Project networks are an increasingly salient organizational temporary form to deal with complex problems. It remains unclear, however, whether and how project networks adapt over time, and hence implement changes, both within the span of the specific project and across projects. The performance feedback (PF) perspective is applied to explore how adaptive responses to PF are organized and absorbed within project networks. These matters are investigated in humanitarian and development aid efforts, which represent complex social challenges. In this context, project networks involve a multitude of actors at different distances from the implementation field, ranging from the donor, through an international Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), to the NGO’s country offices, local NGOs, and the beneficiary communities. This study’s qualitative findings, which are generated through an abductive analytical process, highlight that project networks dealing with complex social challenges face six paradoxes based on work by DeFillippi and Sydow: the distance, difference, identity, learning, temporal, and performance paradoxes. Collective goal setting, adaptive monitoring and evaluation practices, and continuous re-negotiation of aspiration levels emerge as coping mechanisms enabling project networks to internalize insights from the field and translate them into adaptive behavioral responses, mainly at the intra-project level. The authors contribute to a better understanding of adaption in these temporary forms, particularly in its behavioral consequences. The study also advances knowledge on the PF perspective, through its application in temporary settings, on the level of the project network, and in the context of complex social challenges, where organizational arrangements strive to pursue multiple interdependent goals.