From Communication to Community
This article was originally meant to be about communication; however, my research led me to community building. How did this happen, you may ask. Well not surprisingly, communication is a key component in community building. How and what we communicate determines what that community will look like. But what is community? Tamarack, an institute for community engagement, conducted a survey in which they asked people “What does community mean to you?” Here are a few responses:
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As you can see, “community” can have as many definitions as people you ask. But how community is built is not so complicated. I came across a website describing a community building process discovered by Dr. M. Scott Peck called “The Peck Model.” It essentially has four steps: Pseudo-community, Chaos, Emptiness, Community. This process is actually taught in workshops for many different types of groups who wish to build community amongst themselves such as companies, church groups etc. But there is a reason why it is said that Dr. Peck “discovered” this process. If any of this sounds at all familiar it is because this is how we naturally make friends and build community in the workplace, at school, at book clubs, etc. We communicate in stages depending on the length of time we know/spend with each other.
by Empress Ashaki