Creating Community:  Pluses and Minuses

We’ve talked about the nature of community, and if you are now inspired to create a community in your organization, it’s important to think about the advantages and disadvantages of the process.  Once you study these factors, then you’ll find it helpful to weigh whether it’s worth your effort to pursue creating community in your organization.  So let’s look at the benefits and limitations first.

Pluses of creating community

Community offers benefits that are similar to building a team, but it takes relationships to a deeper and more committed level.  People have the opportunity to have some of their affiliation needs met; acquaintances start to become friends; friends begin to feel more connected.  People also work in a more collaborative manner:  this means that they not only work to meet their personal performance goals or to serve the organization (both important), but they work hard to serve their community colleagues, too.  In addition to acknowledging people’s work skills, we begin to realize their qualities that go beyond work skills.  Some people may be seen as especially creative and other people seek them out for brainstorming; another may be a cheerleader who urges the group on when they encounter difficulties; another might be the unofficial computer whiz; another may know how to present new ideas for a group to the manager.  With the personal commitment to the community, unrealized skills start to manifest themselves, as workers feel motivated to make a contribution.  Those who often feel like an outsider in other settings often discover that they contribute and are valued like everyone else.  People find themselves not only helping each other, but serving each other to benefit the community.  Every one has a place and a contribution to make.

Minuses of creating community

There will always be people who have found community elsewhere and don’t want to be part of community at work.  It may feel intrusive or demanding of them as they are asked to serve each other for the good of their colleagues.  Some may rebel if the culture has been a highly competitive and isolating one, and serving each other is anathema to the way things have been done.  Depending on the resistance to culture change, results may be slow, and people may get discouraged long before the seeds of community have begun to flower.  Finally, some people may see the community as a substitute for their family, even if their families were not especially functional.  In fact, they can create an idealized vision of what a community can be, based on the kind of family they wish they had grown up with, and your office community can never complete this vision of perfection.  People can become disillusioned and angry when their expectations aren’t met, and even begin to sabotage the community-building process.

Weighing benefits and negative outcomes

First, you’ll want to weigh the pluses and minuses in making a decision about creating community.  Keep in mind that it isn’t the number of benefits and negative outcomes, but rather the odds of their occurring, and how significant their impact may be if they manifest in the process.  If the difficulties in creating community seem insurmountable in the overall organization, you may decide to let go of the idea for now until leadership or management changes, or you may decide to create community on a small scale within a work group or department.

If you decide to venture forward in creating community in the organization, you’ll want to determine whether you have management support.  Support can range from indifference to the idea (as long as management stays out of the way) to full-fledged participation in the process, with management practicing the most beneficial aspects of community and encouraging others to do the same.  Acknowledging people’s actions and encouraging them to acknowledge each others’ efforts is a powerful way to reinforce the values of community.  Asking people to share their concerns and openly discuss barriers to community are extremely important; if people feel they are being pressured to “follow the new rules,” as they are experiencing their own resistance or that of others to change, you will lose them in the process.  Staying open, receptive and in a problem-solving mode is the way to keep people engaged.  They will be your champions and be the ones who will grow the most as your organization evolves into not just a place to work and get the job done, but a place to share, support and connect with others in sincere and authentic ways.  In the next issue we’ll talk about generating effective and realistic expectations for community.