How to Create Your Unique Network Weaving Style

Introduction: What kind of network weaver are you?

Every weaver brings a unique energy, focus, and style into their work.

Some lean into building relationships and trust.

Others are drawn to designing systems and workflows that allow impact networks to collaborate effectively.

Some focus on centering equity, while others bring playfulness into their spaces.

There’s no right or wrong way to weave.

The beauty of weaving is that it’s personal, dynamic, and evolving.

It reflects who you are, how you engage with the world, and how you want to contribute to systemic change.

But often, weavers don’t realize they’ve been weaving all along.

When I first stumbled across network weaving, it felt like a lightbulb moment. I read about it in an article by June Holley and remember that my whole body got energized.

Weaving wasn’t just a concept.

It gave language to something I’d already been doing but hadn’t articulated. Over time, I discovered my weaving style by trying, failing, and learning through experience.

Today, much of my work happens within the Fito Network a global community of network weavers dedicated to capacity-building, learning, and systemic change.

In this network, I’ve met incredible weavers who embody different styles and energies in their practice—each bringing something unique and invaluable to our work.

Their stories will ground this exploration in real-world practice, helping you see how different weaving styles appear.

As you read, I invite you to reflect on your style and consider what weaving means to you.

This article invites you to:

• Reflect on your unique weaving style.

• Explore six weaving styles that shape network leadership.

• Discover ways to embody your wholeness in your weaving practice.

As you read, I invite you to consider:

Let's get started!

Weaving Styles: Exploring the Energies You Bring to Network Leadership

Weaving isn’t about fitting into a predefined role.

It’s about recognizing the unique energies you bring into your work—and how you can adapt them based on your network needs.

Think of weaving styles as focus points or energetic expressions that shape how you show up in your network.

You might lean into different styles at different times, depending on what the moment calls for.

But often, you’ll find that a few feel most alive for you—your natural way of weaving.

Let’s explore them in detail.

1. Weaving Relations: Building Trust and Emotional Presence

At the heart of every network are relationships. Some weavers have a natural gift for creating spaces of trust and belonging where people feel seen, valued, and connected.

However, weaving relations is about more than introductions or surface-level networking.

It’s about holding space for depth—for people to bring their whole selves and connect on a human level.

Through this style, you focus on building relational trust through presence, emotional intelligence, and care, not transactions.

Beverly from the Fito Network embodies this beautifully.

When she walks into a room, the energy shifts. She brings lightness and humor, making everyone feel at ease.

Her gift is holding space for diverse voices, ensuring everyone is heard and valued. Beverly doesn’t just facilitate conversations—she weaves lasting relationships.

This style might resonate with you if you are drawn to creating safe, relational spaces in your network.

2. Weaving Justice: Centering Equity and Power Dynamics

Weaving isn’t neutral.

It’s about redistributing power, centering marginalized voices, and creating spaces for healing and belonging.

Some weavers naturally focus on equity and justice, ensuring networks don’t replicate harmful systems.

Tiago centers equity in profound ways in our network. He invites deep inquiry into power dynamics, systemic racism, and coloniality.

His questions aren’t easy but essential:

How does power show up in our decision-making processes? Whose voices are being left out? How can we embed equity into our culture and actions?

Tiago’s weaving practice is about making the invisible visible and building networks that reflect their values.

You might resonate with this style if you’re drawn to addressing inequity and power imbalances.

3. Weaving Knowledge: Mapping and Synthesizing Insights

Some weavers focus on making the invisible visible

They’re drawn to mapping networks, harvesting knowledge, and weaving insights across silos to strengthen the network’s collective intelligence.

These weavers see connections others might miss—they notice gaps, overlaps, and emerging opportunities.

Their work helps networks navigate complexity and make more informed, strategic decisions.

My colleague Carolina is a perfect example.

She’s passionate about mapping networks and synthesizing knowledge to make them more transparent, accessible, and actionable.

Through visual network maps, participatory research, and sense-making practices, she helps networks see themselves.

You might resonate with this style if you’re drawn to learning, discovery, and sense-making—or if you love finding patterns in complexity.

4. Weaving Vision: Holding Purpose and Aligning Strategy

Some weavers naturally focus on the big picture.

They’re drawn to feeling the network's pulse, sensing emerging opportunities, and aligning efforts toward shared goals.

These weavers act as connectors of visions, ensuring that individual contributions don’t remain fragmented but instead flow toward a cohesive, meaningful direction.

Brendon excels at bringing the Fito Network's ideas together.

He constantly converses with people from different networks, listening deeply to their visions, needs, and aspirations.

Then, he brings these diverse ideas together, identifying synergies and creating strategic processes that help us decide what to focus on and how to move forward.

On a day-to-day level, this looks like synthesizing ideas from conversations, translating them into guiding principles, and ensuring collective action stays aligned with the network’s purpose.

You might resonate with this style if you’re drawn to aligning visions, and facilitating strategy in a way that keeps networks both focused and adaptable.

5. Weaving Structure: Sustaining the Operations

Networks need more than ideas.

They need operations that ensure work doesn’t slip through the cracks—from coordination to communication to resource management.

Some weavers excel at managing the operational infrastructure that sustains collaborative efforts over time, ensuring that the network can function smoothly.

