IDEO Health Roundtable: Building Healthy Communities in a Contactless World

Whether it’s a brainstorm in a project space or a meal in the studio cafe, shared spaces have always been an important way for IDEOers to inspire and connect with one another. But like all of you, we are grappling with how COVID-19 has transformed the way we work, live, and gather. 

Over the last few months, organizations that historically welcomed communities through their doors have been forced to pivot to a contactless world nearly overnight. In our most recent health roundtable, we discussed the challenges and opportunities that community organizations face when they are physically disconnected from their members. 

At the heart of our conversation was the question, how do we build flourishing communities when we cannot be together? 

A few themes emerged:

• Understand what people really need: As we grapple with new ways of connecting, it’s important for organizations to understand the needs and interests of their communities. Segmentation and personalization are two ways to bring relevant information to different members of your community. Even if it’s not perfect, people will appreciate your efforts to try something new as you pivot. How do institutions experiment and adopt new digital offerings to respond to altered needs?

• Allow for vulnerability: In our session, we heard the need to “give community leaders and members space to grieve for plans that didn’t get to be realized.” When thinking about your own personal and professional connections, creating space to acknowledge (and even grieve) these losses can build a sense of belonging. How do we support each other with vulnerability in a virtual context?

• Connect disparate groups with one another: Many of us feel hyper-connected to people we are closest to—parents, children, friends, or colleagues. Yet, we learned that people miss tertiary connections the most right now, like a local barista or an acquaintance at the dog park. In our contactless world, we crave those accidental encounters in our neighborhoods and moments of serendipity. While these interactions seem small, they provide a connection to something bigger. How do we build tools that allow for serendipitous interactions?

• Champion access and education: Reducing barriers to online access is critical to our new normal. However, it’s equally important for organizations to educate and empower users on new digital practices and tools. How do we improve access to technology and empower individuals to use the resources available to them?

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To close out our roundtable discussion, we asked the group to imagine a future where people have learned to completely rely on digital tools to maintain communities. One participant suggested that people will seek ineffable qualities in a fully digital world: “Wonder, insight, inspiration, and magic are going to be the elements that will be the most sought after, because they are the rarest.” How would your organization plan for a fully digital world? How would you foster healthy and thriving communities? I welcome your thoughts below.

Illustrations by Mehhek Sharma.