Audience for this presentation

• Individuals and organizations who are taking on community building work full-time and professionally

• They’re passionate about their community and transforming their systems

• They want to be innovative

• They feel alone in taking on the work, not sure where to start with it, and don’t have a full explanation for why their traditional role and practices aren’t working

• They mostly just know they need to do something different and these ideas generally resonate with them

Objectives for this presentation

• Give these individuals and organizations:

• A mental model for understanding the situation they’re in, what professional community building is and how it helps, and how to get started

• A check list for getting started with professional community building

• Examples from other professional community builders and sources of inspiration

PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY BUILDING 101

Strategically and authentically building innovative communities to transform society’s most wicked social problems.

WHAT’S THIS REALLY ABOUT?Helping you meaningfully re-engage with your community and

fuel your members to work together to tackle their most entrenched social challenges.

THAT’S A LOT OF ASSUMPTIONS

• Do you need to re-engage with your community in a different way? Is your participation dropping? Do you see the same people at all your meetings and activities?

• Do you have a personal relationship with the drivers of your community’s future? Do you know what they need to make their efforts really go?

• Has your community changed? Are there new people playing that you don’t know and who haven’t sought you out?

• Have your engagement strategies fallen flat or not created the meaningful results you hoped?

• Is your community struggling with entrenched or wicked social problems? Issues that a tweak here or there won’t fix?

• Is your community disconnected from itself Would your community benefit from members working together more?

• Do your community members need resources, inspiration and opportunities to work together more?

What do you really need help with?

WHYHow we got in this mess, and

why community building will help us get out of it.

WICKED PROBLEMS

• Actors are disconnected

• The nuanced conversations that will unearth solutions aren’t happening

• Our cash-credit-control operation isn’t helping, and it is often making things worse

WHERE THEY CAME FROM

We’re living through a moment of great transition:• The industrial society • The innovation society

WHERE THEY CAME FROM

Societal shifts in multiple directions:

ANALYTICAL APPROACH

INDEPENDENT VARIABLES

SYSTEMS APPROACH

INTERDEPENDENT

MINDLESS SYSTEM

UNI-MINDED SYSTEM

2-WAY SHIFT OF

PARADIGM

MULTI-MINDED SYSTEM

VARIABLES

NATURE OF ORGANIZATION

WHERE THEY CAME FROM

• You were at the top and center of it all:

• To solve problems and provide value for your community you:

Historically...

UNI-MINDED SYSTEM

ANALYTICAL APPROACH

INDEPENDENT VARIABLES

WHERE THEY CAME FROM

• You are one of many players:

• To solve problems and provide value for your community you must:

Now...

MULTI-MINDED SYSTEM

SYSTEMS APPROACH

INTERDEPENDENTVARIABLES

WHAT THIS MEANS

• Disconnection

• Disruption (or major need for it)

• Resource gaps

• Cultural shifts

We’re all experiencing it...

WHAT THIS MEANS

• We must engage and partner with more people in our community, and connect with them (and them with each other) on a more personal, authentic and meaningful level than most of us have ever considered or event thought possible.

More than ever before...

THE GOOD NEWS

• The community still needs you and wants you to achieve your ultimate objectives

• Everything you and the community need for this transformation to the new, is already present. It just has to be found, fostered and unlocked.

Your mission is still deeply important.

THE HARD NEWS

• No matter how effective or strong your work or organization is, your mission is bigger than you.

• You alone do not own your mission. It belongs to the community.

• You cannot achieve your mission without working closely with many many other people in the community. You must be adding new people to the conversation all the time.

You can’t achieve your mission on your own.

THE HARDER NEWS

• This means a complete redesign of your organization, skills and approach will have to happen at the deepest levels of operation.

Your organization and work is structured for the old game, and the new game has already started.

EXCITING NEWS

• More humane objectives and practices

• More people to play, attend, lead and participate

• Cheaper and easier tools to do the work

• Faster ways of spreading information and staying connected

In many ways, we’re returning to our roots, but with better tools, resources and practices that could allow us to achieve our missions in a bigger way than we ever have before.

