This document provides guidance for individuals and organizations looking to take on professional community building work. It begins by outlining the audience and objectives. The audience includes those passionate about transforming their community's systems who feel alone in their work. The objectives are to provide a mental model, checklist, and examples to help get started. It then delves into what professional community building entails, including strategically and authentically building communities to address social problems. Key aspects covered are understanding the current situation, reengaging the community, and fueling members to work together towards solutions.

1. Audience for this
presentation
• Individuals and organizations who are taking on
community building work full-time and
professionally
• They’re passionate about their community and transforming their
systems
• They want to be innovative
• They feel alone in taking on the work, not sure where to start with it,
and don’t have a full explanation for why their traditional role and
practices aren’t working
• They mostly just know they need to do something different and these
ideas generally resonate with them

2. Objectives for this
presentation
• Give these individuals and organizations:
• A mental model for understanding the situation they’re in, what
professional community building is and how it helps, and how to get
started
• A check list for getting started with professional community building
• Examples from other professional community builders and sources of
inspiration

3. PROFESSIONAL
COMMUNITY BUILDING 101
Strategically and authentically building innovative communities
to transform society’s most wicked social problems.

4. WHAT’S THIS REALLY ABOUT?
Helping you meaningfully re-engage with your community and
fuel your members to work together
to tackle their most entrenched social challenges.

5. THAT’S A LOT OF
ASSUMPTIONS
What do you really need help with?
• Do you need to re-engage with your • Have your engagement strategies fallen flat or
community in a different way? Is your not created the meaningful results you
participation dropping? Do you see the same hoped?
people at all your meetings and activities?
• Is your community struggling with entrenched
• Do you have a personal relationship with the or wicked social problems? Issues that a
drivers of your community’s future? Do you tweak here or there won’t fix?
know what they need to make their efforts
• Is your community disconnected from itself
really go?
Would your community benefit from
• Has your community changed? Are there members working together more?
new people playing that you don’t know and
• Do your community members need
who haven’t sought you out?
resources, inspiration and opportunities to
work together more?

6. WHY
How we got in this mess, and
why community building will help us get out of it.

7. WICKED PROBLEMS
• Actors are disconnected
• Thenuanced conversations that will unearth solutions aren’t
happening
• Ourcash-credit-control operation isn’t helping, and it is often
making things worse

8. WHERE THEY CAME FROM
We’re living through a moment of great transition:
• The industrial society • The innovation society

9. WHERE THEY CAME FROM
Societal shifts in multiple directions:
2-WAY MINDLESS UNI-MINDED MULTI-MINDED
SHIFT OF SYSTEM SYSTEM SYSTEM
PARADIGM
NATURE OF ORGANIZATION
ANALYTICAL APPROACH
INDEPENDENT
VARIABLES
SYSTEMS APPROACH
INTERDEPENDENT
VARIABLES

10. WHERE THEY CAME FROM
Historically...
• Youwere at the top and • To solve problems and
center of it all: provide value for your
community you:
UNI-MINDED ANALYTICAL APPROACH
SYSTEM
INDEPENDENT
VARIABLES

11. WHERE THEY CAME FROM
Now...
• You are one of many • Tosolve problems and
players: provide value for your
community you must:
MULTI-MINDED
SYSTEM SYSTEMS APPROACH
INTERDEPENDENT
VARIABLES

12. WHAT THIS MEANS
We’re all experiencing it...
• Disconnection
• Disruption (or major need for it)
• Resource gaps
• Cultural shifts

13. WHAT THIS MEANS
More than ever before...
• We must engage and partner with more people in our
community, and connect with them (and them with each
other) on a more personal, authentic and meaningful level
than most of us have ever considered or event thought
possible.

14. THE GOOD NEWS
Your mission is still deeply important.
• The community still needs you and wants you to achieve your
ultimate objectives
• Everything you and the community need for this
transformation to the new, is already present. It just has to be
found, fostered and unlocked.

15. THE HARD NEWS
You can’t achieve your mission on your own.
• No matter how effective or • You cannot achieve your
strong your work or mission without working
organization is, your mission closely with many many
is bigger than you. other people in the
community. You must be
• Youalone do not own your adding new people to the
mission. It belongs to the conversation all the time.
community.

16. THE HARDER NEWS
Your organization and work is structured for the old game,
and the new game has already started.
• This
means a complete redesign of your organization, skills and
approach will have to happen at the deepest levels of
operation.

