community building
DESCRIPTION
An overview of our current thinking about the methodology of community building and how it relates to the work of local media companies.TRANSCRIPT
Community BuildingAmanda Styron: [email protected], (319) 400-7782, @mandastyron
Across the top
✤ A global shift from an hierarchical industrial society to a distributed and networked one
ANALYTICAL APPROACH
INDEPENDENT VARIABLES
SYSTEMS APPROACH
INTERDEPENDENT
MINDLESS SYSTEM
UNI-MINDED SYSTEM
2-WAY SHIFT OF
PARADIGM
MULTI-MINDED SYSTEM
VARIABLES
NATURE OF ORGANIZATION
NAT
UR
E O
F IN
QU
IRY
Community Building &
Design
Example of The Shift
✤ Farm, trade in the center
✤ Factory enters the center, jobs for the masses means economic progress in lots of ways
✤ Cities and economic development organize around getting factories, and life is good
✤ Until, the factories start to dwindle, and more people are mobile and independent
MINDLESS SYSTEM
UNI-MINDED SYSTEM
MULTI-MINDED SYSTEM
Do you see this shift in your city?
Three important notes
✤ The organization is still competent
✤ Their overall mission is still critical
The game just changed.
Redesign for the new game
To play in the new environment, we must:
✤ Engage more people
✤ Connect with them and them with one another on a more personal, authentic, and meaningful level than ever before.
Community Building
Strategic work to...
foster the culture and build the context that helps more people connect, have better conversations + take action
on their common needs/opportunities.
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 acvities
✤ Promote collaborative constructive values
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 patterns
✤ Willing to make the community their priority instead of their own ideas, solutions
✤ A jack of all trades in media and event production
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
✤ Willing to make the community their priority instead of their own ideas, solutions
✤ A jack of all trades in media and event production
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
✤ External recognition of the vibrancy of the community
What hasn’t worked for us, and where we see hope.
Where you might start
✤ What are the most important conversations your community is having?
✤ Who in your community is already building community around this conversation?
✤ How could your team and products help that person expand their efforts and engagement in the conversation?
Amanda Styron: [email protected], (319) 400-7782, @mandastyron
Apples + treesa new generation for local media with the same heart and soul