How to Manage Networks: Managing Measurement

Particularly for networks, where their complexity and emergence are both what makes the system challenging and simultaneously worthy of preserving, it’s important to approach evaluation holistically, looking beyond donor-driven benchmarks and towards the value proposition that brings members to the table and gets them to stay.

When Collective Mind thinks about evaluation, we think in terms of “measurement.” Within our Network Capacity Assessment, measurement denotes a way to evaluate a network’s internal effectiveness, or its overall health. It involves monitoring both internal and external benchmarks for a network — the use of a network’s resources and the impacts of a network’s activities, as well as taking the pulse of the network to ensure ongoing alignment with the shared purpose and value proposition to members. It goes further to look into the state of network culture, members’ satisfaction and sense of inclusion, whether the network is fulfilling its value proposition, and other such qualitative metrics. The assessment helps key into why members initially joined the network, why they stay, what activities they participate in and why, and what personal and institutional benefits they incur for their membership and participation. These types of benchmarks are what can help provide direction to network leaders on what to prioritize in order to improve and align the network and decide if or how to shift strategies, e.g. efforts to build trust and weave networks.

It is important to also remember that measurement within a network is by definition participatory, as with everything else networks undertake. Outcomes for members can’t be captured or understood without their input. In fact, the intentionality and carefully considered methods used to incorporate the diverse perspectives of the members are an integral and necessary step in building trust among the membership and across the network.