Presentation - "I Believe in Coworking, and So Do You."
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Shenoa Lawrence
Sep 23, 2012, 4:04:41 PM9/23/12
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I was asked to put together a presentation for a barcamp over the weekend called "I Believe in Coworking, and So Do You."
https://vimeo.com/49987779
(sorry for the quiet audio)
The audience was mostly peers, with some experienced coworking folks and others new to the idea. I kept it casual and intimate because I thought that worked well for this crowd. It went well, and I'm thinking about adapting it for a few different purposes. We're fundraising (non-profit) and also reaching out to other organizations in the community to find good connections that will help us grow our membership and events programs. I'm curious about any feedback folks might want to give on how I can best accomplish that. I'm very comfortable talking to my peers and potential coworkers, but less so to sponsors and business orgs.
Pointers and critiques very welcome!
Side note for Susan at Office Nomads: There's folks from other coworking spaces in our audience, and some of the discussion afterwards leads me to think we'd benefit from a local coworking association (IE: Coworking Field Day, FTW!). I'd love to hear what your research brings up.
Shenoa Lawrence
Room to Think
http://rm2think.com
https://vimeo.com/49987779
(sorry for the quiet audio)
The audience was mostly peers, with some experienced coworking folks and others new to the idea. I kept it casual and intimate because I thought that worked well for this crowd. It went well, and I'm thinking about adapting it for a few different purposes. We're fundraising (non-profit) and also reaching out to other organizations in the community to find good connections that will help us grow our membership and events programs. I'm curious about any feedback folks might want to give on how I can best accomplish that. I'm very comfortable talking to my peers and potential coworkers, but less so to sponsors and business orgs.
Pointers and critiques very welcome!
Side note for Susan at Office Nomads: There's folks from other coworking spaces in our audience, and some of the discussion afterwards leads me to think we'd benefit from a local coworking association (IE: Coworking Field Day, FTW!). I'd love to hear what your research brings up.
Shenoa Lawrence
Room to Think
http://rm2think.com
Alex Hillman
Sep 24, 2012, 9:23:59 PM9/24/12
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I loved this, was worth the struggle to hear :) One thing you might think about tweaking is to invite people to also believe in coworking, rather than tell them to.
"You buy the jelly beans, I'll eat them."
This is one of the best illustrations of how people misunderstand collaboration & cooperation I've ever heard. I'll be stealing it, with attribution.
"Being a part of it."
One of our members at Indy Hall (he's only been there for 4 months or so) has started using similar language to describe our community to others. He specifically says, "you can be a part of it." It was amazing to hear him say that out loud the first time.
Similarly, there's something really powerful with painting a vivid picture of a belief. To lift a line from Simon Sinek, "Martin Luther King didn't give a famous speech where he said 'I have a plan', he gave a famous speech where he said 'I have a dream'". It's a powerful way to gather momentum for member growth, so long as the thing you believe in is something that they believe in, too.
On the sponsors & donors side, you will likely need you to get more concrete with what they're "being a part of" as a sponsor. Better yet, you may want to marry their sponsorship dollars with some more active form of participation, since that's what your community really values.
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Alex Hillman
Sep 25, 2012, 9:27:06 AM9/25/12
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The problem I experienced with any community where I live is that everyone subscribes to dreams, but when something has to be done, it takes a huge lot of effort and energy to make people realize that they need to participate, otherwise it's just leeching. Is that problem addressed in those community building resources?Does the picture serve to communicate the added value of coworking to people?
"Subscribes to dreams" is the problem. In the masterclass, we look at this as "passive agreement" which is easy to get and as you point out, doesn't really turn into action very easily. People will tell you, "oh, yes! that's a great idea.", but they don't include themselves in it from the beginning. That kind of agreement isn't useful, and burns people trying to grow from a "group" into a community.
The source of the dream is usually the problem. In this case, it's your dream that they're subscribed to, not their dream that you're reminding them that they have.
Martin Luther King didn't convince people to have his dream. He reminded them of theirs.
-Alex
On Tuesday, September 25, 2012 at 6:23 AM, Cyryl Kwaśniewski wrote:
W dniu wtorek, 25 wrze¶nia 2012 03:24:08 UTC+2 u¿ytkownik Alex Hillman napisa³:
I loved this, was worth the struggle to hear :) One thing you might think about tweaking is to invite people to also believe in coworking, rather than tell them to."You buy the jelly beans, I'll eat them."This is one of the best illustrations of how people misunderstand collaboration & cooperation I've ever heard. I'll be stealing it, with attribution."Being a part of it."One of our members at Indy Hall (he's only been there for 4 months or so) has started using similar language to describe our community to others. He specifically says, "you can be a part of it." It was amazing to hear him say that out loud the first time.Similarly, there's something really powerful with painting a vivid picture of a belief. To lift a line from Simon Sinek, "Martin Luther King didn't give a famous speech where he said 'I have a plan', he gave a famous speech where he said 'I have a dream'". It's a powerful way to gather momentum for member growth, so long as the thing you believe in is something that they believe in, too.
