Calling My People …

Simon Sinek wrote in The Infinite Game: “The rise of great societies, advancements in science and medicine and the exploration of space all happened because large groups of people, united in common cause, chose to collaborate with no clear end in sight.” This got me thinking about the importance and variety of communities in our lives. Which ones are the ones that have an impact?

In truth, they all are. Every connection made has some kind of impact on those involved. Turn on the TV, and you can watch human dynamics at play daily. So, to narrow the field, which communities are you involved in that have synergy – whose combined effect is greater than the sum of their separate efforts?

As I think about this in my life, I have two right now. Of course, there is LAITHOS and our desire to have people understand the power of leadership – in business and in life. And, there’s Artists at Living, an intentional community that my spouse and I are planning to build that will help people “create a life from the life they are living™.” It will be self-sustaining community where folks can use their skills to support each other – small homes, community buildings with workspace, gardens, retreat center… you get the picture. To bring it into reality will take uniting an Artists at Living community with a larger community of sponsors to realize the vision.

The neat thing about building unity and synergy in a community is that it doesn’t require a grandiose vision; it can be as simple as teams coming together to do something outside the office. My favorite team activity was “refreshing” a community center. It was hard work scraping paint, painting, moving dirt, etc.; but the experience of bonding with my team as people and seeing the final results … priceless.

This Week: Commit to carving out some time each day and connect with those who make up your community. Talk about what you have in common and what you care about. Brainstorm on actions you could take together that would have a positive impact on others or the community itself. Act on one of them and watch the rippling results.

In Next Week’s Post: Creating something larger than yourself.