THE HIDDEN VALUE OF COMMUNITY
I love the idea of community. I relate to it like loving one another, getting along, having fun, feeling connected.
All good things. And in my experience of it, true.
But it’s easy to pop in and out of community when that’s the frame.
It doesn’t feel urgent. It doesn’t even really serve my immediate goals. It’s a nice to have not a need to have, especially when my plate is full of all the stuff I put on it.
Know what I mean? (wink)
“Community is great and all, but I don’t have time for that.”
Side note…
If I asked how you thought the world would change for the better, you might say something like “we need to learn how to get along, to collaborate, to listen” (ah, I just heard Vanilla Ice in my head).
True.
But how does that happen in a world of lone rangers? People too busy to forge community on purpose, not just community when it’s convenient.
And who will create those communities? Who will lead them?
I think in our busyness we wait for others to do that. And even when others DO do that we’re content to watch it unfold from the isolation of our busy lives rather than participate. But, again, we don’t have time for that!
But I digress. Back to my point of hidden value…
If I can’t appeal to your esoteric nod to community, let me point to your (my) incessant need to always be producing and getting things done…
When your frame (your understanding and experience) of being in community is more than holding hands, but one of strategy, productivity, accountability, it becomes a non-negotiable.
For much of my adult life I’ve done things on my own. Most communities I joined didn’t really serve my productivity and so the way I related to them was “I could take it or leave” or worse they became just another time commitment I wish I hadn’t made.
I’m clear not all (in fact most) communities aren’t designed for your productivity, nor deliver such an experience. So your frame is understandable.
But what I also know is that in a group of others who are wired like me, think like me, value what I value and are headed where I’m headed…
I SHOW UP AS MY HIGHEST SELF.
The space held in such a community pulls it out of me in a way that on my own, in my busyness, doesn’t happen.
Who I AM in such a powerful tribe is the very person I’ve been looking for!
The HIDDEN VALUE of “the right” community is how it calls me into Being which results in the production and focus I haven’t been able to access on my own.
This kind of Community is a multiplier, not a detractor.
Again, most communities aren’t designed this way. But when you find one that is, when you’re invited to one that is, grab hold of it and participate as if your potential was inextricably connected to it.
Because it is.
Walking each other home,
Chris Angell
Founder, Groundswell University
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