Building Community in the Societal Web

by William Buist on May 27, 2010

Introduction

There’s a lot of talk on many social media platforms and throughout the Societal Web on the importance of building community. We thought it would be useful to discuss how it's created and the key features that make up a strong and vibrant collaborative group. One example of small local communities are those created in The BlackStar Boardrooms run by Business Social Network Ecademy

The 4 Key Elements

There are 4 key requirements for community to form as shown. These are:
  1. Method This is about the way that the people involved in the community work. When we consider joining a community we look in from the outside.We seek to  decide if the people who are already there are people like us.That means looking to see  who they are, how they work, how they interact, their age, their gender, the businesses that they operate, the social activities they undertake and so on. We’re not looking for an exact match but we are looking for synergy and similarity.
  2. Belief When we look at a group of people we also identify the values and beliefs of the people involved. We’re looking to see if those beliefs are shared with ours in part or in whole, and to understand the vision of the other members of the community; where the members believe that it will go.We'll also consider how influential we could be in setting the  journey and direction of that group, and how long that might take. There's two aspects to this, if it is a close fit then we are considering how we can influence change towards us, if it's a perfect fit we are seeking to understand resilience.
  3. Support Community is about helping each other. It’s about being around for the other people,  and for the other people being around when you are. So a key judgment is whether the interactions that you have with the community and the interactions they will have with you will add value.
  4. Place Finally, it’s important that the community has a place to meet that’s easy and simple for all of the members to reach and interact with regularly. That could be a physical place for offline communities or online space for those working virtually.
Without a common place it’s unlikely that communities can form and remain together, but it’s possible for elements of the other three aspects to be present without all three being there. Having said that what's most likely is that our judgement may show that one or  otheraspect is relatively stronger or weaker and it's worht looking at the nature of  the various ways that these things can come together.

The Intersection of Method and Support.

When we find people who work our way and add value to us through the support that they provide there’s significant opportunity for co-operation. This is not the same as community, and it’s more than a transactional relationship. In these situations people can help each other achieve their own goals but there is no shared vision, no shared belief, and whilst the interactions can be quite long-lasting they are unlikely to be enduring.

The Intersection of Method and Belief.

When people are like us and share our ways of working, and when they share our vision and goals, they provide a great opportunity for us to connect and share information. If they lack the ability to add value to us, and us to them, then we need to consider that they are a conduit rather than a part of our community, connectors fall frequently into this bracket. I wouldn’t want to imply there is anything negative in this combination, far from it, it can still be significantly beneficial and large numbers of a community who do have shared beliefs, shared methods, and shared support at the overall level will find individuals who share their methods and beliefs and are connecting each other to other members..

Where there is Shared Support and Shared Belief.

Where shared support and shared belief come together without a shared method we find opportunities to learn and grow from those alternative approaches which occur through the use of different ways of working. In this intersection we find opportunities to learn.

The Intersection of Place, Method, Support, and Belief.

This is where community is strongest; where the members share the same methodologies, share the same beliefs, share the same support and come together in the same place is a powerful and effective grouping of people, whose synergy guarantees the output of greater value than the sum of the input. Communities like this are hard to build and should never be rushed. We look to build them over months and years rather than days and weeks and as the common spirit deepens and strengthens you’ll see collaboration and collaborative ventures growing from the relationships that form. Cohesive communities, where collaboration is the norm, are rare but often significantly enduring. Such communities are often seen from the outside as a threat, simply because of the strength of the bonds that have been formed within them and the apparent separation from the larger community of humanity. We should not fear them, but should seek to emulate their strengths. If we are not in them it is probably because we do not share either their belief, their methods, or see the value that they add (or could add) to us, or that we could add to them. An example of such an organisation that has endured over centuries and engenders those emotions is the Masons, but they demonstrate through Masonic meetings in a shared space and sharing beliefs, support and methodologies a strength of community and an enduring power, the positives of which cannot be or should not be ignored when you think of creating a body of followers for yourself.

Building Community.

If we are to succeed then we need to discover the shared methods that attract others to us, and build and focus on working and being in that space. We need to have clarity of our beliefs and be able to communicate them clearly and effectively. We need to give value to our community in equal or greater measure than the community can give value to us. We need to share and listen to the support that’s required from it. Finally, we need to provide a common place, a working place, where people can come together and talk, and learn, and grow, and co-operate, and connect, and build a real sense of togetherness, it's got to stand the rigours of logic, factual observation and emotional impact. One of the interesting things in the diagram is that it shows that community exists at the interface of shared belief, shared support, shared method and shared place, but it also exists at the interface of cooperation, connection and learning.

Conclusion

Community is incredibly tough to build, but with the right building blocks and the strength of will to persist and build a following and meet their needs, sharing their beliefs, supporting them, providing appropriate places and venues, and sharing their methods, co-operating, connecting and learning with them, can create a strength around you on which you can draw throughout the remainder of your life. For those of you seeking to build a group in any form: in your business, your personal life, as part of the operation of a client’s business, or in any other way understanding these principles is key. I wish you the very best of luck and hope that this information has helped you to focus on the things that you need to achieve the goal that you seek.
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