Jono Bacon – People Powered (2019)
De auteur geeft enerzijds een mooi overzicht van de theorie achter het ontstaan, floreren en soms weer verdwijnen van ‘communities’, anderzijds biedt hij ook een bruikbaar stappenplan om zelf met communities aan de slag te gaan. Waarschijnlijk loont het de moeite om het boek tweemaal te lezen; een eerste keer ter bevestiging óf, welke, en hoe men een community zou willen starten, de tweede keer terwijl dit proces in volle gang is.
Collaboration can be infectious. When people work together out in the open, solving common, tangible problems, it generates social capital and respect, and onlookers often want to get in on the action.
We consistently overvalue our own creations (the IKEA effect). This can have significant ramifications for communities and companies that have people working together and reviewing each other’s work.
“Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away”
Don’t wait until you have all the answers before you start building your community. Let your intuition guide you, but ship something. Deliver work that you can evaluate, evolve, and expand.
“If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”
One of the flaws in the human condition is to focus on the appearance of doing something well. People buy fast cars and expensive clothes to appear successful. Bureaucrats add layers of process to appear responsible. Similarly, people completely overdo metrics to appear that they have their finger on the pulse of their (community) strategy. This is a waste of time, energy, and money.
Add a special category of users and provide direct access to the executive team via a special email address. While they rarely use this email address the members appreciated that it was there if needed. Everyone needs a bat phone sometimes.