We’ve done a lot of community training in groups.
What clients want can differ from what they need.
Many pay for the transfer of skills when they need a transfer of passion.
It’s pretty futile to sequester a group of people into a room and force-feed them community building skills.
Until you’ve felt the bug, the skills don’t matter.
And that bug comes from experiencing the community.
That experience includes asking questions, getting responses, building a reputation, seeing first-hand how the community can help them solve their problems and make valuable connections.
Once you have experienced the community, you can see the value in getting more responses to questions, building valuable relationships, and creating useful content etc…You’re eager to overcome your problems.
But you have to want to be in the room to learn those skills first.
A quick tip for anyone about to teach anyone community skills; set a simple task first. Have participants identify a problem they want to solve or a useful connection they want to make and pose this as a question in the community.
(If you don’t have a community, find the closest possible community and ask there instead.)
They have to experience community before you can teach it.
