How to Level-Up Community in the Digital Age—Flockjay Style
What is the concept of community?
Experiencing community for me has been lacking. I never quite understood the concept. It felt foreign and out-of-reach. The isolation of growing up in suburbia and my viewpoint of always having had the feeling of being the “odd one” in my family.
You see, this is a bold statement to make, as my family is very odd already. A majority of my family members own, operate, engineer, or test heavy machinery equipment such as backhoes, bulldozers, dump trucks, or war-zone trucks for the US Army and Marines. The other half are artists and teachers. I grew to accept the possibility that I am and will forever be my own island. A strong and independent woman, but forging my path alone.
Suddenly in a moment, on the day of celebrating my mom’s birthday, I was accepted into Flockjay. I hold the most profound sense of gratitude to be in this community. I am part of the platform to thrive, by being supported in a safe, positive, egoless foundation of a curated community. I am accepted among peers who are on the same mission to define a new career and a new life for themselves, and who express their mission to make a positive impact on the world.
Flockjay is more than a vocational training school. It is curated with the intention of leveling-up the concept of community combined with a proactive culture. It allows each person within Flockjay to fully express and embrace who you are. How does Flockjay do this? Flockjay gives you the platform to realize your full potential with the support of coaches, an open-door policy to talk to anyone on the staff. Even our CEO, Shaan Hathiramani, is hands-on in teaching the courses and accessible to talk to about any concerns or questions. Flockjay serves as a launching pad, ready to support you throughout the course and well into your career. I now understand what “community” means more than on an intellectual level. I now understand the concept of community by experiencing it with the alignment with who I am. It is a profound gift to receive. It also serves as a model to eventually build my own leveled-up community.
What was the concept of community? The concept of community from caveman times and onwards is defined as a group of people living together to survive. We shared ideas around the campfire, ate, procreated, and fought other tribes to dominate and endure. Now, the concept of community has been disrupted by the influence of the digital age. However, this disruption has left communities to scramble to keep up with technology. Within the scramble, the concept of community remained the same before the digital age. Now, we are looking at how a community operates with purpose and intention. Community is now reshaping the members of their personally chosen tribe aiming to thrive, together.
Community, as a concept, now has the opportunity to level-up and be defined with a curated scope. The members do not have to feel they are part of a Pink Floyd song, “Us. Vs. Them,” merely existing within the tribe to survive.
We, as humans, seek communities to express our interests or express different parts of ourselves. However, these types of communities cannot embrace the whole self of who you are. The problem is this type of community remains stagnant. Can a community embrace you by your authenticity, on a soul-level, but with a professional scope? Will you grow and thrive at a faster pace? We now see how leveling-up the concept of community is now taking shape.
How does the concept of community look in the future? Keith Ferrazzi, the author of the best-selling book, “Never Eat Alone,” published a video on his YouTube channel on July 28th, 2019, titled, “How Co-Elevating Communities Are Replacing Networking Events.” Keith defines his term “co-elevating communities” as “a group of individuals who come together; who commit to going higher together; to cracking the code on some subject, way of acting and being, or some idea; and committing as a group to committing to each other and the mission at hand… Co-elevating communities are a group of people committed to each other’s success.”
Flockjay is a fortifying example that is leading the pack. It is redefining and leveling-up how we perceive community and disrupting the status quo. It is set to be a co-elevating community. It exists to bring meritocracy to the tech industry and level out the field of homogeneous work cultures. We have the opportunity now to redefine how to sell innovation. As members of the “Flock,” we co-elevate each other.
How do you level-up and co-elevate your community?
How to get started:
- Meet with each member for a 1–1 meeting. Get to know each other. Look for ways you can complement each other’s personal and professional growth. Discuss your goals. Do set up accountability meetings for achieving them. Be proactive.
- Practice active listening and empathy with each other. Support each other to discuss topics, issues, obstacles you are both experiencing. Place aside your ego and live with the real intention and desire to allow each person you connect with to thrive. This intention to thrive must reciprocate with the same intention for you. Be authentic and generous with each other.
- Develop “Rules of Engagement” to curate a co-elevated culture. What can and can not exist in this culture? How do you operate? Do you serve a real purpose and solve real problems, as a culture?
- Celebrate each other’s achievements, whether it is waving pom-poms (one of my preferred methods), giving a round of applause, or doing an activity that has significant meaning to that person. An idea: donate a small sum to a charity of their choice. All celebrations elevate and motivate the whole community to do and be more.
- For more tips and exercises, watch this video of Keith Ferrazzi talking about co-elevation at a MindValley conference.
Co-elevating your community is worth the endeavor of redesigning your community. I wish you great success in making your tribe thrive.
Krystal M. Lechner is a Flockjay Tech Fellow in the August to October 2019 Program. She is truly passionate about guiding clients into win-win solutions, enabled by innovative, cutting-edge technology. With experience as a customer-facing sales professional, she strives to bring her experience, skills, and forward-thinking insights into the tech industry. Krystal is looking forward to making an impact as a leader, in the future.
Krystal invites you to reach out to her, follow her, and discuss. Send her a note or a tweet at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/krystallechner/
https://twitter.com/Krystal_Lechner
