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      KEYZINE: An e-zine for LEADERS:
     ABOUT THE PEOPLE PART OF BUSINESS
                 Volume 40, July 2004
    Publisher: © Key Associates, 2004
              ISSN # 1545-8873
           http://www.mkkey.com

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This Issue: On "Building Community"

This is a monthly electronic magazine for anyone 
who wants to be a better leader, coach, facilitator, 
or simply, to tune up their people skills.  It is a 
complimentary publication, devoted to the next
evolution of Quality Thinking.

View Earlier Issues

Contents:

• What's Hot in Leadership
• Maintaining Yourself as a Leader
• Frequently Asked Questions from Leaders
• Educational Opportunities
• Useful Websites
• Articles/Publications

 

"Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community."
           -- Anthony J. D'Angelo

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed 
citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing 
that ever has."
           -- Margaret Mead 

"A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be 
prepared to take the helm."

-- Henrik Ibsen

"I want to work for a company that contributes to 
and is part of the community. I want something 
not just to invest in. I want something to believe in."

-- Anita Roddick

 

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WHAT'S HOT IN LEADERSHIP
**************************************
RECOGNIZING THAT YOUR ORGANIZATION
IS A COMMUNITY AND ENHAMCING THAT 
COMMUNITY.

BUILDING ON INTRINSIC MOTIVATION:
Deep longings for community, meaning, dignity,
and love in our organizational lives.

SEEING YOUR SYSTEM AS A TOTALITY
OF INTERDEPENDENT PARTS, ALIGNED
FOR A COMMON AIM.  USING SYSTEMS
TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE COMMUNITY.

GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY OF 
WHICH YOU ARE A PART.

***************************************
MAINTAINING YOURSELF AS A LEADER
***************************************
An organization is a collection of people in 
common pursuit.  Increasingly, people
come to work in search of more than a job;  
they crave meaning and a sense of belonging
to something important.  Peter Block says that
organizations are the new cathedrals.

Building community is about weaving relationships,
nurturing growth, and caring.  To engage your 
community, polish your skills in facilitating groups, 
listening, and communicating.  Celebrate.  Foster 
the exchange of resources among the citizens, 
there for a common purpose.  You create the context
and set the tempo, they fill in the music.

**************************************
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
**************************************
How do you create community? 

First, note that we are all "joiners."  Belonging 
to the inner group of any organization results 
in a sense of purpose, usefulness, and appreciation.  

Invite "belonging" from the beginning.  Hiring, 
orientation, coaching, all oriented to the purpose 
and values of the organization.  There is no 
manual on culture, but the new initiate can 
clearly see what behaviors are expected.  
Use ritual in their induction.  Reinforce their 
place in the community, and elevate to others 
how their job role contributes to the whole.  
This says to all that there are no unimportant players.   

An exercise I have used to weave a culture together
capitalizes on stories.  I divide the organization into generations 
and invite them to share stories about their era.  See:
http://www.mkkey.com/Key%20Associates/Pubcultstory.htm 

We are stuck in silos, guilds, castes, different 
geographies.  How do I begin to break down 
these barriers and integrate the system?

It is our organizational design and rigid chains 
of command that have put people in boxes and 
kept them there.  Add to that, naming the boxes 
(=teams), limiting cross-communication, urging 
them to turn a profit, make budget, meet goals,
without regard for the other boxes.  Keeping 
score by box titles.  It is the  perfect set-up 
for internal competition.  You have a collective
of small communities, with some rough roads 
between them.

What if you began by defining the WE as 
the entire community, in which all of us win 
or none of us?  Using tools, such as shared vision, 
planning together, open meetings and dialogue,
shared rewards and recognition, plentiful 
information, working in fluid partnerships--
with freedom to combine, reconfigure, and disband as
it makes sense.  And keeping score as One.

http://www.systemsthinkingpress.com/systemsbiblio.htm

Community Psychology reading list:

http://www.radpsynet.org/teaching/odonnell.html#Community