17. EXCITING NEWS
In many ways, we’re returning to our roots,
but with better tools, resources and practices
that could allow us to achieve our missions
in a bigger way than we ever have before.
• More humane objectives • Faster
ways of spreading
and practices information and staying
connected
• More people to play, attend,
lead and participate
• Cheaperand easier tools to
do the work

18. THE BEST NEWS
You are perfectly positioned to leverage these opportunities
and tools to make a great impact for your community,
IF you’re willing to redesign your entire approach.
• You have resources, networks

19. THE ‘NEW’ APPROACH
Community Building
• Working strategically to foster the culture, create the
opportunities, and build the resources that will help your
community members connect with each other, have better
conversations and take action on their common needs and
opportunities.

20. gP ro
in
G o WHAT
What professional community builders do.

21. COMMUNITY BUILDING
ACTIVITIES
• Aim to build relationships • Listenmost to the needs of
with all players the innovators
• Convene conversations and • Produce resources where
facilitate connections needed
• Highlight
what’s working and • Support capacity building
where help is needed and density of actors and
activities

22. IDEAL COMMUNITY BUILDER
• Deeply
passionate about the • Transparent in their
community dealings, objectives and
• Forward
perspectives
looking with a 20+
year outlook • Willingto lead and
• Welcoming, inclusive
relinquish control when
and
needed
collaborative
• Interested
in nuanced
• Thinks in systems, design +
conversation and explaining
effective communication
context and emerging

23. DO YOU KNOW PEOPLE LIKE
THIS?
• Deeply
passionate about the • Transparent in their
community dealings, objectives and
perspectives
• Forward looking with a 20+
year outlook • Willingto lead and
relinquish control when
• Welcoming and inclusive needed
• Thinks in systems, design • Ableto convene and engage
in nuanced conversation

24. OUR COMMUNITIES

25. THE KEY PLAYERS

26. MEASURING PROGRESS

27. INDICATORS OF SUCCESS
• More people reading, • New community building
attending and participating teams popping up on their
community activities own
• More people taking • Reports of innovation being
ownership and initiative by easier to accomplish within
producing their own events, the community
projects, programs and
gathering spaces • Increase
in the vibrancy of
the community

28. a r te d
Ge t t i ng St t
s
Che ck li
1.
2.
HOW
3.
A process for getting started as
a professional community builder
with examples from the field.

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STEP 1:
• Identify the community you want to build and describe ‘your
why.’
• You will be asked for ‘your why’ often, and you will be judged
and trusted based on how deeply personal and truly
passionate it is.

30. STEP 1: EXAMPLE

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STEP 2:
• Startmeeting with others in your community to understand
their perspective, current work, where they need help and
their ultimate mission.
• Really listen, and follow up the meeting with an introduction,
invitation, collaboration or encouraging word.

32. STEP 2: EXAMPLE

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STEP 3:
• Create a public informational home for your community:
• Articulate the transformation your community is working
through
• Map the issues, needs, resources and players in that
transformation
• Highlightthe innovators of the community - those who will are
already transforming the way the community works

34. STEP 3: EXAMPLE

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STEP 4:
• Listento the needs of the innovators. What do they need to
take their projects to the next level?
• Help them on an individual basis as much as you can.
• Where you see common hurdles, facilitate the creation of
resources, connections or better conversations to overcome
them.

36. STEP 4: EVENT EXAMPLE

37. STEP 4: MEDIA EXAMPLE

38. STEP 4: SPACE EXAMPLE

39. THROUGH IT ALL
• Keep a 20 year perspective
• Look for ways to meaningfully engage everyone and be as
inclusive as possible
• Modelthe values of invitation, introduction, collaboration,
mentorship, risk taking and cheerleading
• Mediate conflicts large and small with the aim of dissolving
them
• Bepatient and gentle with yourself and others - this work is
very hard and can sometimes move at glacial speeds

40. WHY REVISITED
The value you’ll create...

41. NEW ADDED VALUE
• More people
• More resources
• More vibrancy
• More opportunities
•A whole lot more fun

42. CLOSING THOUGHTS
• Community building isn’t new or radical
• It’s the next generation of our traditional practices
• It’s
our logical next step given the needs of our community
members, the possibility of our collective and the tools and
resources within our reach