What is Pando?
Pando is a platform that provides organizations a way to visualize, learn from, and engage with the social systems in which they work. Pando was designed to help users build trust, strengthen relationships, and work together to achieve greater social impact. Grounded in social network analysis, Pando allows users to collect and visualize organizations and their relationships in real-time on simple and easy-to-use relationship maps.
Relationship maps are managed by map administrators. These are actors interested in learning about a particular system and making the tool available to those working in the system.
Pando is integrated with Keystone Accountability’s Feedback Commons, an online tool that allows map administrators to collect and analyze qualitative feedback about levels of trust and relationship quality among map participants.
Key features of Pando include relationship mapping, feedback surveys, and dashboards.
Why does a system perspective matter?
We live in an unpredictable world full of complex social problems. For those working to make the world a better place, new tools and approaches are needed to understand the bigger picture, the larger system of relationships, power dynamics, accountability, and who is coordinating on similar efforts.
Over the last 10 years, Root Change has learned that trust and relationships are at the heart of social change. Increasing complexity in our world means organizations can no longer work in isolation, rather it will take the collaborative effort of many to tackle the biggest problems the organizations/people face on a daily basis.
Traditional social change efforts have often failed to understand, learn from and improve the complex dynamics of systems. Pando was built as a tool to do just that, to help organizations harness the power of relationship maps and feedback to achieve greater social impact.
How are relationship maps created in Pando?
Pando is designed to collect and visualize relationship data over time. It does this through a snowball effect. Relationship maps start with a small number of organizations and users who identify their relationships and contacts (who they go to for information, ideas, help and support) within a number of different areas. Those who map invite their contacts to register with Pando, who in turn join the same relationship map and add their relationship and contacts. They in turn invite their own contacts, and the relationship map grows from there. Starting with a few actors, Pando can visualize entire systems of actors working together at a regional, national or global level in just a few months.
Why do I need to be invited to join a Pando map?
Relationship maps on Pando are created from existing social ties/relationships. Users invited to a map on Pando have the ability to identify who they go to for information, ideas and support and invite those contacts to join Pando. The restricted access to Pando maps to those who have been invited in by other map users is used to preserve peer validation process and protect the information input by users. If you have heard about a Pando map that you would like to join but have not been invited contact us at info@mypando.org and we can put you in touch with the map administrator