Build a Community Today
Photo by Athena
Realizing all the work before us doesn’t have an end, too much personal ambition leads to disappointment, and leisure activities leave us unsatisfied, the notion of serving a community can bring a new beginning. At least, that is what happened to me.
What is a community?
A community is, “a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.” from dictionary.com.
Who do you think makes a community?
I think the best community leaders are those willing to sacrifice personal ambition in the service of others and causes bigger than themselves. Effective community leaders practice generosity. They lead by example and give their unique talents, abilities, and skills to strengthen the group. Together, only together, can they accomplish the mission.
The seeds of community
The seeds of a community lie deep in the hearts and minds of those around you; individuals desiring to commit to a purpose they cannot fulfill on their own.
We cause the seeds of community to germinate by going deeper on a personal level with these people. Community begins forming as you learn their response to the question, “what moves you to action?”
It may be what compels you to act, may also move others. When the time is right, and others with shared values join the cause, you may be on your way to planting a garden. You may start a movement of gardeners while you are at it.
What moves you to action may be the spark to start a movement.
How community improves the human condition
You may have experienced work and play focused exclusively to advance your desires produces loneliness. Without change, it becomes a growing hunger that will consume us if we let it.
BBC author, Vanessa Barford writes, “Loneliness not only makes us unhappy, but it is bad for us. It can lead to a lack of confidence and mental health problems like depression, stress, and anxiety.”
A community is comprised of people committed to a common cause and in service to each other.
Becoming an active member of a healthy community may ease the hunger you are feeling. As Hugh Jackman said on a recent Tim Ferriss Show, “People need to be seen for who they are and what they give.”
As a long-time community builder, if you feel a tug to build one, don’t look around waiting for someone else to do it. The awakening you are feeling brings new possibilities; trust me . . . it was meant for you. I want to encourage you to do it.
People need you. Let me say it again. People . . . need . . . YOU. I want you to hear this. None else is coming. When you are the one to hear the call, that means it is your responsibility to act.
They need you right now and you don’t need to have all the answers to get started. You can build a community in 3 steps. The steps include formation, growth, and maturity.
Step 1: Community Formation
The strongest communities are formed around a noble cause by people possessing good character and a community mindset. In the simplest terms, a nascent community team needs the following:
Community organizer. This could be you or someone else. A person who has a compelling idea and cause bigger than themselves. Let’s assume it is you. Don’t make this too difficult. Think about an activity or cause you are already committed to (or want to) and why it is important. Simon Sinek expresses this from a leadership perspective in his best-selling book, Start With Why. His lessons easily apply to us, community builders.
Community formation team. Like-minded people with a deep commitment to the cause. These should be individuals that model practices you want others to emulate. Each may bring a unique perspective to developing the community you would like to form.
Core community members. Your core community members may initially come from the formation teams’ network. Later, they will be drawn by your first followers. A sustainable community will eventually expand through the network effect. Each member attracts others they know interested in achieving the community goals. For the community to succeed, don’t worry, it's not about you. If it is to succeed, happily it will depend on more than your sheer will.
Step 2: Growth
You may have an ideal community goal. This could be 10, 25, 100, 1,000, or more depending on your community purpose. Healthily growing a community is what we are after.
As you have formed and begin attracting new members, concentrate on these 3 areas:
Member on-boarding: Whatever your onboarding experience is, make it special, memorable, and something to be celebrated and later remembered.
Replacing founders: Succession planning starts the day you form. Always develop your leadership pipeline. If you are the lead coordinator, it can’t depend solely on you or it cannot continue should life divert you towards other endeavors. Too many communities have a short life span because the founders didn’t build enough depth.
Organic growth: Growth will stop coming solely from the founder network eventually. A healthy community grows because its members cherish and nurture it and bring in others to help. Help also comes from those who have enjoyed the benefits and want to become more active.
Step 3: Maturation
Once you have achieved your first growth target, take time to enjoy what you have achieved, reflect on what has worked and what didn’t, and incorporate changes as you go.
As you mature the community, consider adopting a strategic framework such as the Objectives and Key Results or the 4 Disciplines of Execution. Setting community goals using a framework will help you keep your team(s) aligned and have measurable targets to maintain focus.
You and your community leaders will need to continue to model the behaviors you want to be emulated. I’ve taken several communities to a maturation phase and have identified several truisms I rely on.
A community leader helps each of their people uncover what they are best at and encourages them to release their talent into the world.
What follows is a partial list of my 20 community building insights:
Help those with authority understand. People in charge underestimate the value of a community until they need one; build one anyway.
Get personal. Trust is built and strengthened one conversation at a time and enhanced through consistently living shepherd leadership principles.
Extend the invitation. Employees are smart. Most want to help. Not all want to contribute. All value being invited. Few want to be told.
Respect people. Each individual deserves respect; relationships should not be taken for granted.
Listen. Deliberate and continuous “listening” enables better decisions and more effective service.
Expect hardship. A Field of Dreams approach to community building doesn’t work. Community-minded, generous, caring people do.
Watch out for distractions. Everyone has a great idea or two. People with great ideas but not willing to give their hands and feet to realize them may only be distractions in disguise.
Serve. Engaging members on their terms, not ours increases interest, commitment, and causes the community to spread.
Lead. Leading volunteers is different from leading staff.
Nurture. A community is more like nurturing a garden through the seasons than building a city.
Ask for help. Little can be accomplished alone; community leaders need help inside and outside the organization.
Focus on others. Pride and ego interfere with results; ensure you have people around you to see what you cannot.
Show the way. Community volunteer leaders need to live community values.
Set targets. Align each activity to the community mission to maximize impact.
Embrace stewardship. Steward any community resources wisely and in ways to maximize value to those served; everyone is watching.
Treasure moments. Each community lives its own life and story; some longer than others. That’s good and normal.
Empower others. Search for latent talent in every member and invite them to use it in service to others in the community; this is where the magic lies and multiplication will happen.
Prioritize. Stop doing some good ideas to make room for a great idea.
Accept reality. You might have an adversary. Not every person you think might support in your community does; that doesn’t mean it’s not worth it. It just means it’s not for them.
Be generous. You will seldom feel disappointed when you live with a spirit of generosity. It always begins with the leader.
As I’ve experienced and continue to learn, people know you are a community builder through your actions. Seldom is a title required to make progress. Caring coupled with competence does so much more. I think the principle I embrace most is each person is valuable, and each one has something to give.
If you want to build a community people love, your job will become dedicated to helping each one release what they are best at. I know you can do that.