Naka is Fito's operational backbone.

He brings diligence and attention to detail to his weaving practice, ensuring that schedules are maintained, tasks are completed, and the network’s administration runs smoothly.

But his work isn’t just about logistics.

It’s about enabling the entire network to stay connected, aligned, and responsive.

On a day-to-day level, this means keeping meetings purposeful, communication channels clear, and commitments followed so that energy flows toward impact rather than getting lost in confusion.

If you’re drawn to managing the practicalities of network life and ensuring collaborative and adaptive operations, you might resonate with this style.

6. Weaving Flow: Creating Clarity and Alignment

Some weavers thrive on designing systems and processes that allow networks to navigate complexity.

These weavers bring structure, flow, and alignment to their networks.

They focus on facilitating processes that sustain long-term collaboration, not by imposing rigid structures but by creating adaptable frameworks that support emergence.

I resonate deeply with this style.

I’ve always been drawn to facilitating long-term collaborations by creating processes and tools that help networks organize.

For me, weaving is about enabling collaboration through systems that make participation easier and more effective.

You might resonate with this style if you are drawn to designing participatory processes, creating adaptable structures, or making network collaboration smoother.

Discovering Your Weaving Style: A Three-Step Process

This process is designed to help you reflect on your natural strengths, explore new possibilities, and evolve your weaving practice.

Think of it as a compass for navigating your journey as a network weaver.

Let’s begin.

Step 1: Reflect on Your Current Practice

Weaving starts with self-awareness.

This step invites you to pause and reflect on how you already show up as a weaver.

You’ve likely been weaving all along, even if you didn’t have the language to describe it. This is a chance to recognize your strengths, values, and natural tendencies.

Think about your current work:

• Where do you feel most energized?

• How do you hold space for relationships, ideas, or processes?

• What feedback have you received from others about your strengths?

Step 2: Explore the Weaving Styles

Weaving is fluid and adaptive.

This step invites you to explore the six styles you learned about above.

Two or three of them might resonate more strongly with you. You may also see opportunities to cultivate new styles as part of your evolving practice.

Ask yourself:

• Which styles feel most alive in my practice?

• Are there any styles I’d like to strengthen or explore further?

• How do these styles show up in my current network work?

Step 3: Define Your Unique Weaving Style

Your weaving style is as unique as your fingerprint.

In this final step, I invite you to synthesize your unique weaving style.

There’s no right or wrong way to describe it—it’s about embracing your wholeness and authenticity as a weaver.

Take time to reflect on:

• Your natural strengths and tendencies.

• The values that guide your weaving.

• The areas you’d like to explore or grow into.

Then, try crafting a personal weaving statement:

This statement can evolve, just like your weaving practice.

Conclusion: Embracing the Ever-Evolving Weaving Practice

Weaving is never static.

It’s a practice of becoming shaped by the networks we weave with and the questions we hold.

As we learn, unlearn, and grow, our weaving styles evolve—and so do the networks we’re part of.

Weaving isn’t something you figure out once and for all.

It’s a continuous process of discovery and adaptation.

My practice has changed over time.

I started by focusing on relationships and creating collaborative systems.

But today, my role is shifting toward capacity-building—supporting others in discovering their weaving style.

This shift has brought new questions, challenges, and visions that are alive in me. So, I invite you to hold your questions as you explore your weaving style with the three-step process above.

As you reflect on your next steps, remember:

Each thread you add, each connection you make, and each new insight you gain contributes to a world where relationships, care, and collective action can thrive.

Let’s keep weaving—together.

PS: If you want to refine your unique style of network weaving, I have opened a limited number of 1-on-1 coaching sessions. During the session, we will go through the three steps outlined above, and I will guide you in identifying leverage points in your development as a weaver. If you are interested, send me a private message or contact me at [email protected].

Additional Resources on Network Weaving

• Network Weaver Handbook: Authored by June Holley, this comprehensive guide offers practical insights into building and enhancing transformational networks.

• Weaving Transnational Activist Networks: In this work, Jeffrey D. Pugh explores models for international support of nonviolent action training in Latin America, emphasizing bottom-up capacity-building strategies.

• Decentralized Networks within the Black Radical Tradition: Facilitator and network weaver Sadia Hassan contributes to discussions on collaborative and equitable network structures within the Black radical tradition.

• "Lean Weaving": Creating Networks for a Future of Resilience and Regeneration: This article from the Interaction Institute for Social Change discusses the concept of lean weaving, emphasizing the creation of high-quality, trust-based connections for systemic resilience.

• Weaving Networked Action for Systemic Change – A Practical Guide: This guide by Namrata Arora & Adrian Robke provides actionable strategies for network leaders, changemakers, and community builders aiming to deepen their practice and contribute authentically to networks.

• Weaving Our Stories: Return To Belonging – An Anthology by Luanna Peterson: A collection featuring poetry, essays, visual art, and narratives by Black, Indigenous, and people of color from Hawaiʻi and beyond, emphasizing themes of resistance, cultural memory, and liberation.

• Weaving Global Networks: Handbook for Policy Influence: Authored by Vanesa Weyrauch, an Argentinian researcher, this handbook provides insights into building and managing networks for policy advocacy.