THE BEST NEWS

• You have resources, networks

You are perfectly positioned to leverage these opportunities and tools to make a great impact for your community,

IF you’re willing to redesign your entire approach.

THE ‘NEW’ APPROACH

• Working strategically to foster the culture, create the opportunities, and build the resources that will help your community members connect with each other, have better conversations and take action on their common needs and opportunities.

Community Building

WHATWhat professional community builders do.

Going Pro

COMMUNITY BUILDING ACTIVITIES

• Aim to build relationships with all players

• Convene conversations and facilitate connections

• Highlight what’s working and where help is needed

• Listen most to the needs of the innovators

• Produce resources where needed

• Support capacity building and density of actors and activities

IDEAL COMMUNITY BUILDER

• Deeply passionate about the community

• Forward looking with a 20+ year outlook

• Welcoming, inclusive and collaborative

• Thinks in systems, design + effective communication

• Transparent in their dealings, objectives and perspectives

• Willing to lead and relinquish control when needed

• Interested in nuanced conversation and explaining context and emerging

DO YOU KNOW PEOPLE LIKE THIS?

• Deeply passionate about the community

• Forward looking with a 20+ year outlook

• Welcoming and inclusive

• Thinks in systems, design

• Transparent in their dealings, objectives and perspectives

• Willing to lead and relinquish control when needed

• Able to convene and engage in nuanced conversation

OUR COMMUNITIES

THE KEY PLAYERS

MEASURING PROGRESS

INDICATORS OF SUCCESS

• More people reading, attending and participating community activities

• More people taking ownership and initiative by producing their own events, projects, programs and gathering spaces

• New community building teams popping up on their own

• Reports of innovation being easier to accomplish within the community

• Increase in the vibrancy of the community

HOWA process for getting started as

a professional community builder with examples from the field.

Getting Started

Checklist1. 2. 3.

STEP 1:

• Identify the community you want to build and describe ‘your why.’

• You will be asked for ‘your why’ often, and you will be judged and trusted based on how deeply personal and truly passionate it is.

Getting Started

Checklist1. 2. 3.

STEP 1: EXAMPLE

STEP 2:

• Start meeting with others in your community to understand their perspective, current work, where they need help and their ultimate mission.

• Really listen, and follow up the meeting with an introduction, invitation, collaboration or encouraging word.

Getting Started

Checklist1. 2. 3.

STEP 2: EXAMPLE

STEP 3:

• Create a public informational home for your community:

• Articulate the transformation your community is working through

• Map the issues, needs, resources and players in that transformation

• Highlight the innovators of the community - those who will are already transforming the way the community works

Getting Started

Checklist1. 2. 3.

STEP 3: EXAMPLE

STEP 4:

• Listen to the needs of the innovators. What do they need to take their projects to the next level?

• Help them on an individual basis as much as you can.

• Where you see common hurdles, facilitate the creation of resources, connections or better conversations to overcome them.

Getting Started

Checklist1. 2. 3.

STEP 4: EVENT EXAMPLE

STEP 4: MEDIA EXAMPLE

STEP 4: SPACE EXAMPLE

THROUGH IT ALL• Keep a 20 year perspective

• Look for ways to meaningfully engage everyone and be as inclusive as possible

• Model the values of invitation, introduction, collaboration, mentorship, risk taking and cheerleading

• Mediate conflicts large and small with the aim of dissolving them

• Be patient and gentle with yourself and others - this work is very hard and can sometimes move at glacial speeds

WHY REVISITEDThe value you’ll create...

NEW ADDED VALUE

• More people

• More resources

• More vibrancy

• More opportunities

• A whole lot more fun

CLOSING THOUGHTS

• Community building isn’t new or radical

• It’s the next generation of our traditional practices

• It’s our logical next step given the needs of our community members, the possibility of our collective and the tools and resources within our reach