Leaders Go First: Co-Creating Community in This Moment
Photo credit: Sheelah Brennan via Unsplash
Henley Live began as a question: what might become possible if we stopped navigating this moment alone, and started building something together?
This week, we are doing something big and new for us. As with all new things, it is exciting and exhilarating. And to tell the truth, it’s a little bit scary, too. As our coach and facilitator Rachel Butler likes to say, “Yay - we’ll be learning in public!”
We are hosting our first leadership development conference, Henley Live, here in Seattle. The seed was planted a year ago by Sam during a brainstorm session, when she wondered whether reaching out to our community and gathering people together for a deeper conversation about leadership might help us understand and deal with the isolation, powerlessness and hopelessness many are feeling.
In other words, Henley Live began as our grand experiment in community.
What Community Really Means
Many leaders have begun work in what is being called "community building." But before we talk about how to build it, it's worth pausing on what community actually is, and what it makes possible.
A true community is a group, team or organization where there is high trust, effective communication, equality, respect for differences and high levels of cooperation. It’s not without conflict. Yet, members of the community have the perseverance to see conflict through to a healthy outcome. The focus of the community is on a vision of the future that is created together, with the actions needed today to get to that future.
Community creates belonging. And belonging can inspire people to bring greater energy, commitment and care to the work that matters most to them. Isolation creates hopelessness. We cannot impact the complexities that face us alone.
There's a definition we return to often, one that has stayed with us for good reason: community is a way of being together with both individual authenticity and interpersonal harmony, so that people become able to function with a collective energy even greater than the sum of their individual energies. That last part bears sitting with. Greater than the sum. Community doesn't just add, it multiplies.
Why Community Matters Now
Today, we are living through non-stop technological change, political and social polarization, continued distrust in our institutions and a deep sense that old systems are being disrupted faster than new ones can take shape.
Powerlessness and apathy are taking a toll on our energy, purpose and sense of possibility. How do we take back power and personal responsibility for creating a desirable future? By coming together with other individuals to work on complex agendas, one conversation at a time.
Community decision-making and planning helps people regain power and energy for creating positive change.
And this is where leadership becomes something different than we were taught. The leader is not the one with all the answers. The leader is the one willing to call the gathering, hold the space, and trust what emerges when people think together. Co-creation takes the burden off the leader to create for others. Everyone becomes part of it, and therefore more committed and responsible for the outcomes.
What does it mean to be a citizen of a community? It means stepping into responsibility rather than waiting for someone else to carry it. You are willing to contribute to the progress wanting to happen. You are willing to discern with others, "what do we care about together?"
How do you want to be in community with one another in the communities at work? Are you willing to co-create a community that is distinct from the past? What is the possible future you are willing to co-create? Ask yourself, “To what extent am I willing to be invested in the well-being of the whole?” This ends the focus on me and mine. It broadens the view to us and we. This is the way forward.
Three Ways to Create Community:
The question is not whether to generate high-involvement and participation, but how. Here are three places to start:
1. Gather people who have expertise and a stake in the issue. And in the gathering, be a good host, not the hero of the day. You are not in charge of this. You are the host of the gathering.
2. Think together. None of us is as smart as all of us. Ask questions that require thoughtful responses. Then, listen and learn. Encourage diverse perspectives. Invite people to share about how they see the world.
3. Name the conversation that matters. Follow the energy of the community. What really wants to be discussed and discovered?
Leaders Go First, and Leaders Grow Together
One of the things we believe most deeply at Henley is that leaders don't grow in isolation. They grow in community, through the friction and warmth of other people, through conversations that ask more of them than they thought to ask of themselves. That's true of the leaders we work with every day, and it's true of us, too.
Henley Live is our way of practicing what we believe. It's not a conference we're hosting for you. It's a community we're building with you. We'll let you know how it goes.
Questions for Co-Creating Community
What kind of community do I want to be part of?
What conversation matters most in my community right now?
Who might be willing co-creators (or co-conspirators!) in making this community better?
How willing am I to move from “me” to “we” in service of the whole?
And perhaps most essentially: what would become possible for my own growth as a leader if I stopped trying to figure it out alone?
Continue Building Your Leadership Practice
We encourage you to continue exploring integrating practice with us here in Seattle and beyond. This is the foundation of how we approach leadership development, through executive coaching, team development and programs designed to meet you in the middle of your real work. Explore executive coaching and leadership development with Henley Leadership Group
