Optimizing Community
Eleven Ways to Build Bridges, Deepen Connection, and Grow Reach
Summary
Thriving community is at the heart of all successful associations. People want to be connected. This is true whether you’re an introvert, extrovert, social, shy, talkative, quiet, new to work world, or an experienced veteran. How can we leverage our communities to create deep and abiding connection?
This article walks us through eleven possible ways for anchoring your association in building, engaging, and sustaining a strong community. With the right design, intention, and follow through, community development can become organic and instinctual. Over time, we find connection, meaning, and a shared space to make progress and feel alive.
I lead the product community, a product development learning community designed specifically for associations. Let’s compare ideas and build something great.
Why We Come Together
“The only mofos in my circle are people that I can learn from.”
Questlove
A core theme of this newsletter is community. I founded the product community two years ago. We help associations grow revenue by creating new products, but our reason for existence is based purely in community. For us, this means coming together across boundaries to share ideas, learn from each other, and find new and novel ways to meet the evolving needs of our members. The old or traditional way of thinking about community is to group people by role, function, or silo.
Products aren’t created out of thin air. All new ideas come from an existing offering or something we hear about in our orbits. We leverage best practices or extend or spin-off things we think our members will like. This makes product development a social act driven by a catalyst that draws us together:
Interest – A group of people who connect over a shared passion or experience.
Practice – A group of people who share a common profession, craft, or skill.
Place or space – A community defined by geographic location, proximity, or common platform.
Action – A group of people who come together to take collective action toward a common goal or purpose.
Circumstance – Brings people together who share a common situation, challenge, or experience, often unexpectedly or involuntarily.
Ideas come from other ideas. They become sharper when there are willing people around a table who come with their best selves and work for the common good. This means shedding agendas, leaving titles at the door, and listening and contributing with open eyes and ears. As this graphic suggests, this also means thinking about community design in new ways:
Creating something from scratch is hard. I find the most advantageous way of understanding our community is to actively involve them in what we’re building. This way, what we design, build, and deliver will be human-centered. Let’s take a look at some ways of accomplishing this.
Eleven Ways to Build Meaningful Community
“Join forces with others to maximize knowledge, speed up ideation, and minimize wheel-spinning. Share what you know and you will, in turn, have others share with you. Multiple heads truly are better than one.”
Joey Cofone
If we think outside of silos, we can think in terms of interest, problems, possibilities, practices, and shared challenges. Here are eleven ways for us to create, leverage, or extend community. The outcomes are manifest: deeper connection, stronger loyalty, and new relationships. From this comes trust and progress.
Identify community assets – The process of recognizing and documenting the strengths, skills, and resources within your association's membership or stakeholder community.
Example – The American Marketing Association's Dallas chapter conducted an asset mapping exercise, discovering they had five members who were accomplished public speakers, three who had expertise in data analytics, and several who had connections to local universities. This led to the creation of a mentorship program and specialized workshops leveraging these internal resources.
Get Started Now – Create a simple Google Form asking members to share their top three professional skills, areas of expertise, and what they'd be willing to teach others. Share it in your next newsletter and during your next meeting.
Analyze community problems – A systematic approach to understanding challenges faced by association members and identifying root causes rather than symptoms. I covered this in a recent article.
Example – The National Association of Realtors noticed declining engagement among millennials. Through surveys and focus groups, they discovered the core issue wasn't lack of interest, but rather scheduling conflicts with traditional meeting times and a preference for digital interaction. This led to the development of hybrid events and an enhanced digital platform.
Get started now – Create a Challenge Box channel in your association's communication platform where members can anonymously post their biggest professional challenges. Review these weekly to identify patterns. Consider using one of your volunteer committees to review and vet the ideas.
Leverage community data – Gathering and utilizing both quantitative and qualitative information about member needs, behaviors, and preferences to make informed decisions.
Example – The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) implemented a data collection system that tracked member engagement across multiple channels (event attendance, forum participation, resource downloads). This data revealed that members who participated in online forums were 3x more likely to renew their membership, leading to increased investment in digital community platforms.
Get started now – If you don’t do so already, begin tracking three simple metrics: event attendance, website visits, and newsletter open rates. Think of ways in which these metrics reflect and motivate community engagement. Create a monthly dashboard to spot patterns and share insights with your stakeholders.
Use appreciative inquiry – An empathy-based approach focusing on what works well in your community and how to amplify these successes.
Example – The Association of Women in Technology used an appreciative inquiry process, asking members to share their most positive experiences. They discovered that informal coffee chats with industry leaders were highly valued, leading to the establishment of a monthly Leadership Breakfast Series that became their most popular program.
