Creating A Community
In my last "corporate" job I think one of the things that I was proudest of was the relationship we had with the communities that we served and the fact as as member based organization we represented a "community" of our own.
I was reading an article on BNET- which I highly recommend by the way, and there was an article describing a farming tribe in what we would probably describe as a third world country. They were describing a conversation that they had with an elder of the tribe and his intrigue or perhaps disdain is a better word, for our obsession with individualism. While I believe strongly in respect for the individual, the elder was concerned that our obsession with the individual could have negative consequences like politics, dissension, and strife. He pointed out that without community the individual is finished. As I have pointed out somewhat facetiously before - Simon and Garfunkle may be a rock or an island, but the rest of us need other people.
If you think about it organizations that have a strong sense of community or mission have very high performance cultures. That is the basis of my concept of Compliance to Commitment(TM).
We talk about that concept today in somewhat different terms when we talk about engagement. Mutual trust and respect, shared values, a clear vision that we all support. That sounds a lot like a community doesn't it?
As we look at the days ahead I think that employees and consumers will be looking for a sense of community as well. Our trust in many of our institutions has been deeply shaken. We are looking for something to believe in. I have seen a lot of posting on LinkedIn and other places about what management and leadership should be doing in this time to create some sense of security for their employees. Perhaps building a sense of community and trust is a good start.
In my previous organization we took the idea of community very seriously. We felt strongly that we had a purpose of serving both our members and the community. We encouraged our employees to get involved in a variety of activities and causes. The results were overwhelming. Our employees volunteered at over double the national average. It showed up in our business as well. Our members saw us as part of their community and were proud of their association with us. That was reflected in our business numbers.
For those of you that are running businesses you might want to ask yourself- Have I created a community in my organization? You might ask even further am I connecting with the community at large?
The latest research from BlessingWhite would tell you that the highest level of engagement is pride of association. It would appear that building a community isn't just good citizenship- it is good business!
I was reading an article on BNET- which I highly recommend by the way, and there was an article describing a farming tribe in what we would probably describe as a third world country. They were describing a conversation that they had with an elder of the tribe and his intrigue or perhaps disdain is a better word, for our obsession with individualism. While I believe strongly in respect for the individual, the elder was concerned that our obsession with the individual could have negative consequences like politics, dissension, and strife. He pointed out that without community the individual is finished. As I have pointed out somewhat facetiously before - Simon and Garfunkle may be a rock or an island, but the rest of us need other people.
If you think about it organizations that have a strong sense of community or mission have very high performance cultures. That is the basis of my concept of Compliance to Commitment(TM).
We talk about that concept today in somewhat different terms when we talk about engagement. Mutual trust and respect, shared values, a clear vision that we all support. That sounds a lot like a community doesn't it?
As we look at the days ahead I think that employees and consumers will be looking for a sense of community as well. Our trust in many of our institutions has been deeply shaken. We are looking for something to believe in. I have seen a lot of posting on LinkedIn and other places about what management and leadership should be doing in this time to create some sense of security for their employees. Perhaps building a sense of community and trust is a good start.
In my previous organization we took the idea of community very seriously. We felt strongly that we had a purpose of serving both our members and the community. We encouraged our employees to get involved in a variety of activities and causes. The results were overwhelming. Our employees volunteered at over double the national average. It showed up in our business as well. Our members saw us as part of their community and were proud of their association with us. That was reflected in our business numbers.
For those of you that are running businesses you might want to ask yourself- Have I created a community in my organization? You might ask even further am I connecting with the community at large?
The latest research from BlessingWhite would tell you that the highest level of engagement is pride of association. It would appear that building a community isn't just good citizenship- it is good business!
Labels: community, engagement, involvement, teams
posted by Mark at New Paradigms LLC at
5:08 PM
2 Comments:
Congratulations! Great. Another great post Mark.
Two comments:
1- Individualist side of humans. In my book I talk about this issue. I say that if you are fighting alone for something you will die alone, like me or any other human life. You need to jump from individualist side to the community side. The key is to understand that individuals should share everything with their communities, all their knowledge in order to get validation by one side and to get access to community's knowledge by other.
2-I absolutely share your vision about community or communities every time the organization needs to interact with someone or some entity.
Regards and thanks again,
Ricardo
Hi Mark,
Well, as usual I will try some provocation (:-).
1) Community in society. Absolutely I agree that some form of aggregation for common interests it is needed. I don't want to "justify" to much my statement. I want only to observe that also "strong interests" perceive this need and, on a more or less stable base, they built and maintain to this purpose lobbying activities (to create a “community of interests”). So, why not for people in the "weak" side? Instead some reason more, in these last cases, to aggregate the weaknesses: to have more voice.
2) Community in corporate. On a pragmatic base I can agree but I have to observe (limited to my experience and perceptions of course) that this will make sense, today, only if we are able to accept that this community is a “community of interests”. I’m not sure we can continue to argue about “identity” as a base for these corporate communities if (as it is), with a horizon of six months: the context change, I adapt all my activities to it, and I slim or fat my organization automatically.
Each of us know in this situation there is a significant risk, on short/medium time, to became part of the trash. Frequently no matter performance or competencies. So, “identity” seems to me a not appropriate word, an incoherent word. “Interest” makes more sense (:-).
This is something it needs a review for what is named “the relationship contract”, between organizations and people (the old contract “job security against loyalty” is no more valid as job security it is no more existing….). Do you know if it exist a structured review like this in literature?
Domenico
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