An action network organizes actions of people to produce an intended result. The intended results from large and complicated projects are commonly broken down into manageable parts and commitments for action are asked for from others to produce each part. Commitments received are knitted together as a network of people, each with a commitment to act to produce what they committed to. Large projects have many parts while small ones may have as few as one.
The creator of an action network is committed to the overall intended result. Each network member is a person who can and has made a commitment to take action to produce the part requested of them. Each network member who committed action to produce a part can spread the parts that make up their part out to others in turn by getting commitments from those people to take action to produce the part requested of them. Network members along with their commitments form an action network that can be expected to produce its intended result.
Each network member possesses some level of willingness and ability to act that can vary widely from person to person. Each network member can be represented as a large or small circle that shows their willingness and ability to act. Limited willingness can shrink the circle or limited ability can shrink the circle. The most common pitfalls are assuming that a willing network member is able to produce results or that an able network member is willing to produce results. When a network is drawn out on paper, a large circle shows someone willing and able to act while a small circle shows a shortfall in willingness, ability or both. Commitments are links between network members and take the form of mutual agreements to make and accept delivery according to understood terms and conditions. In formal language these are called contracts.
Ideally every network member would be represented by a large circle and every link would represent a clear agreement. In practice, people in networks vary widely in their levels of willingness and ability. At the same time, links can be weaker than we’d like because agreements are fuzzy or because people don’t live up to their commitments. In the end we always do the best we can with the resources we’ve got.
