photo credit: Daquella manera
Sometimes we get so much in the thick of thin things, that we forget that we are not creating communities, but we are helping to create communities with the people. It is imperative that ‘the people’ be the focus – not the processes, not the governance models, not the tools. The people should not only be the focus, but the driving force behind what you are trying to do. If you are doing it FOR them, do it WITH them.
Include them in everything you do. You want transparency when your community is functional? Be transparent yourself from the beginning. Prove that you can walk the talk. Otherwise, they will sense duplicity and instead of openness and trust, they will close off and become defensive – as they always have been.
The Gettysburg Address, given by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, ends with these words, “…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Unless your want your community efforts to “perish from the earth,” they ought be be “of the people, by the people and for the people” and for no other reason.
Let the community of learning, of performance improvement, of collaboration be driven by the community. They will feel more ownership to make it work. Their conduct will be elevated. They will support each other, thus support the community as a whole.
