For those organizing networks this theory can be very helpful, to have a strategy that allows for both short and long term. Cooperation and communication must happen at the precise moment(s) that networks are ready to emerge and to grow. For organizers, that means practicing patience and fortitude.

From The Berkana Institute:

…the lifecycle of emergence: how living systems begin as networks, shift to intentional communities of practice, and evolve into powerful systems capable of global influence.

This system of influence possesses qualities and capacities that were unknown in the individuals. It isn’t that they were hidden; they simply don’t exist until the system emerges. They are properties of the system, not the individual, but once there, individuals possess them. And the system that emerges always possesses greater power and influence than is possible through planned, incremental change. Emergence is how Life creates radical change and takes things to scale.

Lifecycle of Emergence.

the two loops visual is one that many of you have probably seen me try to draw (badly); here it is done well:

Theory of Change