FEATURED KEYNOTE
Before You Build: The Relational Conditions Behind Ambitious Projects
Overview
Most ambitious projects have a plan, a team, and funding in place before they begin. What they often don't have is an understanding of the relational and social conditions that will determine whether the work actually moves forward.
Those conditions are things like trust between partners, clarity about who has a voice in decisions, how people actually communicate across teams and regions in digital and hybrid environments, whether everyone understands the mission the same way, and how new people can step in and contribute without feeling lost. These dynamics are already impacting the work before the project officially begins — whether people know it or not.
When those conditions are not accounted for early, projects can face costly disruptions and delays. In some cases, the work can stop altogether. This doesn't happen because the idea was wrong. It happens because the human dynamics underneath were not prepared for.
What the Audience Will Walk Away With
A new way of seeing the relational and social dynamics that are already present in every project before it begins. An understanding of the eight pillars of The Relational Infrastructure Framework for Social Impact and how they apply at each stage of a project's development. And real examples of how these conditions have played out across industries, sectors, and scales — from social impact and open source to healthcare innovation and global convenings.
What the Audience Will Walk Away With
A new way of seeing the relational and social dynamics that are already present in every project before it begins. An understanding of the eight pillars of the Relational Infrastructure Framework for Social Impact and how they apply at each stage of a project's development. And real examples of how these conditions have played out across industries, sectors, and scales — from social impact and open source to healthcare innovation and global convenings.
Go Deeper
The framework behind this talk is publicly available for non-commercial use.
About the Speaker
Nick Norman is a community architect and systems thinker whose work sits at the intersection of institutions, universities, nonprofits, and technology organizations. He is the creator of the Relational Infrastructure Framework for Social Impact and has spent more than fifteen years helping complex, high-stakes projects get off the ground, sustain momentum, and scale.
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