The Communications Network
Network Leaders Summit · New York · April 8–9, 2026

From Insight
to Action

A practice guide for network members and community leaders — built from what 65 leaders figured out in New York.

Five practices.

Each one self-paced.
Each one facilitated.
All of them actionable.

Why this guide exists

The briefing book tells you what happened in New York. This guide helps you do something with it. Each section is built around one idea from the summit — with the research behind it, a self-paced reflection, and a facilitated session you can run with your community.

How to use it
Read solo — each section stands alone
Run as a group session — guides included
Work through all five in sequence
Share with members who weren't in the room
1
45 min self-paced facilitated

Why most communications don't work

Simple contagion — memes, viral content, broadcast messages — spreads fast through weak ties. One exposure is enough. Complex change — behavior, norms, community — spreads slowly, through trusted relationships, requiring multiple reinforcing sources. Most communications budgets are built for the first kind. Most of our goals require the second. And when awareness outpaces adoption, it doesn't plateau — it actively undermines the change you're trying to create.

Learning outcomes

  • Distinguish simple vs. complex contagion
  • Audit your own work for the wrong model
  • Understand why awareness can backfire

Self-paced reflection

How much of your current communications is designed for simple contagion — impressions, reach, open rates? How much is designed for networked trust? What would you change if you started from trust as the goal?

Facilitated session — 45 min

0–5 minOpen with the Iowa corn story: 70% awareness, less than 1% adoption. What changed it? Ten farmers testing together.
5–15 minPair share: Where does your work fit on the simple vs. complex contagion spectrum?
15–30 minGroup: Audit your communications budget. What's designed for reach? What's designed for trust?
30–40 minDebrief: What would you change? What can't you change right now?
40–45 minClose: Each person names one thing they'll do differently.

Source: Morgan Lasher, Unify America — drawing on Damon Centola, Change: How to Make Big Things Happen

2
60 min self-paced facilitated

The four ingredients of community

Community requires four things: belonging (why do I stay?), purpose (why are we here?), learning (can I contribute and grow?), and impact (does my voice matter?). Most communities are strong on one or two and weak on the rest. The most important of the four is impact — close the loop visibly. When someone asks for highlighters and they appear at the next meeting with attribution, that's what builds trust.

Learning outcomes

  • Apply the four-ingredient framework to your community
  • Identify which ingredients are missing
  • Design one experiment to close the gap

Self-paced reflection

Score your community 1–5 on each ingredient: belonging, purpose, learning, impact. Which is lowest? Write down one experiment you could run in the next 30 days to strengthen it.

The four ingredients

  • Belonging — Members say "we," not "they."
  • Purpose — A shared, stated reason for gathering.
  • Learning — Peer knowledge is valued. Members leave with new thinking.
  • Impact — Feedback loops are closed visibly.

Warning signs

  • High attendance, low retention → weak belonging
  • Every meeting feels unfocused → unclear purpose
  • Every gathering is a panel → weak learning
  • Good gatherings, no follow-through → no impact

Facilitated session — 60 min

0–5 minShare the framework. Read each ingredient aloud and ask: does this feel familiar?
5–15 minSolo: Rate your community 1–5 on each ingredient. Note what evidence you have for each score.
15–30 minSmall groups: Share your weakest ingredient. What's causing it? What would change it?
30–45 minFull group: Each small group shares one experiment. Discuss feasibility and steal ideas.
45–60 minClose: Each person commits to one experiment and a 30-day check-in.

Source: Morgan Lasher, Unify America

3
45 min facilitated

Distributing ownership without losing the community

Most communities are held together by one person's energy, relationships, and follow-through. Letting go is uncomfortable — especially when you built it. But if you're the only one who can hold it together, it isn't a community yet. It's a following. Distributed leadership builds resilience and deepens belonging — people who have a role feel ownership, and people who feel ownership stay.

Learning outcomes

  • Honestly assess your community's dependence on you
  • Identify one role you could hand off in the next 60 days
  • Run the Creative Tensions format with your own group

The honest question

Could your community survive if you stepped away for three months? If the answer is no — or if the question makes you uncomfortable — that's the work. Write down what would break, and who could own it.

