Investing in Community: the Long Term Return

I’ve been trying to publish a post everyday this week around the new Change Curve work, but today, a short interlude. Why? Because as i’ve been #WorkingOutLoud on it, sharing and publishing as i go, i’ve ended up thinking more, improving it (i hope) and getting into a lot of conversations. So i’m behind with writing today… but… what i’m writing is better. That’s what your community gives you: challenge, support, momentum.

A lesson i learnt early with writing is to give yourself time to reflect: so today i’m reflecting on how we build value in our communities.

You invest in your community with effort, with time, with knowledge, through shared sense making. And expect nothing in return: a Social Leader invests in people with no expectation of reciprocity. They invest their time and effort in conversations that have value, not conversations they think will give them something back. We invest in community with no sense of immediate return.

But.

When it counts, we have built trust, we have imbued value in that space. And what goes around comes around. So the community, in turn, supports you. It’s not a one to one relationship. It’s one to many. But it’s build on trust, and shared value.

So thanks for the support this week: it feels good to be creating within a community.