What does it take to create a values-based community?

Taking the theory from the page and out into the world

Co-operation leads to collaboration, and this leads to change. It’s a wonderful sentiment when we put it down on the page. You can almost smell the fresh Texta uncapped and the scent filling the air with optimism. Rooms of people everywhere routinely push the piles of work they have aside to carve out a precious day to stand in front of a whiteboard or a flip pad somewhere with their peers. Like the architect’s illustrations of buildings that will one day see neighbours side-by-side in the courtyard in some mythical development utopia, we grab at the chance to kick off the shackles of old practice and embrace the new.

Change is good. It is necessary. It proves that we are moving forward and making progress. It invites us to reflect on our impact and look forward to a future when things will get better. We build better things when we encourage change to come a-knocking.

But how do we get there in real terms in a world where people are still people? And in this post-pandemic (ha!) world, people are burnt out, worn out and sceptical. They want to grab the mic, beat their chest and don’t want their neighbour to win. They are frustrated and angry – and often justified in these emotions – when greeted with systems and organisations. Or they are simply crushed under the weight of putting each foot forward every day to do what is necessary, they have no room for more responsibility.

The answer lies in true community building.

Community as an ally to itself

Community is circular. The more you put out, the more comes in. Like some weird, happy little perpetual motion machine, community helps us to create better versions of ourselves. The competitiveness that can turn us into a hard person to work with finds a positive outlet. The drive and curiosity the boss can’t seem to handle finds a place to thrive. The vulnerable and the pragmatic can each find a lane to ride their own race and succeed side-by-side.

The reason why community can be so many things to so many people is because it reflects the best (and sometimes the worst) of us.

And the more we recognise this, the more community we foster.??

Participation is it’s own reward in community. It doesn’t have to be large or overt. A sense of duty, a connection to something bigger than yourself, the idea of creating and contributing something others admire – all of these are powerful driving forces that keep people coming back for more.

And the more we interact and add, the more community grows.

The question then becomes - How do we encourage community to help itself for the benefit of that community on an individual and group level?

The daring early champions

There has to be the first few brave people who are willing to walk out and say they care. They have to want to connect and to make something happen with the other people around them. You can’t create community at a distance.

If you have a room full of people who are going to sit back and critique the work of others and decide they run the strategy, you won’t get the community you want. Instead, it will be over before it can begin. It will break under the shade of those with helpful suggestions and no desire to activate them.

In this, we need to encourage the people we put in charge of translating the idea of community from the brochure to the backstreets to take ownership. And find their footing and their pride.

A diverse membership

A community is its most successful when it carries people via values across a span of diversity. A foundation of membership that is free from bias such as gender, race, sexuality or disability. And one that encourages all kinds of ages, tastes and even political persuasions to come together to celebrate these goals is a must.

Far too much in society, we’re carved up into opposing views and given narrow definitions of who we are. It’s what we value that bind.

Accountability

A community is only as strong as the action that comes within. To transform a group to an actual functioning community. it’s about creating a group of people who come together voluntarily to shape the community and accept responsibility for what they are building

To do this, you have to hand hands on leadership. There must be an element of “monkey see, monkey do” to inspire participation.

If you have people in your community that are bringing people together to celebrate, nurture and build that community who are mocking it, ashamed of it, showing their reluctance or treating it like work, you won’t get the community that you seek. And you’ll only collect more and more people who give orders from on high and never getting their hands dirty if this is the standard you set.

Autonomy and feedback

To move from distant stars in each other’s orb through to reluctant, sheepish participation into card-carrying fan may seem like an impossible endeavour, but you can reach this utopia with the right setup. To do this though, you have to release the reigns a little. You must make space for feedback and input.

Community has to come from the people within. They have to feel as though their hands are shaping the clay right from the get-go. This is why the process of gaining feedback over coffee, surveys, focus groups and using the data you have available to you via analytics and observation are so incredibly important.

A healthy dose of optimism

Choose the optimist over the realist or the cynic. You need some wide-eyed, sparkly enthusiasm in the beginning. Even if the excitable, almost childlike wide-eyed nature of the person is a little too sunny for your eventual plans, it is the optimist that helps raise you up.

Most groups will flatten overtime. If they are a hybrid between the online and offline world (or entirely online), this will occur even more so. Having that extra bit of sugar-stick joy inside the tent can stop other group members from focussing on the negative and forgetting what is possible.

Or setting a realistic bar that ends up with a pessimistic downward trend.

Guidelines

In the haste to seem completely accepting, we can sometimes forget the importance of setting an expected standard of behaviour. We humans are line pushers, rule breakers and rebels in our own lunchbox. We need the group and the instructions to temper our enthusiasm and quell the desire to compete and/or take control.

Simple guidelines can make all the difference to allaying fears about member behaviour or safety. They can invite your community to bring their best selves. And they make it so much easier than retrofitting them after necessity forces your hand.

Values-based community reflects fair treatment

If you look at it, values-based community is about being fair to other people. It’s about valuing the people involved in the community as much as you value the values it is built on. It doesn’t matter if you use Rochdale’s Principles of Cooperation or countless models across citizen juries, unconferencing and more?, community is the search for belonging in an equitable space.

While we grapple with values-based community as an abstract concept, but if we can remember that all of us want to:

·??????Find a place of acceptance and belonging ?

·??????Have others value our contribution

·??????Accept us no matter what

·??????Be responsible for our path in life

·??????Be heard

·??????Remain hopeful

·??????Know where we stand and what’s expected

It becomes so much easier to build communities that matter. And to build communities that continue to build themselves long after our influence has receded.

How to bring community-building to our aged care centres or ageing neighbourhoods:

·??????What can you do to encourage voluntary buy in and involvement?

·??????What tools for feedback and input have you made available?

·??????Is your selection of panels, participants and leadership (informal or otherwise) democratic?

·??????Is there equitable and equal representation across a diverse array of interest groups?

·??????Are you transparent about your community concerns as much as your community’s aims?

·??????Are you consistent in the way you engage with your community?

·??????Do you allow for your community to pitch ideas, work on aspects of community life and come together without the necessity of your intervention for the good of the group?

·??????Is the process of researching, building and interacting within your community low barrier, positive, fun and action-orientated?

As April and I work with companies and organisations to engage with their membership and build new ones moving forward, we’re keen to hear from people in the space that are having varying degrees of success with their values-based community creation.

Tell us your stories, share your woes and add you voice. And let’s make building values-based community with equity, transparency and equality the norm.