Much of my thoughts around community are inspired from what I find through 'rosie research'.
Here's an example, that brings up the idea of needing to retrain ourselves. Something speaks to me about it when I think about it in relation to community building.
Change how we approach stories.
As a reporter on the scene, my instinct is to ask “what happened?” For the last few months, I’ve had to retrain myself and our reporters. Some alternatives:
“How can we help?”
“What do you want people to know?”
“Is there something you need?”
“What’s the best way for us to get you this information?”
“We are not [insert doctors, accountants, lawyers, architects]. Would you like us to connect you to someone who can help?”
Source: https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/12/in-2022-its-all-about-community/
You see, I look at community and I feel the same.
I feel we need to rethink and retrain ourselves.
We need a new perspective, a new way of looking at community.
We need to ask different questions, with a focus on creating real value and connection.
- What can we do today to help you?
- How can we help all our members?
- Why are people showing up?
- What do people need?
- How should we be sharing content?
- How can we get better at distribution?
- What can we do to help?
- Who can we connect you with?
- How can you help us?
- What can we do to clean our community?
And it's not that I didn't do this in the past, but I think now everything feels more urgent. Scale feels less important. Connecting in smaller groups feels right.
But maybe this is just me and where I am in my community journey.
