How to Create a Real Community

What do employees value most about their companies? According to a recent McKinsey & Co.?study , the top three reasons are:

·??????Valued by the organization,

·??????Valued??by their manager, and a

·??????Sense of belonging.

And not far behind is the need for “having caring and trusting teammates.”

When one or more of these four elements are missing, employees are tempted to look elsewhere. As Tiffani Bova, a global technology evangelist with Salesforce,?writes in?Fast Company, ?“The writing is on the wall: Investing in your people starts and ends with listening to what they value most about working for your organization.” Ms. Bova, the author of the best-seller?Growth IQ , adds, “creating a culture in which technology can be viewed as an impactful teammate means more human interaction and engagement from your entire organization.”

Having the right tools in the right hands is essential—but as the McKinsey survey that Ms. Bova cites—it comes down to people connecting to people, that is, “relational skills.” Invest in them.

Investment takes the shape of technology that enables people to understand their jobs better and remain in close contact with colleagues, especially when working remotely. There is another element, however, that offers real differentiation.?

More than a place to work

Regard your workplace as a community. Communities by nature are places where people feel they belong. It is more than a place to work; it comes a place to be.

Father Greg Boyle , a Jesuit priest, has taken the sense of community to new heights with the organization he founded in East Los Angeles in the late-Eighties. It's called?Homebody Industries, ?and its purpose initially was to employ ex-gang members.?

What binds the community together, as Father Boyle writes in his newest book,?The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness, “Homeboy is a place of grace and chaos—where joy is always waiting in the wings.”

Homeboy Industries, now the largest gang intervention program globally, is where men and women who have led lives of crime—most often because they were victims of abuse and abandonment——can feel a sense of belonging. "It is only belonging, and not mere inclusion, that fully arouses bravery in others. You start with a broken heart and remove what encases it." Doing such takes great courage and what?homie?calls “tenderoni” – love, compassion and tenderness.

What Homebody teaches

The lessons of Homebody Industries show the power of caring. And as such, it can teach other organizations, which have far more advantages, powerful lessons.

Lay down your baggage.?Each of us is an accumulation of successes as well as failures. We have our quirks and our moods. When you belong to a community, you are not your resume. You become a fellow contributor.

Find ways to work with people, unlike yourselves.?It is not uncommon for homies who once belonged to rival gangs to work together. It is never easy, but within the Homeboy, culture learning to get along is vital to becoming a whole person.?

Build trust by showing trust.?Of course, we want others to trust us, but how often do we wait for the "other person" to make the first move. Better to show others who you are first. Be open with them. Give them the benefit of the doubt.

Respect is fundamental to each step and essential to building a solid community. We reinforce respect through our actions—-assisting, listening, and caring.

Doing these things make colleagues feel wanted, recognized and respected. Just as we may receive in return.

First posted in SmartBrief on 3.04.2022

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