations), "neo-guilds" and movements. What they all share is that they have a larger purpose and intention to catalyze action, beyond connecting people and organizations. When we talk about value-exchange, we mean the contributions of members in the network, not external value propositions. The topic of network business models is not a core topic of the course, but will be covered in supporting materials.
We use the terms network and community interchangeably, since the difference between them is often blurry.
Zebras Unite is a founder-led, cooperatively owned global movement creating the culture, capital & community for the next economy.
ConsciousU: creating conscious tribes. ConsciousU delivers scalable personal development programmes that facilitate collective transformation in organisations.
The course contains 5 x 2 hour content sessions with case studies and guests:
1 | What is a thriving network? Introductory session to connect with your cohort and dive into what it means for a network to be thriving.
2 | Unpacking Money & Value: Surface your personal stories and myths about money, and discover innovative models for accounting value. / Guest: Silvia López Sánchez from Disco.coop & Guerilla Translations
3 | Roles & Contributions: Creating a system where network membership, different levels of engagement and types of contributions are in balance.
4 | Making Decisions Around Money: Exploring the challenges of collective budgeting and financial decision-making, as well tools and practices to address them.
5 | Reclaiming Money & Leadership: Discover Peter König's Money and Source work, and how to apply it in networks to unlock collective leadership capacity.
There are 3 x 1.5 hour group reflection sessions throughout the course.
A strongly recommended additional session for participants that is included in the price is the Money Game Experience, which takes place halfway through the course.
Date of the session: March 9th, 5-7 PM Paris | 11 AM - 1 PM New York
Join our next edition from February 24 to April 14, Thursdays 3-5 PM Paris / 9-11 AM New York.
When signing up below, we will ask you a few questions about yourself and your experience with networks, to help us create a great experience for all participants.
Can't make the above time? Reach out to learn about asynchronous learning options.
It's great to take this course with fellow network members! We offer discounts when you join with one (20%) or two or more colleagues (25%). Get in touch to inquire about these discounts and scholarships.
A deeply empowering and transformative experience—a true treasure box for every network nerd. I'm still impressed by the co-creative and safe space created by the hosts.
Thanks to this course, I now have the foundation to help take my networks to the next phase and am excited to start working with the tools this course provided!
Highly recommend for anyone starting and scaling a network that wants to clarify how to collaborate, exchange value and honour the principles of cooperation. A practical space to learn with peers, access real case studies, and put the learnings into action during the course timeline.
A brilliant way to meet other people, share experiences with organisational structure and decision making models, and think through collective solutions to common problems
Our courses are practice-based, intimate and participatory. It's your entry point into the emergent knowledge and practices that Greaterthan has developed and tested over the past decade.
Our courses are practice-based, intimate and participatory. It's your entry point into the emergent knowledge and practices that Greaterthan has developed and tested over the past decade.
Communities we are embedded in
