Communities work when people contribute, not just join

So, another post about community.

Something I only just realised this week is missing from a lot of the coworking community conversation: when people join a community, they need to contribute.

In order for communities to work, and relationships to work, and teams to work, people need to, you know, as that cheesy phrase goes, you get out what you put in.

There's always talk about 'join the community'. And there's a kind of unconscious, probably unintentional, extractive thing. A transaction thing. If you come and join our community, you will get this.

But it's saying: when you turn up and become part of this coworking space, this project, this community, you need to contribute.

And when I say, 'I only just realised this,' I'm sure I'm not the only one. But so many things I've written have been in the 'join our community and you'll get X' mode, and that makes it feel like a pitch even though it's actually an invitation.

Because really, when you join a coworking space, it is a business, or at least has to be sustainable, so you need to make it attractive and aspirational in the way you communicate it.

What I found around COVID, particularly in places I knew well in London where I had more candid conversations with the operators: spaces that had a strong community, people still paid their membership or their monthly subscription because they wanted to keep the community going.

That 'community' just happened to be in a building with some desks. And there were other, more corporate-type spaces that were selling amenities. When lockdown hit, you couldn't access any of them. They had transactions with people, not members in their community.

But even those transaction places, before it came down to a global lockdown, they would have said they were a community because it sounded nice. When the shit hits the fan, the true character of people and their communities shows up.