Top 5 pieces of advice.

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Permalink Reply by steve on November 13, 2009 at 4:30pm

Don't build a community - enable a community that already exists to connect
Have fun and experiment
Don't listen to the haters...plenty of haters and complainers. Give water to the good ones to grow even more.
Continuous improvement and nurturing - if you are not busy being born, you are busy dying
Ask for help...ask the community to volunteer and take roles.

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Atkin on November 13, 2009 at 6:34pm

Great advice! Thanks. I love that first thought.

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Permalink Reply by Andrea Schneider on December 2, 2009 at 12:37am

Steve definitely has the right idea! I would add:

1. the community needs leadership from many & be compelling to it's members
2. be as clear as possible about purpose and vision
3. as a community facilitator, be as inclusive as possible
4. identify and build on the values and qualities you would like the community to reflect
5. keep track of what is going on, answer questions, encourage leadership, creativity and opportunity to share with others
6. communities grow and change, people come in and out over time, don't get discouraged and try not to stay stuck on the critics...

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Atkin on December 3, 2009 at 1:41pm

Great advice. I'm going to post something about this in the next few days. I think I'll quote your post if you don't mind.
d

Andrea Schneider said:

Steve definitely has the right idea! I would add:

1. the community needs leadership from many & be compelling to it's members
2. be as clear as possible about purpose and vision
3. as a community facilitator, be as inclusive as possible
4. identify and build on the values and qualities you would like the community to reflect
5. keep track of what is going on, answer questions, encourage leadership, creativity and opportunity to share with others
6. communities grow and change, people come in and out over time, don't get discouraged and try not to stay stuck on the critics...

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Permalink Reply by Andrea Schneider on December 3, 2009 at 2:15pm

Hi Douglas,
I don't mind at all, I'm glad you find it useful. I want to add a few other things to the list which I have found to be invaluable:

Sharing Credit as much as possible (costs nothing, easy to do, makes people feel good, encourages participation)

Leverage Group Resources whether that be time, talent, skill or money. Creates more buy-in and opportunities for ownership, uses what already exists, important to any serious community effort.

Link Planning to Results, Big and Small. Work with the community to identify these outcomes and count them. Little wins are just as important as the big ones, sometimes more so.

Action Matters people will leave if they don't see something concrete happen. Moving people to that point thoughtfully, but quickly is essential

Honor Group Members and their expertise. The more they are engaged in something that matters to them, and their experience and know-how is utilized the more the community benefits. Even if not everyone agrees, which they won't.

Everything will not happen all at once, so help the community identify what is most important first to them and start with that focus. Keep asking, "who else needs to be part of this endeavor?"

I've worked in this field for years and done a lot of original work on community collaboration, partnerships and alliances for change. I had a $3M grant from HHS to work on this kind of thinking.

I'm happy it's helpful.

a

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Permalink Reply by Jeroen de Miranda on January 22, 2010 at 3:00pm

Great advice! Just trying to do this with my new community on how to build Ning communities: http://communitiesmetning.ning.com (Dutch) .... works fine!

Jeroen

steve said:

Don't build a community - enable a community that already exists to connect
Have fun and experiment
Don't listen to the haters...plenty of haters and complainers. Give water to the good ones to grow even more.
Continuous improvement and nurturing - if you are not busy being born, you are busy dying
Ask for help...ask the community to volunteer and take roles.

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