Community Building Tips: Continuing
At this Checkpoint
This is the final part of a toolkit series on community building and social change.
Read this if you’ve finished hosting your first community engagement and are wondering what’s next.
“Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. It’s not something you are. It’s something you do.”
The NGM Circle Community Building Journey Map: You are at the “Continuing” checkpoint.
This is the final checkpoint in this series, after this point you loop back into the Ideating & Generating stage to keep building momentum and working toward the change you want to see.
Now what?
You’ve convened people and rallied around a cause together. You’ve co-created a small group of agents of change. You’ve worked hard to establish safety and belonging. This is community building, and it is what continues to shift cultures and social practices. This can be very generative work, but also exhausting.
This final checkpoint is about how to continue and sustain the community you’re now accountable to. Here are some tips for moving forward:
Take care of yourself and your community
People are everything, pay attention to your needs and to the needs of your organizing group to prevent burnout. Check in often, it doesn’t have to be big, even a text message letting them know you missed them at the last meeting or appreciated something they did reminds them that they are in community, supported, and accountable to others.
Debrief and reflect
Keeping people engaged takes communication and effort. Sometimes it will feel like you’re over communicating, but you aren’t. Others will not have the same frame of reference as you and might not always know what you’re talking about, so be clear, kind, and generous when communicating with your group.
Consider having a feedback mechanism for your group so guests and organizers can anonymously share any comments or notes. This will help keep you accountable to your community.
Debriefing with your fellow organizers about what happened is important, it gives everyone a chance to close any open loops that might be lingering for them and helps you to improve for next time. It’s also another chance to connect with your people. Every interaction you have will help you nurture the foundational relationships that make change happen.
Adapt and stay flexible
Culture will change, people will change, and the needs of your community will change over time. Push yourself to stay on the edge — if it feels comfortable, it probably isn’t leading to change.
Start ideating & generating your next move
Keep your momentum, build on the steps you took last time. Set a date for the next meeting and stay in touch reliably and consistently.
Summary
Actions to take before moving on to the next stage
Fully debrief and reflect on your community engagement with all organizers
Commit to continuing
Thanks for reading! This is the final part of a toolkit series on community building.
-Ryan