Community Building – Building Sold Separately

Not all buildings have exterior signs. And sometimes, buildings have signs so big and grandiose that you can’t help wonder if the label outside matches the ingredients inside. That’s why I recently walked into the newly built architectural marvel in my neighborhood, formally designated in enormous gold letters as the “Community Center.” I imagined seeing groups of people talking together at tables, while the energy of their voices became music for the room.  Instead, I walked inside only to find it was a bleak and sterile office building, complete with a security guard in the middle of the lobby and signs pointing to other offices. The only décor that gave it any sense of vitality was some garden imagery and a quote about community on the walls.

Ironically, I joined Design Dream Lab a few months ago, searching for a community without looking for signs. Design Dream Lab doesn’t have it’s own physical building yet defines itself as “an eclectic and vibrant Community. A place to make genuine and sustainable human connections.”  What made me want to get learn more was the fact that it described itself as “a purpose-driven community that utilizes empathy and design thinking in order to solve collective challenges that ultimately change the world.” Intrigued and skeptical, I went to my first monthly gathering.  The moment I walked through the door, things were not bleak and sterile.  Although no one looked like me, everyone smiled and greeted me like they were waiting for me to arrive. Then came the moment of truth – filling out a name tag.  Brainwashed from attending hundreds of networking events, I expected to robotically spell out the usual default details like job title and company name.  To my pleasant surprise, the instructions were different.  After my name, I had to indicate the last book I read, an animal that describes me, and the quality I most admired in a friend. Soon, I was chatting and laughing with people I just met, which no glass of wine or heavy card-stock business card could ever initiate.

This small exercise of non-labeling is when I realized that Design Dream Lab was a community I had only previously read about. Peter Block lays out a framework for authentic community building in his book, Community, The Structure of Belonging. He considers community as the smallest unit of transformation…if we accept the challenge.  He notes, “the moment we choose to change the conversation, the moment we choose to end the projection-and-labeling cycle, transformation happens.” Instead of focusing on deficiencies of each member or the group as a whole, its necessary to instead “focus on their gifts.” The rest of the 3-hour gathering was filled with well-designed activities created by the community leader that included inquiry, storytelling, and creativity. This resulted in building a community out an authentic experience of relatedness, possibility, and commitment instead of obligation, status and coercion.

I now know that community is not about a building or a place you congregate with others you might have something in common with once a day, week, or month.  Design Dream Lab has made me realize that building a community is both an active and co-active process.  In their own words, members join and stay because they’re looking for “a new possibility in their communities, their work, their personal lives” or because “the community is very inviting and playful and it allows people to explore dynamics and interactions in a unique way.” One unifying theme members share is their willingness to participate with an open mind and an open heart, and engage in transformative conversations.  So far these conversations have led to important projects in local communities as well as the creation of an empathy-boosting product.  If this sounds like you, we invite you to come and see for yourself!