The problem I experienced with any community where I live is that everyone subscribes to dreams, but when something has to be done, it takes a huge lot of effort and energy to make people realize that they need to participate, otherwise it's just leeching. Is that problem addressed in those community building resources?Does the picture serve to communicate the added value of coworking to people?
On the sponsors & donors side, you will likely need you to get more concrete with what they're "being a part of" as a sponsor. Better yet, you may want to marry their sponsorship dollars with some more active form of participation, since that's what your community really values.
I live in quite a different region of the world. What value of sponsoring a coworking space would you advertise to the sponsors to encourage them? Please mind that we here are technologically on the bleeding edge. Working culture, however, is at 4 years ago as compared to what you developed in the US. So, the coworking is not a really hot topic yet. I want to change that ;)
----On Sunday, September 23, 2012 at 4:04 PM, Shenoa Lawrence wrote:
I was asked to put together a presentation for a barcamp over the weekend called "I Believe in Coworking, and So Do You."
https://vimeo.com/49987779
(sorry for the quiet audio)
The audience was mostly peers, with some experienced coworking folks and others new to the idea. I kept it casual and intimate because I thought that worked well for this crowd. It went well, and I'm thinking about adapting it for a few different purposes. We're fundraising (non-profit) and also reaching out to other organizations in the community to find good connections that will help us grow our membership and events programs. I'm curious about any feedback folks might want to give on how I can best accomplish that. I'm very comfortable talking to my peers and potential coworkers, but less so to sponsors and business orgs.
Pointers and critiques very welcome!
Side note for Susan at Office Nomads: There's folks from other coworking spaces in our audience, and some of the discussion afterwards leads me to think we'd benefit from a local coworking association (IE: Coworking Field Day, FTW!). I'd love to hear what your research brings up.
Shenoa Lawrence
Room to Think
http://rm2think.com
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Jeannine
Sep 25, 2012, 11:22:28 AM9/25/12
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Oh, we have that too. I keep encountering this notion that collaboration really means, you pay me to do something and I talk to you about how I should do it.
Sometimes people have to be led. With very concrete requests. Requests that have deadlines and are time limited.
On Tuesday, September 25, 2012 12:23:51 PM UTC+2, Cyryl Kwaśniewski wrote:
Sometimes people have to be led. With very concrete requests. Requests that have deadlines and are time limited.
One of the better ways to do this is to have a project of some kind which benefits nobody in the coworking space, other than the space itself. Find a nonprofit and run a fundraiser for instance. Invite local artists to show their work in your space. Invite a local theater group to create and put on a show in your space. Give the proceeds to a nonproft. Sponsor a local music event, as a group. Small businesses never get the chance to do this, we don´t have enough money. But together, we might.
The choice is ultimately up to the coworkers really, but I have to say that I had to start by picking one myself and then being very vague about how they were chosen.
Then ask people to help. With discrete tasks, related to their work. It is a good bit of work in the beginneng. But then it starts to go by itself.
On Tuesday, September 25, 2012 12:23:51 PM UTC+2, Cyryl Kwaśniewski wrote:
W dniu wtorek, 25 września 2012 03:24:08 UTC+2 użytkownik Alex Hillman napisał:I loved this, was worth the struggle to hear :) One thing you might think about tweaking is to invite people to also believe in coworking, rather than tell them to."You buy the jelly beans, I'll eat them."This is one of the best illustrations of how people misunderstand collaboration & cooperation I've ever heard. I'll be stealing it, with attribution."Being a part of it."One of our members at Indy Hall (he's only been there for 4 months or so) has started using similar language to describe our community to others. He specifically says, "you can be a part of it." It was amazing to hear him say that out loud the first time.Similarly, there's something really powerful with painting a vivid picture of a belief. To lift a line from Simon Sinek, "Martin Luther King didn't give a famous speech where he said 'I have a plan', he gave a famous speech where he said 'I have a dream'". It's a powerful way to gather momentum for member growth, so long as the thing you believe in is something that they believe in, too.
The problem I experienced with any community where I live is that everyone subscribes to dreams, but when something has to be done, it takes a huge lot of effort and energy to make people realize that they need to participate, otherwise it's just leeching. Is that problem addressed in those community building resources?Does the picture serve to communicate the added value of coworking to people?
