Build your community with people, not for them
People & Company’s community manifesto.
Over the last few years, Kevin, Kai and I have spent a lot of time with people who get people together.
There was the night we performed a rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” alongside hundreds of amateur singers at a rec center in the Toronto suburbs. Or the afternoon we spent with Lola Omolola at her home in Chicago, where she moderates a private Facebook group comprised of 1.8 million Nigerian women. Or the winter evening we spent running down Manhattan’s 190th Street with a neighborhood run crew.
We sought out these extraordinary people to sharpen our understanding of how to build thriving communities like theirs.
Joining WRU Crew for a weekly run in Washington Heights.
Today, the meaning of “community” can be ambiguous. But true communities are simply groups of people who keep coming together over what they care about. The most vibrant ones offer members a chance to act on their passions with each other.
We’ll be talking and writing more about how to cultivate resilient, vibrant communities in the coming months before our book Get Together: How to build a community with your people is published this summer (Update! You can order it here!). But our conversations with these different clubs, networks, and societies led to one big takeaway. The secret to getting people together is this:
You must build a community with your people, not for them.
Amateurs try to manage a community, but great leaders create more leaders. Nearly every challenge of building a community can be met by asking yourself, “How do I achieve this by working with my people, not doing it for them?”
In other words, approach community building as progressive acts of collaboration — doing more with others every step of the way.
That means transforming questions like these:
How do I get this community off the ground? → Who are the early allies who will work with me to spark this community?
What activity should I organize for my community? → What is an activity we will want to participate in with each other?
How do I speak to community members? → How can members communicate with each other directly?
How do I attract new folks? → How can I work with existing members to spread the word?
How can I expand the community? → How can I collaborate with leaders to expand our reach?
Shooting hoops with Aria (Downtown Girls Basketball) in Lower Manhattan.
At a dog walker meetup in Minnesota.
Kai interviewing Ru Hill of Surf Simply in Costa Rica.
Kevin and Bailey interviewing Ryan Fitzgibbon of “Hello Mr” in New York.
The implication of this collaborative approach is simple yet significant. Alone, we are limited. With others, we extend our capacity. Certainly, you can accomplish great things without a thriving community alongside you. But if you join forces — as individual and allies, artist and fans, organizer and advocates — you’ll do more together than you ever could alone. Plus, you’ll likely have more fun in the process.
The through-line of our impending book is this simple concept, “build with.” It lives in each of the recommendations we make as we take readers through three stages of building a community: sparking the flame, stoking the fire, and passing the torch. Our hope is to help you with the practical decisions about what a community needs next. Fewer abstract concepts, more clear steps.
Turning the manuscript into a book with Brianna and Tyler at Stripe Press HQ.
The goal of all this work we’ve done is simple. We want to help more people get their people together because we believe authentic communities will make our civic society more engaged, businesses more purposeful, and personal lives more meaningful.
We can’t do any of that without you.
The communities we need won’t form without someone willing to take the first step. We are here to guide you on that journey. Just like when building a fire, there’s an order of operations you can follow to cultivate communities that burn bright. You can spark a community. Don’t sit back and wait for one to appear. You’re the difference.
If you’re eager to learn more now, we’re already sharing what we’ve learned on our podcast and in our writing. To stay in the loop about all that, join our newsletter. And if this work jives with you, we want to know you! Apply for a community leader office hours or get in touch about our services.
Onward ✌
Bailey, Kevin, and Kai
People & Company
We’re People & Company.
We published a book, host a podcast, and we work with organizations like Nike, Porsche, Substack and Surfrider as strategy partners, bringing confidence to how they’re building communities.
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