KINS and Growing a Field

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Looking over Capital Missions Companies, Key Initiator Network Strategy (KINS), I have many points of agreement about the principles behind the strategies. I believe

• that we are all one
• that there are key laws of nature including distributed intelligence and emergence which we can learn from
• that there is strength in weak ties
• that peer-to-peer relationship offer great power
• that abundance, generosity, and trust figure strongly in our evolution

And we do need resource efficient ways to make large social change. So this is my spin and twist on what I understand about KINS.

Spreading behaviors path of 5

1. Establish credibility. To make network change, change agents require credibility. Susan answers the credibility issue by asking for powerful high-status actors. I would say, sure those help. High-status is one way of being credible; it is not the only way.

2. Encourage Inter-organizational Networks. Professionalization and inter-organizational networks act as sources for spreading the behavior through a network of common interest. There need to be paths in the network for connections to spread behaviors.

3. Fosters powerful models. Modeling innovative behavior can lead to the spread of that behavior. Lead by example. This can be reflexive A<-=->B or mimentic A–>B

4. Focus on commonality. Susan asserts that the spread happens through actors in similar structural positions. I prefer to broaden that: it spreads through actors who have something, anything that they know to be in common. The common trait between A and B need not be the common trait in B and C. There may be a propensity for dispersal of behaviors at a structural peer level, but it is not a requirement or limitation.

5. Emerge effective collective action. Open space for mobilization and coordination of community of individuals and organization around a common cause.

Agreed: “Homogeneous interests, a sense of shared identity, and dense social networks increase a group’s ability to mobilize its resources.”

So that is how I am understanding and reframing what I understand of KINS.

However, this does not speak to how to create homogenous interests, shared sense of identity, nor dense social networks. How do we do that?