We have a few things that we do in this regard: 1) It is accepted custom that when someone is stuck, they can just announce their impediment to the room. Those who are able to hear can decide if they are able to offer assistance/advice.
2) We run regular mastermind groups out of the space (it’s also been another way to introduce people to our community and start them down the path to adoption). These are great places for building strong accountability structures between groups. 3) Our regular BizTricks meetups encourage people to share things that are working for them in their personal practice. 4) Many of us have accountability partners within the space. 5) We have an end-of-week celebration where we vent, cheer, feast and drink (alcohol and non-alcohol). We call it Fuck-it Friday, and it’s the highlight of many people’s weeks. There’s also many other moments throughout the day where this sort of teamwork is modelled. We’re home of Niagara’s independent workforce; we decided to look out for each other because nobody else was going to do it for us. That mindset needs to run through everything we do in order for people to believe it. I think we do a pretty good job of it, but it requires constant effort to maintain. So my advice? If you really want to build this type of togetherness or team culture, then you just start doing it. Find ways to be together. And let everyone contribute to what it looks like. Do it consistently. Over time, it will transform your space and the people in it. -------------------------------------------- Trevor Twining Cowork Niagara http://coworkniagara.com <http://coworkniagara.com/> Home of Niagara’s independent workforce twitter: @coworkniagara, @trevortwining cel: 416-201-2254 > On Mar 7, 2016, at 10:01 AM, Tony Bacigalupo <[email protected]> wrote: > > This is something I've been looking at for a long time. > > It seems coworking spaces tend to start off with a lot of momentum, with > members really engaged and excited, but then over time culture erodes into a > state where people tend to just walk in, put on their headphones, and go to > work. > > Getting members to participate becomes an increasingly challenging slog. > > One solution, as has been discussed here in the past, is to develop a culture > of empowerment and encouragement, whereby all community members feel like the > space is theirs to build together. Alex writes well about it here > <http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2014/04/community-management-tummling-a-tale-of-two-mindsets/>. > > To build on that, I have been experimenting with adding a layer of intention > to the average workday, harkening back to Brad Neuberg's original vision. > > Part of what members look for in coworking is a sense of structure and > accountability, two critical things that you have in a typical office but > don't get when you work for yourself from home. Coworking spaces satisfy > these needs, but only implicitly and partially. > > When I've worked with spaces to provide that more explicitly, through some > simple group goal-setting and accountability programs, the results have been > spectacular. For people who don't actually work for the same company to act > more like a team, they need a shared context in which they can feel like > they're helping each other succeed and grow. > > I discovered that people sometimes just need clear boundaries and a safe > space to open up about what they're doing. Once they have a chance to build > genuine connections and a sense of shared mission within that framework, good > things start happening fast. > > Happy to discuss more about this topic if you'd like! > > Tony > --- > Projects: New Work Cities <http://nwc.co/consulting> • Open Coworking > <http://opencoworking.org/> > eBook: No More Sink Full of Mugs <http://nwc.co/mugs> > Connect: Personal site <http://tonybacigalupo.com/> • Twitter > <http://twitter.com/tonybgoode> • Facebook > <http://facebook.com/tonybacigalupo> > New: Preorder the Ultimate Coworking Toolkit > <http://nwc.co/consulting/toolkit> > > > On Sun, Mar 6, 2016 at 9:29 PM, Elizabeth Trice <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > I'm interested in building higher level engagement of members, and have been > thinking about more team-building, orientation training, and other systems to > help individuals work more like a team. What are the best practices ou > t there? > > > -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > <http://discuss.coworking.com/> > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout > <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. > > > -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > <http://discuss.coworking.com/> > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout > <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
