How to Build a Thriving Community
A Practical Model for Deep and Long-Lasting Connection
Summary
Thriving community is the cornerstone of successful associations. We embrace collaboration, coalition-building, and relationships. People join for lots of reasons, but what unites us is the desire for connection: through professional development, new ideas, networking, or moving the needle on important problems.
This article will address how to cultivate a thriving community by using a tool I created called the Community Engagement Maturity Model. In doing so, I will define community and community engagement, introduce and explain the model, and provide ways to use it to celebrate our most important, timeless value: coming together to solve problems, make connections, and grow professionally.
The product community is a product development learning community designed specifically for associations.
What is Community Engagement?
“Community is our competitive advantage.”
Natalie Franke
Motivated by a contained audience, ways to convene, and easy access to software, any association can build a community. However, it’s not that easy. Thriving communities are intentional. Associations need both culture and strategy to incentivize connective behaviors. They do this by creating relevant, useful value to spark engagement.
Community is one of my favorite topics. I’ve written several articles on which this one builds:
The Power of Cross-Functional Community Building. How to build bridges and make progress across difference, perspective, and organizational function.
The Multiplier Effect of a Thriving Community. How to create a community engagement funnel, a practical tool to help us build communities around shared interests so we can achieve purpose and build healthy relationships.
How to Measure Community Engagement. How to calculate a community engagement score to help guide our actions and behaviors, deepen our connections with our communities, and position us for diversified revenue and healthy growth.
Designing an Impact Community. How social network analysis can help associations leverage community to make move-the-needle progress.
Peter Block, author of Community: The Structure of Belonging, defines community as a place where people are connected, care for each other, and have a sense of identity and belonging.
Community engagement goes further; it is the process of working collaboratively with people who are affiliated through shared interest or common cause. It involves relationship-building, empathy, commitment, and a willingness to learn.
The best communities create safe space, navigate difference, and encourage mutual accountability. People show up, give back, and sustain dialogue to solve tough problems. Community engagement creates durable connection and keeps people coming back for more. Some key aspects include:
Dialogue and interaction – Rather than one-way communication or imposing solutions, community engagement emphasizes listening to community perspectives, concerns, and input.
Empowerment – Giving communities a voice and involving them in decision-making processes that affect their lives or professional interests.
Capacity building – Working to develop the skills, knowledge, and resources within communities help address issues and create positive change.
Collaboration – Bringing together diverse stakeholders (members, donors, organizations, government, etc.) to work together towards common goals.
Trust – Building trust through open communication, following through on commitments, and operating in a transparent manner.
Mutual benefit – Creating outcomes that provide value and benefits to both the organization and members involved.
Effective engagement can lead to better-informed policies, programs and services that meet community needs. It fosters stronger relationships, trust, and a shared sense of ownership.
Associations provide value in lots of ways: through offerings, events, education, and advocacy. In building and growing an authentic and engaging community, we gain a competitive advantage that supports and extends our fundamental business model.
Enthusiastic members help acquire new members, resulting in lower customer acquisition costs and a positive feedback loop.
Members who feel deeply connected to a community tend not to leave, resulting in increased retention and stronger lifetime value.
Members of a thriving community will support, collaborate, and draw the interest of other members, creating new opportunities and new and diversified revenue.
The result of a great, thriving community is a powerful network effect. As engagement grows, the community gains knowledge, is faster to respond, becomes more connected and available, and contributes and generates more value.
Let’s look at a maturity model to see how we can anchor, define, and enhance our community engagement.
The Community Engagement Maturity Model
“Human beings are fundamentally social animals. Behavioral economics and psychological research have taught us that we fundamentally crave a sense of connectedness, belonging, mission, and meaning, particularly when performing our work.”
Jeffrey Bussgang and Jono Bacon
There are lots of ways to measure community engagement. I developed the Community Engagement Maturity Model to guide associations in understanding, building, and leveraging community to enhance our identity, value, wellbeing, and culture.
A maturity model is a self-assessment tool that gauges an organization’s maturity in a number of competencies. For community engagement, the competencies are: culture, learning, alignment, reach, impact, and performance.
I like maturity models as they can be used to build community in two ways: via the content inherent in the model and through the process of working together to complete the model.
This model is structured by level of effectiveness (see below from left to right). Organizations can use this maturity model in lots of ways:
To anchor a shared understanding of the current state based on a number of core competencies
To envision a shared ideal state
To identify gaps + create goals
To build community + connect change enthusiasts
To develop a vision + incentivize shared action
To build momentum + demonstrate progress
To foster alignment + coordination
To tell a compelling story about progress
To enhance capabilities
To get better at creating value or building products
How it works.
Step #1 – On a blank sheet of paper, make two columns. Label the left column, “current” and the right column, “ideal”. Write down five ‘top of mind’ words that reflect your organization in each column.
Step #2 – Now, circle a level for each competency on the maturity model (one circle for each row) that best reflects your current state. Try to select the best choice, while noting any contradictions or conflicts.
Step #3 – In small teams, verify an ideal state from the maturity model (this tends to be level three or four). Discuss the steps your organization would need to make to reach your ideal state.
The important outcome of a maturity model exercise isn't determining your current level, but determining the actions to take (or capabilities you need) to reach your ideal destination. This will resemble a rich, shared conception of community.
This model is a lo-fi way of understanding your gaps and what programs (or value) you need to create to anticipate, define, and meet the needs of a world-class community. If you do this well enough, community becomes an area of focus, an investment, a lever for innovation, and a robust outcome.
Community as Innovation Driver
“I used to only work with like-minded people – those who shared my unspoken language. But this is limiting. Seeing your ideas through other perspectives enriches them and gives them more dimension.”
Hikari Yokoyama
People join communities because they desire connection, but the best communities aren’t about sameness. The best communities offer enough difference to provide access to rich perspectives and new possibilities. From this, communities can serve as a rich source of innovation.
Yes, a single leader can spark a movement, but it is the community that brings the movement alive and helps push our associations to superior performance, focused outcomes, and infectious connection.
The best communities regenerate by providing ample opportunity for growth and possibility. Over time, they provide the ingredients for healthy culture, authentic learning, and intentional alignment in order to maximize reach, drive business results and provide indispensable value.
I lead the product community; we are a learning community because we believe great relationships help us create the value our members want. Remember, product-led growth fuels connection. Join the product community and flip your destiny.
About the Author
James Young is founder and chief learning officer of the product community®. Jim is an engaging trainer and leading thinker in the worlds of associations, learning communities, and product development. Prior to starting the product community®, Jim served as Chief Learning Officer at both the American College of Chest Physicians and the Society of College and University Planning. Please contact me for a conversation: james@productcommunity.us