SPURspectives

Did you ever build a tree house? How about a fort, or a clubhouse? You know what I’m talking about. As children we’d gang together on a mission to build a place of our own a refuge, a place where we made the rules. It was something we’d cobble together from scraps of wood and a fistful of nails on the edge of the woods. Sometimes it was a heap of old blankets, sheets, and towels draped over card tables, chairs, and saw horses in the basement. But it was our spot, we made it all on our own, and it was awesome.

Anything was possible in our spot. We formed clubs, shared cookies, told wild stories, and bonded as a little tribe of hooligans. Sometimes our hut was cool enough to attract new blood and the group grew. Once in a while the group got so big that we’d need to make the place bigger.

Those childlike acts of communal creation making a shared space with a mission and purpose were far more important than you may realize. We still do it. We’ve just lost the innocence, exuberance, and imagination. Well, it’s time to rummage through the toy box in your head and rekindle the flame. Your tribe needs you.

Those of you charged with building your organization’s following, and aren’t we all, should take time to consider your group in the context of place. Where do you gather? Where does your social network meet? How do you interact? What gets your pool of peeps to become a posse? Consider it in the context of place.

What kind of group do you want to have? Where do you want to be to best perform? How can you translate that behavior to social media space? Whether you use Facebook, Twitter, Ning, or meet-ups isn’t important. You just need to foster the behaviors that mirror your desired sense of place. Do you want your group to be charged up about the team and rally behind them? Maybe you should model your group’s interaction as you would in a locker room, sports bar, or man cave. Do you want your group to unite in solidarity about a social injustice? Perhaps your group needs a fort mentality. Are you building a team of volunteers to share information about your child’s school as part of the PTA? You may want to consider creating a collective coffee house.

We may have grown up, but our behavior is still tied to our understanding of our location. We create places to facilitate activities and behaviors. As you build your social network, ask your team, what kind of iconic place will best suit our needs? Then build it with all of the zeal that a child’s imagination can muster.

Tags: community building, community organizer, group interaction, nonprofit, organization, social media, social network, tribes