Facilitated session — Creative Tensions format, 45 min

0–5 minExplain the format: a physical spectrum between two poles. Participants position themselves and explain why.
5–10 minWarm up with a low-stakes prompt: "A good community gathering is... structured / spontaneous."
10–30 minMain tension: "The role of a leader in community building is to... steward and guide / distribute ownership."
30–40 minDebrief: Where are you stuck? What would it take to move toward distributed ownership?
40–45 minClose: Each person names one role they currently own that someone else could hold.

Source: IDEO.org — Creative Tensions exercise

4
45 min self-paced facilitated

Design your next event as a communications strategy

An event is the physical manifestation of a communications strategy. How you show up at an event is what you're telling the world you do. Before building an agenda, start with two questions: what does this community want to achieve, and who needs to be in the room for them to get there? Every design decision flows from those answers — not from what you've done before.

Learning outcomes

  • Reframe your next event as a communications strategy
  • Design from audience and ethos, not from agenda
  • Apply the narrative reframe technique to your language

Self-paced reflection

Take your next event. Write its communications goal in one sentence — not the program, the goal. Does your current agenda serve that goal? What language might be working against you?

The narrative reframe

  • "Reduction in vacancies" → "wealth building, putting people in homes"
  • "Crime" → "public safety"
  • Tactics divide. Goals unite. Name the goal before you name the tactic.

Design principles from the room

  • Start with: who needs to be here, and why?
  • Main stage: 18 minutes max. Attention is a design constraint.
  • Surprise and delight as a principle, not a nice-to-have.

Facilitated session — 45 min

0–5 minShare the Rockefeller framing: "An event is the physical manifestation of a communications strategy."
5–20 minPairs: Each person names an upcoming event and answers: What does your audience want to achieve? Who needs to be in the room?
20–30 minLanguage audit: What words are you using? What do they signal? What words would you use if you started from the goal?
30–40 minShare reframes with the full group. Discuss what changed.
40–45 minClose: One design change each person will make to their next event.

Source: De'Ara Balenger and Gabriel Barrientos, Rockefeller Foundation Connected Leaders Platform

5
30 min self-paced facilitated

Listening as a practice

In a moment defined by noise and urgency, our default mode is to be ready to respond — to find the "me too," to add our own experience, to offer the fix. That mode shuts down the very thing we're trying to build. Belonging is built through being heard. Being heard requires someone willing to set down their own agenda long enough to actually listen. Most of us have never practiced that as a skill. It is a skill.

Learning outcomes

  • Notice your default listening habits
  • Practice the count-to-eight technique
  • Use facts and feelings questions to go deeper

Try this at home

Ask someone: "Tell me about the most memorable gathering you've ever attended." When the urge to respond comes — and it will — count to eight before saying anything. If they start talking again before you reach eight, reset and keep listening.

Facts questions

  • What happened next?
  • Paint a picture in words.
  • Can you give me an example?

Feelings questions

  • How did it make you feel?
  • What were you thinking when it happened?
  • How has it changed you?

Facilitated session — 30 min

0–5 minFrame it: "Most of us are better at preparing to respond than we are at actually hearing someone." Why does that matter for community?
5–20 minPair exercise: One person asks "Tell me about a moment when you knew you belonged somewhere." Listener's job: no inserting, count to eight, use only facts and feelings questions.
20–25 minDebrief: What did you notice? When did the urge to respond come? What happened when you waited?
25–30 minClose: Each person names one situation in the next week where they'll practice this.

Source: Emily Janssen — listening session, Network Leaders Summit

Still open

Three questions the room didn't resolve — and probably shouldn't

Can you start simple and build toward complex — or does the sequence matter so much that you're better off starting over?

How do you build community when everyone is burned out and time-starved? What does "enough" actually look like right now?

How do we build across political differences when the stakes feel existential — and what conditions make that possible?

The Communications Network Network Leaders Summit · April 8–9, 2026 · New York
From Insight to Action: A Practice Guide
"You don't have to have been in the room to do it."