Measuring Community Strength
But if communities are so much a part of humanity, why do many fail? There are more communities available to us than we are able to join. We filter those we don’t have affinity to. We are stretched too thin and cannot be at every party — and give each one our gifts. We run out of time, energy, and willingness to participate. So we choose our attachments. If only we understood how.
Communities require emotional attachments that makes them communities — they (usually via their leaders) must develop a sense of Shared Fate. Shared fate means that if something happens to the community, then each member feels affected by it.
.. and then there's shared faith which is essential in community building and "nourishing".
Great post by Gil and equally inspiring discussion - on actual community management, the dynamics of communities (of practice), why we need to foster them (resilience, collaboration, motivation only being some of the points) and the design and patterns that underly them.
These sort of communities, ie. communities that share fate and faith, are what makes work and workplaces meaningful (and sometimes enjoyable) ...
