2 Keys to Building Community
While in Alaska this week for alasbo and akml I had the opportunity to consult with Leslie on their new implementation of an online community.
It’s always fascinating to talk with people about why they are adopting tools they are adopting and what they are hoping to get out of it.
In this case, they’ve been thoughtful and are taking some difficult steps to move into the 21st century, and I admire them for that.
When creating an online community for an already existing community that has been doing things a certain way for the last 50 years, this is a challenging endeavor.
The challenge is not getting members, it is getting members to engage in the platform.
Leslie had a wonderful analogy that I think is so important. She said that it’s like getting a new car and bringing the trash from the old car to the new car, and not using the new advanced features, like cruise control.
I like this analogy because it shows a good parallel, and highlights the points I made to her.
First, let complexity come organically. This new platform they’re using has so many different features it would be so easy to get confused and overwhelmed, and when people get overwhelmed, they will check out and never use the tool again.
Rather than bringing everything you had in the old car over, including the snow chains that don’t fit the new car’s tires, just bring the stuff that you really need, and let the other needs present themselves.
For example, in our new minivan, we didn’t bring over a trash bag. Instead, we are (still) working on a process to ensure that we take the trash out after each ride. It’s not all the way there, yet.
And this new platform can grow in complexity organically as well.
The second piece is that the leadership has to be really committed to posting everything in this system.
If one person in the leadership sends a PDF in email, they need to be scolded and reprimanded and shown how to send it the “right” way through the platform so people know that is where to find it.
I learned this the hard way in my schools. When we would adopt a new tool, it was naturally hard to adjust to new things. We had to figure out a way to make it work.
The way to make it work is to use it!
Having a system of record and place to keep things really matters, and you have to stay committed to it.
If the leadership isn’t using the tool, then nobody is going to.
The final piece of that analogy is that you need to use the new features. If you get a new car that has adaptive cruise control, but you don’t use it, you’re missing out on a key quality of life upgrade that you maybe didn’t even know existed.
In fact, in driving in a car today with a friend, he asked which way was north, not realizing that he had a compass on the dash. I, being from not Anchorage, told him which way we were going and where north was, and he didn’t understand how I knew and he didn’t. I didn’t know he didn’t know he had a compass in the dashboard!
With a community platform, you need to be using to get the value from it. You won’t ever see the value if you’re not using it. And sometimes moving these decades old organizations into something like this can be challenging, but ultimately, worth it.
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