Remaining Agile and Adaptable
If a network has longevity, it will experience change. This chapter is about how networks reinvent themselves, mature, learn, grow, and dissolve. It uses a framework based on two distinctions: the goal-directedness of the network and the disruptiveness of the change. For serendipitous networks, or networks where organizations do not share goals, field-wide disruption and the accumulation of individual organizations’ actions drive change. In these circumstances, organizations manage changes by attending to their network portfolio and absorptive capacity. For goal-directed networks, change can be planned or unplanned. It can be incremental or radical. In each of these circumstances, the chapter recommends pathways for managing the degree and type of change. It uses case studies to illustrate how leaders manage the dilemmas caused by network change. It includes strategic planning, action learning team, and absorptive capacity tools.