Was hington, D.C. – Recently worked with a network of about 6 0 organizations that had not yet clearly identified its members value propositions. It’s not unusual for a network to get going and growing without clarifying what its members’ value propositions are. The network organizers /leaders assume they know what the members’ care about. But, we’ve found, it’s hard to have a full picture of what members’ value, because not all members value the same thing, many members value more than on e thing, and the importance members assign to different value propositions may change over time. Yet knowing your network’s key value propositions is essential when you’re trying to assess how well the network is doing and what the network might do next.
So we created a list of what the network ’s staff thought were the value propositions (VPs) that motivate members to participate in the network. There were 15 in all:
- The opportunity to test new ideas
- The opportunity to be recognized as a leader in the field
- Being affiliated with the prestige/brand
- The connections I can make with like-minded organizations/people
- Access to policy decision makers
- The potential to access flexible funds to learn, experiment, and spread knowledge
- Being part of an influential group
- Working with others who use a similar lens/framework in their work
- Contributing to and drawing from new knowledge
- The opportunity to promote my ideas and organization
- Learning about various relevant topics
- Being part of efforts to communicate with others about the work we’re doing
- The opportunity to affirm my belief in our approach
- Being a part of building a field of practice and movement
- Being with people who inspire me
Next steps could include: Testing the list with the members (giving them an opportunity to add others); finding out which VPs are most important to them; and finding out how well the network is doing when it comes to the important VPs.
Another network that we support surveys its roughly 120 members annually about the importance of about 12 VPs and how well they are being met . In August it found that after five years of always having most members single out the same three VPs as most important, a fourth VP was emerging as a strong contender —something to pay attention to when the network sets its priorities for the future.
In chapter 2 of Connecting to Change the World we discuss ways to identify a network’s collective value proposition that provides an underlying rationale for collaboration in a network.