On the sponsors & donors side, you will likely need you to get more concrete with what they're "being a part of" as a sponsor. Better yet, you may want to marry their sponsorship dollars with some more active form of participation, since that's what your community really values.
I live in quite a different region of the world. What value of sponsoring a coworking space would you advertise to the sponsors to encourage them? Please mind that we here are technologically on the bleeding edge. Working culture, however, is at 4 years ago as compared to what you developed in the US. So, the coworking is not a really hot topic yet. I want to change that ;)
Shenoa Lawrence
Sep 25, 2012, 2:20:53 PM9/25/12
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Alex, steal away, I love it!
On the sponsor front, we do have 4 sponsors that I feel strongly share our vision. They ARE a part of it, and participate as informal mentors and sometimes event leaders. Basically, they're members that can't be here more frequently cause they have their own offices (we love them to pieces). I'd like to find a way to tie more organizations in that share our values and connect with us in the same way. I think that might be a tall order, but it's the ideal.
Cyryl - something that might help is a tactic I've seen one of our community members use. When someone tells him an idea, he says, "Oh man, that's REALLY great! You should do that! And you should talk to so-and-so about it. When are you going to do that?" Maybe not all at the same time, but it's proactively encouraging people to share the dream, own it, and run with it. During a keynote at the barcamp this past weekend, we were all asked the question, "Who here has been encouraged by this community to go do something, and then went out and started doing it?" An impressive number of people raised their hands.
Jeannine - We're putting heads together with our local library; they're unusually progressive. They want to organize a "Wikipedia Loves Libraries" event, and other educational things. While we haven't done it yet, we anticipate good things in partnering with other organizations.
Thanks all for your comments!
Shenoa
On the sponsor front, we do have 4 sponsors that I feel strongly share our vision. They ARE a part of it, and participate as informal mentors and sometimes event leaders. Basically, they're members that can't be here more frequently cause they have their own offices (we love them to pieces). I'd like to find a way to tie more organizations in that share our values and connect with us in the same way. I think that might be a tall order, but it's the ideal.
Cyryl - something that might help is a tactic I've seen one of our community members use. When someone tells him an idea, he says, "Oh man, that's REALLY great! You should do that! And you should talk to so-and-so about it. When are you going to do that?" Maybe not all at the same time, but it's proactively encouraging people to share the dream, own it, and run with it. During a keynote at the barcamp this past weekend, we were all asked the question, "Who here has been encouraged by this community to go do something, and then went out and started doing it?" An impressive number of people raised their hands.
Jeannine - We're putting heads together with our local library; they're unusually progressive. They want to organize a "Wikipedia Loves Libraries" event, and other educational things. While we haven't done it yet, we anticipate good things in partnering with other organizations.
Thanks all for your comments!
Shenoa
Alex Hillman
Sep 25, 2012, 2:22:39 PM9/25/12
to cowo...@googlegroups.com
Cyryl - something that might help is a tactic I've seen one of our community members use. When someone tells him an idea, he says, "Oh man, that's REALLY great! You should do that! And you should talk to so-and-so about it. When are you going to do that?" Maybe not all at the same time, but it's proactively encouraging people to share the dream, own it, and run with it. During a keynote at the barcamp this past weekend, we were all asked the question, "Who here has been encouraged by this community to go do something, and then went out and started doing it?" An impressive number of people raised their hands.
This is powerful, highly recommended :)
-Alex
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Shenoa Lawrence
Sep 25, 2012, 2:25:53 PM9/25/12
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One more thing on the title of the presentation...it wasn't something I would have chosen. I got nominated for that talk.
Once I got to thinking about it though, I liked the idea of telling people that they believe in coworking...or at least the values of coworking. I may not have tied it together as strongly as I needed to, but I wanted to point out that those values are already ingrained from our earliest childhood. People DO believe in coworking, but they might not yet have heard the word for it. Especially in this community where most people haven't heard of it. We spend a lot of time just explaining the word.
Shenoa
Once I got to thinking about it though, I liked the idea of telling people that they believe in coworking...or at least the values of coworking. I may not have tied it together as strongly as I needed to, but I wanted to point out that those values are already ingrained from our earliest childhood. People DO believe in coworking, but they might not yet have heard the word for it. Especially in this community where most people haven't heard of it. We spend a lot of time just explaining the word.
Shenoa
Michael Hopkins
Oct 3, 2012, 9:00:29 PM10/3/12
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Great presentation, Shenoa. In addition to everything you said, one of my favorite parts was someone else's point that it's important for a group to maintain the connections to the outside world in which the original group formed: the coffee shop in most cases.
I like the idea of a coworking group as a healthy, interdependent and supportive organism that also has strong connections outside of itself to grow and to fill the spaces left by the members who naturally move on after awhile.
Michael
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