If you have time to only read one book this summer, this blog is a vote for that book to be Peter Block’s Community: The Structure of Belonging. I wish I had read it right when @Catherine Sword's colleague, Michelle Sneck, first mentioned it to me a few years ago, but as the saying goes, the second-best time is now.
For community practitioners, it can be easy to unintentionally limit the word community to what you do for work. This book will not only break you out of that mindset, but remind you what matters to communities of any type. It offers incredible insights, questions you can immediately use in meetings, and vocabulary for some of the more unquantifiable facets of belonging.
If you don’t have time for the whole book, Block has started each chapter with a one-paragraph summary. This is part of his philosophy in action- rather than letting people fall behind due to factors they can’t control, structure the community such that it meets each person where they are.
The main lessons I took from this book are:
- True community and belonging go together, but are not built simultaneously.
Belonging is the key to a successful community, and must come first. There are many characteristics, structures, and strategies to create opportunities for belonging within the book, but the one that stopped me in my tracks is that true belonging means there cannot be consequences for saying no. You must always be able to opt out.
Joining can not be the result of pressure, as mandatory participation is the antithesis of true belonging. This is difficult to foster in our professional communities, and even impossible in some cases. It is still worth thinking about communities in terms of what membership brings, rather than what membership withholds from non-members.
- Problem-solving is not equivalent to community.
Many communities arise because of (or around) problems. Many communities have missions to address, dismantle, or otherwise solve problems. This does not mean that groups dedicated to problem solving are in fact communities. True communities are about possibility- about bringing the future to the present, and a collective ownership of that possibility.
To quote the book, “we cannot problem-solve our way into fundamental change, or transformation, or community.” Focusing on possibility rather than plans is the difference between a community and a committee.
- Asset-based presence and mindset lead to progress, connection, and prevent stalling out.
Coming from the education world, I’ve heard a lot about the dangers of deficit-based thinking. If you focus on what students can’t do, you’ll never let them show what they can. Putting others in a position where they are constantly focused on where they need improvement means that we are not maximizing what a community can achieve. Shifting the narrative to be about what gifts everyone brings to a collective means that we are not wasting time, energy, and ego on improving skills someone else has already brought to the table.
I want to be clear that this is not an anti-growth mindset, but rather a focus on growing as an ensemble instead of individuals. Letting others use their talents and allowing yourself to use your own gives the community direction, roles, and belonging without making criticism part of the process. There is nuance here, but it’s not complicated. Communities bolster us, and that happens most successfully when we are allowed to shine.
There are many more excellent lessons to be learned from these 200 pages. I hope that if you do read them, you’ll let me know what parts stood out to you- as a person, as a community manager, and as a community member.
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