Depending on where you sit, the social business and online community trend can be seen in many different ways – there is a huge range of how and where it is applied and a lot of different people involved. However, the one thing that ties many of us who are interested in communities together is a belief that communities allow our organizations to do better. To do better by customers. To do better by employees. And because of that to do better for organizations.
It can be hard to see in day-to-day community activities – dealing with trolls, managing internal coordination, and configuring tools – but make no mistake community professionals want everyone to feel they have a voice, that they are valued, and that they are recognized in proportion to their contributions. It is that simple and that profound.
Most of our lives are spent working – for an organization, for our families, or for the various interests and communities in which we participate. So often instead of feeling humanly valued and able to share what we really care about, we are put into a box of skills required for our role. Our job descriptions account for only a small part of who we are and how much potential we each have. Our salaries keep us plodding along trying to ignore all the things we could contribute or the things that make us feel under-appreciated. It can be a dreary existence and at The Community Roundtable we believe it is not necessary and it is sub-optimal, both for individuals and for organizations.
We started The Community Roundtable to help those professionals and organizations who are looking for a better way to share how and what they do and to help our organizations thrive in an age where it is increasingly apparent that the human – and humane – connection with others is critical. To us, social business is about making organizations more humane, adaptive, and resilient in order to increase revenue and more inclusive through crowdsourcing to reduce costs. We think the community approach is critical to accomplish that.
We would love to have you join us in this mission – either as a friend, as a member, or as a partner.
A big thank you to Anne McCrossan and Eli Ingraham for prompting this post!
