Not adding anything here but I can reiterate upon what's already been said.
As Tony mentioned, and the hardest thing I've noticed is that unless you're proactive, the values of the initial members and team will be perpetuated amongst those that subsequently join. It is simply adaptation to the norm, and is great if you start out with engagement, but if not change requires some drive and leadership, and will take time as the existing values must have the cost-benefits visibly improved in order to be adopted as a new norm. Non-participation has no cost and no benefits (except low-risk), versus participation which has an immediate cost (especially higher for introverts) with rather opaque benefits. Yet when members see some others having engaging conversations, or enjoying food these intangible benefits will seep through and become more visible. Most humans don't like to be left out ;) These types of activities aren't necessarily just 'fun' they also offer the opportunity to let the brain solve problems in downtime between tasks. I like to have an area/table where you can sit if you actually want to invite conversation as opposed to the quiet area to avoid it, but those in the quiet area do need to be encouraged to join it occasionally. Alex hits it on the head, I considered myself an introvert and rarely start conversations with people off the cuff, yet they're are surprised when I describe myself as such. Personally I found driving a community made me more open to participating myself. Some things are fairly easy, like organising brunch which I'm really into 😂 (lunch works similarly for weekday spaces) and being welcoming in a few words is not too hard. Though ideally introverts need an introduction to each other to get things moving but which requires a strong head for details about everyone. Maybe others have some open-ended conversation tactics here, «hey Alice, I was just chatting to Bob here who's into …, what do you think about …»?? Any regular informal interaction point will lead organically to other interactions and plans (maybe even «anyone for wild swimming next week?!»). I think a potential problem might arise if interactions/events are not clearly informal versus formal. A workspace is assumedly formal by default (well unless there's free beer, foosball, and people larking around all the time) so even a lunch or any other gathering might be assumed to be so too, and an introverted newcomer may not participate unless the engagement cost is effectively zero i.e. they know they needn't do anything and can simply tryout. Bringing your own lunch but joining the shared table falls into this category. Potluck or space-provided food might introduce hesitations such as «whose food is this, can I have some, should I bring my own? I don't know so I'll just skip it…» The rules of engagement need to be clear. Some members may have no benefit in participating in either network/formal or social/informal style activities. The approach of an informal event that 'sneaks in' a more formal engagement is great (e.g. «tell us one thing…»), whereas if this is the stated objective to begin, the participation cost may be too high (e.g. a «show and tell evening») or the format irrelevant («oh but what would I talk about?») unless explicitly optional («share some tasty bites and listen to what your fellow members are up to; got something to talk about…just stand up!»). Regardless the community leader does need to catalyse members, even if just «can I tempt you with a coffee and donut…over there…with the others». It's a nominal cost, but demonstrably open to all with a no-commitment benefit, sure some may take the freebie and walk off, but eventually most will be dragged into conversation and participation :D More structured events depend entirely upon the makeup of your community. If there's enough freelancers a show and ask/tell could work well. If you're a short distance from homes you'll be able to use evenings better. Introverts are more at home if there's a prescribed format or if they can bring a friend… open days, public events. I'm all for expanding the reach of communities and would go so far as to say bring a friend/family for after hours movie/docu nights or skill/knowledge sharing but you can't so much foist this on the members, ideally such plans need to teased out, and support for it then offered so it actually happens. «Does anyone know of any good docus on release? … Shall we get everyone together one night, we've got a projector!» «Anyone have some tips for me about SEO? … That's helpful, wanna share with the other members around the table sometime, we'll do the coffee!» -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
