35 Reasons to Build a Community
True community is lacking and we feel it. With divisive talk enticing people to behave poorly, you may be feeling like things are out of control. Watching good people act in ways that break down society makes us feel unsettled.
Discovering healthy places where common ground exists may be scarce, but don’t give up hope. You have all it takes to create it. If you have the courage and want to help, community building may be in your future. All you need is a good reason to begin.
35 reasons to build a community to make your world a better place
What is community? The Oxford English Dictionary describes it as, “ a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. “ Let’s start there and see if we can find a reason you might like to become a community builder.
Strengthen organizational culture: It takes enormous effort to go against the tide, yet that is what the best leaders do. It is what makes them worth following and talking about.
Make new friends with each interaction: We all could use another friend. If you don’t, maybe they do. You could be the blessing someone needs today.
Build bridges: More empathy. More understanding. Listening. Service. If more of us spending time creating new pathways of connection, we wouldn’t feel so disconnected.
Learn something new: Every person possesses a gift and knowledge we don’t. It might just be what you need right now. Go find out.
Show the way: Most of us don’t want to go first. It is your turn. Step out. We’ll follow.
Become an owner: Owners take responsibility. If you are ready, you can own it.
Personal transformation: Influencing others is hard work. Influencing yourself to act is harder. You will be a better person when you give yourself to help others find a safe place in the community.
Live your values: Words without action are only words. Talking is overrated, ideas are great, but execution changes lives.
Make something: Art is not made for everyone. It is made for someone. Who are you supposed to be making your art for?
Build something for someone else: Giving your best efforts on the behalf of others provides the foundation for others to build. Watch new growth follow.
Have fun: The fun comes in moments while serving others. Smiling, laughing, and joking with colleagues making a difference serving others
Cultivate partnerships: The world is changing and we need partners more than ever. You can find them in your community.
Welcome new people: Imagine what community you want. Provide the community new people need. This can be your standard for a superior employee experience.
Encourages adoption of the organization’s guiding principles: Amplify the guiding principles that resonate with you most.
Extend the reach of your manager: Followership is important and how we follow is a reflection of how we lead. Help your manager succeed.
Stretch into a new role: Community is a great way to experiment with a role by taking on new responsibilities. You might discover your next thing.
Bring your talent into view: Create new reasons for your peers to collaborate with you. Working in the community may bring into full view latent talent others might use to help solve existing problems.
Show caring: Humans need caring. Community is an incubator for it.
Inspire others to give their gift: Giving inspires giving.
Feel belonging: When we create belonging for others, we belong there too.
Solve interesting problems: Communities of people looking to make things better solve problems. That is what they do.
Increase leadership capacity: A community builder is a leader. Serving others consistently today is the prerequisite for accomplishing big things later.
Foster diversity thru working together on a common cause: Working together with others of different backgrounds in unity brings hope that others can do it too.
Mentor someone: Investing your wisdom in the lives of others improves their outlook and increases your wisdom all the more.
Leave your environment better than you found it: We work for an organization that may outlive us. Better to leave it better than we found it.
Grow professionally: Working as a volunteer with other professionals confirms you are a professional.
Encourage creativity: Using different tools than in our day job, community work may force us to become more resourceful and creative to get results.
Rejoice in the success of others: Working diligently without the expectation of reward can help us rejoice as we see those we serve, succeed.
Set an example for other organizations: Better to be the example than chase one. Stop listening to the experts and become one. Be the organization others want to emulate.
Construct a platform for important work that needs doing: Communities are more than a club or a group. They are built on shared values that create safety in ways a job cannot. They provide new opportunities to do important work the organization cannot do without the community.
Reduce excuses: A community extinguishes the force of the nay-sayer. They can choose not to help, but they no longer have a right to complain.
Limit the power of the selfish: There are those who take and those who give. A strong community not only can provide for itself, but it can also provide for the weak.
Provide protection from people who bring toxicity to work. Unhelpful people exist. A community can reduce the impact they have on those under their authority.
Improve society: Don’t we need to? While doing it on our own may seem impossible, communities formed around putting others first and building bridges might.
Leave a legacy: What would you like to be remembered for? Personal accomplishments alone may not satisfy you, but investing in the lives of others just might.
Last thoughts
Community building is not for the faint of heart. Expect disappointments along the way. People you think will help might not. If you have enough courage to begin, commit to becoming the change you seek to make, then invite others to help you. The result may be a brighter tomorrow for us all.