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.
With freelance and remote working on the rise globally, as well as new types of movements and purpose networks popping up all over the globe, our network structures and mindsets are in need of maturing. These networks, communities and collectives are challenging the notion of traditional organizations, but to truly become a viable alternative organizing model, they need to develop better ways of dealing with questions of money, power and value flow.
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)
Early bird 450 € + VAT
Regular 550 € + 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 "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.
We use the terms network and community interchangeably here, 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.
Week 1 | Thriving in Commoning: Introductory session to connect with your cohort and dive into what it means for a network to be thriving.
Week 2 | Unpacking Money & Value: Surfacing and working with your personal stories and myths about money. Discover innovative models for accounting value. / Guest: Silvia López Sánchez from Disco.coop & Guerilla Translations
Week 3 | Group Reflection Session
Week 4 | Crafting Roles & Contribution Pathways: Creating a system where network membership, different levels of engagement and types of contributions are in balance.
Week 5 | Making Decisions Around Money: Exploring the challenges of collective budgeting and financial decision-making, as well tools and practices to address them.
Week 6 | Group Reflection Session
Week 7 | Reclaiming Money: Discover Peter König's Money Work and how to bring this into the collective context. / Guest: Peter König, seminal thinker and researcher
Week 8 | Integration & Intention Setting: Walking away with tangible insights, practices and experiments to try in your network
Optional additional sessions for participants
Our September 2021 cohort is now full, but we will be hosting our next edition in March 2022 (exact dates to be announced). If you are interested in joining, leave us your details below!
Early Bird: 450 € + VAT | Regular: 550 € + VAT | Scholarships on demand
It's great to take this course with fellow network members! We offer discounts when you join with one (750 € + VAT for both of you) or two colleagues (three spots for 1000 € + VAT).
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
I learnt a great deal that I will continue to share and apply in our network, which is likely to feel the benefits for a long time to come.
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
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