Is a community’s purpose best communicated as a question?
Is a community’s purpose best communicated as a question?
Community = Living the questions together
Show me the goods: Why organizations love investing $ into custom-made community tech
Show me the goods: Why organizations love investing $ into custom-made community tech
And why it’s often not a good investment…
Communities and nation states
Communities and nation states
A thought experiment: What if nation states remembered that they are simply very big communities?
Don’t create your own community platform or social network.
Don’t create your own community platform or social network.
Instead, integrate into your members’ existing tech behavior.
3 thought experiments about the value of relationships within groups
3 thought experiments about the value of relationships within groups
And a reflection on how we define collective success…
Community = relationships
Community = relationships
Easy to forget. And yet the essence of all community weaving work.
The enticing illusion of clarity in community
The enticing illusion of clarity in community
Or: Clarity in community is an ongoing, always temporary conversation
How do we make large gatherings more relational?
How do we make large gatherings more relational?
5 ideas: smaller sessions lead by participants, fractals, rhythm, roles and expanding the audience definition
The (subtle) power of relationships: the story of a photographer
The (subtle) power of relationships: the story of a photographer
A few weeks ago I was fortunate to spend three days with an amazing group of network weavers from the BMW Foundation. I walked away with…
Community weaving is about creating (safe) excuses for people to connect
Community weaving is about creating (safe) excuses for people to connect
I have been living in Amsterdam for 2.5 years now and found it surprisingly hard to make friends and build my own local community. In New…
The brutality of the word “Social Impact” — and why metaphors matter
The brutality of the word “Social Impact” — and why metaphors matter
This image is what I think of when I hear the word “impact”.
The magic of finding my peers of relationship-centred practitioners
The magic of finding my peers of relationship-centred practitioners
Reflections & impressions from the Relationships Project gathering.
Beyond the noise of crypto: 4 amazing community technologies
Beyond the noise of crypto: 4 amazing community technologies
Blockchain has a lot of promise for community, but most of it is still largely unusable. Here are 4 powerful non-crypto community tools:
Relationships before structure — an obvious lesson we keep forgetting?
Relationships before structure — an obvious lesson we keep forgetting?
Have you ever participated in a meeting to debrief a collaborative project, where the ultimate conclusion is that we should have invested…
How can we make co-creation in community less exhausting?
How can we make co-creation in community less exhausting?
I don’t know about you, but I find co-design of community awesome and often absolutely exhausting. What can we do to make it better?
We’re all talented at community, but so out of practice. What if we became good at community again?
We’re all talented at community, but so out of practice. What if we became good at community again?
What if we — collectively — became good at community again?
Community as a place to practice a better future
Community as a place to practice a better future
What if our communities are an ideal place to model and embody - today - the future we’re hoping to create?
Paying attention to the community cross-pollinators
Paying attention to the community cross-pollinators
Who are the people helping to weave local chapters into a bigger whole?
The unique motivation of outsiders to run local chapters
The unique motivation of outsiders to run local chapters
At Sandbox, our local chapters are run by volunteers from the community that we call “ambassadors”. At some point I started to notice a…
Community leadership through role modeling?
Community leadership through role modeling?
In the 1950s, social psychologist Solomon Asch developed a series of foundational experiments around social conformity. One of the famous…
Gratitude: the most powerful & overlooked energy source in community
Gratitude: the most powerful & overlooked energy source in community
A few years ago, in my role as IIR for the Kauffman Foundation, I went to Cincinnati, Ohio, to experience the graduation ceremony of…
The personal growth dimension of community leadership
The personal growth dimension of community leadership
Can I weave transformative communities without transforming myself?
“Community is like a muscle that grows when you practice together”
“Community is like a muscle that grows when you practice together”
Whenever we start working with a new group, we usually introduce the practice of a “check-in” at the beginning of each call and a…
How do we collaborate across different networks and organizations in times of crisis?
How do we collaborate across different networks and organizations in times of crisis?
When the war in Ukraine started we saw how many organizations and networks were drowning with incoming requests for help. At the same time…