Get started now – At your next meeting, dedicate 15 minutes to having members share their best moment in the association. Document these stories and look for common themes to replicate.
Athene Fritsch Rally around a shared catalyst – The process of identifying compelling value draws people into a shared space and motivates them to move from passive observation to active engagement. A catalyst creates urgency, relevance, and meaning that inspires community members to take action together.
Example – The Association of Healthcare Quality Professionals identified a shared catalyst around medical error reduction. They discovered that members became highly engaged when discussing this topic, as it touched on their daily work challenges and personal values. The association created a Zero Harm Initiative that included monthly problem-solving sessions, a resource library of best practices, and an annual innovation challenge. This catalyst transformed their community from a networking group into a problem-solving force, with participation rates increasing by 85% and member-led projects tripling in six months.
Get started now – Host a What Keeps You Up at Night? session where members anonymously submit their biggest professional challenges or aspirations. Have members vote on which challenges resonate. Use the top three themes to design your next quarter's programming and engagement opportunities.
Enhance communication – Communication is a foundation of trust and relationship building. Developing effective communication skills among association leadership to better engage with and understand member needs.
Example – The Association of Certified Project Managers implemented a leadership communication training program focusing on active listening and empathy. This resulted in a 40% increase in member satisfaction with leadership responsiveness and understanding of member concerns.
Get started now – Institute leadership office hours where board members spend 30 minutes monthly in an open Zoom room for casual conversations with members.
Build social capital across boundaries – Creating connections and understanding across diverse backgrounds within the association.
Example – The International Educational Technology Association created an exchange program where members from different countries co-led projects, resulting in richer solutions and stronger cross-cultural relationships.
Get started now – Start a monthly spotlight feature in your newsletter where members from different backgrounds share their professional journey.
Map your community network – Build social capital by visualizing and understanding the connections, relationships, and synergies within your association to leverage them effectively.
Examples – The Financial Planning Association created a digital network map showing member expertise, geographical location, and professional connections. This tool helped members find collaborators for projects and mentorship opportunities. The Healthcare Information Management Systems Society conducted a comprehensive stakeholder analysis, identifying five key groups (practitioners, vendors, educators, researchers, and policy makers) and creating targeted value propositions for each.
Get started now – Create a simple spreadsheet listing the professional networks and connections of key stakeholders. Use this to identify commonalities, potential thought leaders, partners, or possible new membership segments. In your next board meeting, spend 30 minutes mapping out all the groups that interact with your association. Identify one unmet need for each group.
Build coalitions – Creating strategic partnerships with other organizations to achieve common goals.
Example – The Sustainable Business Network formed a coalition with environmental organizations and local chambers of commerce to create a green business certification program, increasing their impact and resource pool.
Get started now – Identify three complementary associations in your area and reach out to propose a joint virtual event or resource-sharing arrangement.
Recruit and sustain engaged volunteers – Strategies for attracting and maintaining engaged volunteers who contribute to the association's success.
Example – The Association of Nonprofit Professionals created a micro-volunteering program allowing members to contribute in small, specific ways that fit their schedules, resulting in a 60% increase in volunteer participation.
Get started now – Create a list of ten small, specific volunteer tasks that take less than two hours to complete. Share these quick win opportunities in your next member communication.
Rethink committees. Creating and managing teams that can effectively execute association initiatives and programs. Maximizing the effectiveness of association gatherings through proper planning, facilitation, and follow-up.
Example – The Product Management Association restructured their committees into cross-functional teams combining experienced and new members, resulting in more innovative programs and better knowledge transfer.
Get started now – For your next project, intentionally pair a veteran member with a newer member to co-lead the initiative.
There are lots of ways of developing and engaging our association communities. I favor ones that challenge members to get out of their comfort zone, think deeper, and push us on a strategic path of excellence.
Perennial Connection
“Belonging is being accepted and invited to participate; being part of something and having the opportunity to show up as yourself. More than that, it means being able to raise issues and confront harsh truths as a full member of a community.”
Susie Wise
Design for Belonging
Associations are communities of communities.
While our association mission, vision, or values are built to serve a profession, industry, or problem, the broad umbrella of these pursuits can be impersonal or transactional.
Just like with new habits, powerful communities often start small. Ambitious, organization-wide visions can come true when these small groups of super-committed people rally around focused initiatives to give the vision fuel and nudge it along. As James Clear says, “when making plans, think big; when making progress, think small.”
The best associations serve and celebrate the broader umbrella while allowing for opportunities for us to engage in ways that work for us and our crazy schedules. To be meaningfully connected is worth the entire effort.
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