Network Building – Like Herding Dinosaurs

8/2/2019 Network Building Like Herding Dinosaurs

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Ideas from Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC www.tutormentorexchange.net Page 1 4/28/2012 Contact: [email protected]

Network Building Like Herding DinosaursArticle posted on http://tutormentor.blogspot.com on April 28, 2012 byDaniel F. Bassill, Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC founder.

Dinosaurs: theyre big. They can trample you. They can eat you. They have their ownideas on what they want to do, and who they want to hang out with. Hard to get them allin one room, or to keep them there for a long time. Maybe they went extinct becausethey could not work together. Maybe they survived and evolved for 200 million yearsbecause they knew some things that weve yet to learn.

In mid April I wrote an article that talked of the difficulties big cities face in bringingpeople and organizations together for collective purposes such as helping more kids

move thorough school and into college and jobs.http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2012/04/connecting-networks-opening-silos.html

I pointed to report by The Bridgespan Group that listed challenges such as obtaininglong-term funding, connecting across silos, defining realistic, shared goals, etc. Theseincluded:

* Funding that is largely short term* Leaders who are overstretched, with gaps in organizational capacity* Uneven commitment to resident engagement (community involvement?)* Unrealistic expectations about how much can be accomplished how soon* Limited access to what works - or shows promise of working

* Silo-ed thinking

We need to overcome these and many other obstacles if were to solve some of thecomplex problems facing this country and the world. In my own work, I focus oncollecting and sharing information that can be used in many places to help kids who areborn or are living in high poverty move through school and into jobs and careers. I usegraphics such as Im including in this article to illustrate my ideas.


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We all want more kids to stay inschool, be safe in non-schoolhours, graduate, and move on tojobs and careers and adult

responsibilities.

One of the challenges we face isthat in order to build relationshipsand networks of purpose, someonehas to have a database containingmost of the organizations that needto be involved in the relationship-building process. I use the databaseIve been building to a) point people

to information; b) increase the number of people looking at this information, c) increaseunderstanding of the information, and actions people can take; and d) to inspire people

to be volunteers, donors, partners, leaders, etc. at one or more youth-raisingorganizations in high poverty areas of Chicago and other cities.

The goal of all of this strategy is to create a better distribution of places helpingkids to careers, with more leaders who will adopt the commitment and strategy shownin this map at http://tinyurl.com/tmc-strategy-map, in their own leadership.

Since so many organizations focus on helping kids, with their own networks,funding streams and strategies, the challenge for big cities like Chicago is tofocus everyone on common goals and strategies. While many aim to unite everyoneunder one umbrella and one set of standards and outcome measures, Im not sure thatis realistic, or possible.


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Ive pointed to a wide range of ideas about collaboration, innovation, knowledgemanagement, etc. in the Tutor/Mentor Library at http://tinyurl.com/TMI-ProcessImp-Collaboration and I think some of these ideas might enable us to find ways to workcollectively, yet operate independently.

Ive also been creating maps to help groups in the same geographic areas work

together, or to help groups with common goals connect with each other.

This week I created a new map just to illustrate how many different groups in Chicagoare acting in intermediary roles to connect people they know to each other, and toinfluence actions of the group that affect the well-being of kids.

See this map at http://tinyurl.com/ChicagoYouthNetworks

While this map represents a few of the organizations working to help kids, Im sure it is

only a fraction of the organizations in the Chicago region or the nation who need to beconnected in what I call a network of purpose. Each of the nodes in the graphic belowrepresents a network of potentially many organizations and many resources. Unlesssomeone creates a map showing members of the network, and web sites, they are notconnecting their members to each other, or helping leaders and members of othernetworks connect with to them.

This graphic is from an essay titledBuilding a Network of Purpose foundat http://tinyurl.com/TMI-Network-of-purpose

Ive been hosting a conference inChicago every six months since May1994 and on June 14, 2012 Ill behosting a one-day event, invitingmembers of this network to gather,share ideas, build relationships and playways to help more programs obtainvolunteers and financial support as theschool year starts again in August. See


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details at http://www.tutormentorconference.org

This past week I took part in several network-building efforts where I shared ideasthat Ive developed over more than 30 years of network-building.

I was invited to attend a breakfast at WTTW11 Public TV Station in Chicago to talk

about ways public TV can work with business and community-based organizations toreduce the high school drop-out rate. I created a map of the invitation list. Which youcan see at http://tinyurl.com/TMI-American-Graduate

In this map I include links to other web sites and links to other concept maps and thelibrary of information Ive collected over the past three decades. Network buildingrequires an effort to connect all of these different groups to each other in an on-goingprocess of learning and relationship building.

One of the maps I point to is this drop out conference map, which shows organizationsconnected at a 2011 and earlier drop out conferences held in Chicago area. All of theseorganizations are involved in some way, yet most may not be actively connected to each

other, even when they attend the same events!

