Have you noticed the emergence of interest in creating healthy learning communities?
It’s not a new concept.
In the business space, you’ve got peer learning groups for conscious leaders, women presidents, CEO’s, entrepreneurs, etc.
And of course there are communities for people interested in just about everything else you could imagine – frisbee throwing, Lego collecting, dog training, etc.
But what IS new is a trend.
And it’s a trend I’d encourage anybody to get super curious about.
Especially if you have an interest in being of service, in ways that the needs of our world are evolving towards.
Let’s start with a provocative statement:
Whatever the problem, community is the answer.
Meg Wheatley taught me this many years ago.
Today, ask a systems scientist, a neurobiologist, a historian, an evolutionary biologist, a heart coherence researcher, a mastery level facilitator…
Is this really true?
…
I have, and In some fashion or another… they agree.
A system is broken… strengthen the relationship between the parts.
The brain can’t function without safety… create connections that signify belonging. Which moves us from the reptilian brain, towards the prefrontal cortex
Stress, burnout, and an inability to self-regulate (what scientists would call incoherence ) have overcome you…
benefit quickly, from social and global coherence (as measured for decades by the folks at HeartMath Institute) …
…by being in the kind of group setting that automatically brings about co-regulation.
Now, practically speaking, if we want to be stewards, warriors, champions for community…
We’ve got to understand a few basics:
For healthy community… everybody needs an answer to 2 questions:
Do I belong? (Can I be me… and still get along with this group?)
How do we interact? (How do we give and receive around here?)
So how do we enable healthy answers to these questions? How do we enable Healthy community?
Simple. Almost shockingly simple.
The most fundamental unit of community is how we gather.
Which means… in a world that’s changing faster than humans feel equipped to adapt to change.
Where a few individuals no longer have simple answers that the rest of us can cut and paste.
Where tapping into collective wisdom, intelligence, and strengths is a necessity.
Where community is the answer.
Knowing how to design and facilitate gatherings will be the keystone skill.
What’s your interest in learning how to start, grow, or support healthy community?
Let me know, I’d love to hear.
Stay Curious,
Jon