What is this "community" anyway?

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2010

"Shared By All"

This is a back to basics approach, folks...

If we're going to understand how "COMMUNITY ASSETS" work,

and how to lead "COLLABORATION" (key leadership skill),

then perhaps we should start by defining the origins of the word "COMMUNITY". 

(You may find this useful for your CAP Community Action Project

planning as well.) 

I'm quoting from two of my favourite community development heros:

Peter Senge and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

The word “community” has old roots, going back to the Indo-European base “mei”, meaning “change” or “exchange”.

Apparently this joined with another root, “Kom”, meaning “with” to produce the word, kommein: shared by all.

We think the ideas of “change or exchange, shared by all” is pretty close to the sense of community.

Community building is a core strategy for sharing among all it’s members the burdens and the benefits of change and exchange.

(Source: Peter Senge)

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A person is part of a family or a friendship to the extent he invests energy in goals shared with other people. In the same way, one can belong to a larger interpersonal system by subscribing to the aspirations of a community.

In the ancient Greek, “politics” referred to whatever involved people in the affairs that went beyond personal and family welfare.

The larger the social arena one moves in,

the greater the challenges it presents.

A person can deal with very intricate problems in solitude,

and family and friends can take up a lot of attention.

But trying to optimize the goals of unrelated individuals involves complexities an order of magnitude higher.

So we come to the concept of “flow”.

Flow is useful not only in helping individuals improve the quality of their lives, but also in pointing out how public action should be directed.

Perhaps the most powerful effect flow theory could have in the public sector is in providing a blueprint for how institutions may be reformed so as to make them more conducive to optimal experience.

A community is judged “good” if it offers - (creates flow) - people a chance to enjoy as many aspects of their lives as possible, while allowing them to develop their potential in the pursuit of even greater challenges.”

(Source: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)

So, as leaders,  we bring these two concepts, "Change/exchange/shared by all" and "Creating Flow" to our "community".  Some exceptional leaders incorporate these ideas naturally; others struggle and create a battleground instead of a level playing field.  What does it take to build our community's assets successfully?  Let's continue to explore...