As people are at the heart of community, we knew we wanted to focus on some member-focused in February, so we did!
Over the month, we started and encouraged discussions around People-First Initiatives, thinking about topics like integrating members into our strategies, creating people-first cultures at our organizations, and exploring how we can put our members at the very center of our community decision-making.
February in TheCR Network: Roundtable Calls
Our first Roundtable Call of February focused on how a community puts people at the heart of everything they do.
On "Communities For The People, By The People: The Google Local Guides Connect Story", we heard from @Traci Cappiello about how they involve members in every aspect of their community, from strategy, to operations, to tactics.
We learned that there are a lot of options when it comes to how to involve your members in your community, and we got a lot of ideas as for how to implement those:
- Nurturing super user programs
- Listen to members and create thoughtful content & programming
- Encourage supportive forum and idea exchanges
- Implement ideas you get from your members and share them back!
This was a fantastic way to start off the month as well as start off our discussion about people-first initiatives.
If you want to listen in on this Roundtable Call, you can find the Roundtable Recording here.
Just days later, our second call of the month focused on the organizational side and how you can foster a people-first culture. On the Roundtable Call, What "People First" Looks Like in Communities and Organizations: An Ultimate Software Case Study, we heard from @Keri Kersten about how Ultimate Software fosters their incredible people first culture in every aspect of their workplace.
From the relationships between employees, to the business they do, to the benefits they provide, to even the way they run their offices, Keri showcased how an organization can say that they're "people first" and actually mean it.
We discussed how some organizations can say that they put people first, but if they don't show that, then do they truly value it?
If you want to listen in on this Roundtable Call, you can find the Roundtable Recording here.
For our next Roundtable Call, we stepped away from the more large conversations and focused on something practical: metrics. On the Who's Measuring What? A Metrics Show & Tell with Chris Detzel, we got a look into @Christopher Detzel's metrics and why he measures what he measures.
In not straying too far away from our theme of people-first initiatives, Chris shared some great insights into measuring people-first metrics, including how and why he implements regular spotlights and member features to draw more eyes to community contributions.
If you want to listen in on this Roundtable Call, you can find the Roundtable Recording here.
While this wasn't explicitly focused on the theme of people-first initiatives, we couldn't think of a better way to end the month of programming in the Network than with an Ask Me Anything (AMA) with
@Maria Ogneva. Because relationships are at the heart of community, and because Maria has been in community for a long time, she had a lot of great insight into the little things that make these relationships successful, as well as some larger reflections.
If you're looking for some great tips on how to frame your community work, you might want to read through
this AMA thread.
Who knows, you might find some ideas that will bring you into March...
What Did You Think?
For the length of February, we opened up a poll that asked the question: "Are members of your community involved in decision-making for the community?"
Because a big part of being people-first is integrating the feedback, priorities, and goals of the people (or members) of your community into your overall thinking, involving these people in your community's decision making is a great way to show that you are listening and acting on that listening.
So, do TheCR Network members involve members in their community decision making? Let's find out...
In a pretty overwhelming answer, about 87.5% of TheCR Network members who responded said that they include members in their community decision-making, with about 42% of that saying that they include members "somewhat, or at a very low level". Only 12.5% said that they don't include community members in their decision-making, which is interesting to note. A majority of TheCR Network members include their community members in decision-making in some capacity, which means that a majority of TheCR Network members are creating people-first cultures and creating communities where members will have a stake, or buy into what they're doing.
So, Where Do We Go From Here?
Our goal for February was to open up a discussion around what we do and could be doing to put people first in our organizations and communities, and we did just that. We got looks into what people are accomplishing, identified gaps, and found areas of opportunity. Over the next few months, we'll take these gaps and opportunities and explore how we can act on them and continue to build, grow, and adapt our community programs and strategies.
In fact, we'll be taking these reflections right into March as we focus on culture & community. So if any aspects of February's conversations have sparked an idea or recommendation for you, let us know! While we plan our programming calendar, we also leave space for reactive programming, spur-of-the-moment topics, and member involvement, so leave us a note or send us a message and we'll get something together to address your topics of interest.
And if you're not a member of TheCR Network, or if you know someone who isn't a member of TheCR Network, but would love to participate in these conversations, please reach out! We're happy to talk about how you or they can get involved.
#culture#leadership