See link at http://tinyurl.com/2011DropoutConf-Network

While Ive been building a database of Chicago tutor/mentor programs andinviting programs to connect with myself and each other since 1975, I created theTutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 to do this network-building on a more formal and largerscale basis. Our aim was to build a master database of non-school tutor/mentorprograms and to try to connect them to each other more frequently.


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A parallel goal was to create greater public awareness so that volunteers and donorswould increase and they would use maps to search out programs in different parts of thecity who were working to help connect youth with mentors, tutors and extra learning.

This week I hosted this one hour discussion that shared my ideas with people from the

US and different countries. http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/828465-conversation-with-daniel-f-bassill-ceo-founder-of-tutor-mentor-con

I also shared ideas about empathy and strategy in a Social Edge forum.http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/responsibility/empathy-and-social-change

In order to share my ideas I am active in many networks. This map shows some of them. In each of these forums I share ideas related to thediscussions which I draw from my own experience and library. In doing so I hope that Ibuild credibility and draw people to my own web sites where more information isavailable to support the decisions people make about where, and how, and, how often,they try to help kids.

See this link at http://tinyurl.com/TMC-DanNetwork

Ive been doing this for a long time, yet Im not in many (most?) of the discussions andplanning sessions that are taking place in Chicago and other cities. Why? Is it becausenot invented here is alive and well? Is it because of how self-interest and power are stilldrivers of leadership and social interaction?

Ive written articles in the past talking about the challenges of opening organizationalsilos http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/search?q=silos


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My goal: Social Innovation Strategy, supported by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

A few years ago one of my interns gave me a book titled The Starfish and the Spider,which talks of the strength of decentralized organizations. The book also shows howplatforms, like eBey and Wikipedia support millions of independent users.

http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/collaboration-and-capacity-building-articles/60-the-spider-and-the-star-fish

For years Ive shared ideas that Leaders in business and faith groups could apply inbuilding their own organizational involvement strategies. See ROLE OF Leaders andother leadership ideas at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/leadership-strategies

Ive been sharing ideas that others could use to duplicate what Im doing for over 20years. Heres a copy of a 1999 newsletter that I was sending out to 12,000 people threetimes a year between 1997 and 2001 (after 2001 this was discontinued due to lack offunding for print media). http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/images/PDF/t-mc%20report%20-jan%2099-1.pdf

Heres a handout on starting a Tutor/Mentor Connection that I presented at a 1999conference in Portland, Oregon.http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/images/PDF/start_tmc_1999.pdf

In 1997 the Tutor/Mentor Connection was one of 50 Teaching Examples at thePresidents Summit for Americas Future, which led to the formation of the AmericasPromise organization.

This page shows dozens of

media stories where we talkabout a strategy to help kids inall poverty neighborhoodsconnect with tutors/mentors.http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/news-pr

The 1999 T/MC Report newsletter and the How to Start a Tutor/Mentor Connection,as well as many of the media stories, show that my ideas came from leading avolunteer-based tutor/mentor program from 1975 till 2011. Much of my commitment tovolunteer-based tutor/mentor programs as a strategy for adult civic engagement as wellas a strategy for expanding social capital of youth in high poverty, focus on changinghow non profits are funded. These ideas come from my own experiences of leading an


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on-going program and the frustrations of not being able to find consistent philanthropicsupport, as well as my understanding of how big companies such at Montgomery Wardsupported hundreds of stores with central office strategies.

Now this strategy is led through the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLCThe inconsistent funding through the 2000-2011 period led to the April 2011 decision of

the volunteer Directors at Cabrini Connections to discontinue support for theTutor/Mentor Connection from their single small non profit base. It led me to createTutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in July 2011 to continue to share these ideas. Thus, many ofthe articles from past years will continue to show a Cabrini Connections, Tutor/MentorConnection identity, which Im sure will confuse many people well into the future.

When I left Cabrini Connections in July 2011 I did not have an organizational structure tore-build the T/MC as a non profit with leadership who could speak creadibly aboutcitywide strategies to help all youth to careers, or who could raise $500,000 to a $1million a year to support this strategy at the level it needs to be funded in Chicago thethird largest city in the USA. I still do not have that.

However, I dont need to create a new Tutor/Mentor Connection to share 36 years ofknowledge to help others share part of the responsibility for helping close the gapsbetween rich and poor and neighborhoods with many opportunities and those with fewopportunities.

The information and ideas on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site are free foranyone who wants to spend time browsing the sites. However, if your organization wantsto add me as a consultant, resource and partner in your brainstorming and planning,consider becoming a sponsor of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, and adding supported byTutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to your own site.

I can give you the same recognition on my sites.

In doing this we can each share more of the work needed to connect networks andshare information and ideas across networks. We can do more to increase the dailymedia and public outreach needed to draw consistent attention, talent and operatingresources to the many organizations working in the region to improve the well-being ofkids.

If youre interested in having the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC support your efforts inanother city or another country, this invitation is open to you as well.

See http://www.tutormentorconference.org/platform_tmi.htm

Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLCTutor/Mentor ConnectionMerchandise Mart PO Box 3303Chicago, Il. [email protected]

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Network Building – Like Herding Dinosaurs

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