I really liked what Jeannine said, which I heard as, “Step back a little and
let the community grow organically”.
I therefore really like Tony’s Cotivation process to kickstart the community.
What I’ve always believed is a few things can replicate: space, process,
brand/experience.
Communities are often driven by strong leadership, but until cloning happens,
leaders can’t be duplicated nor be at 2 places at once.
After opening a few locations, what I’ve learned is that if you want to open an
additional location, you’ll have to establish that the community can grow
without your strong leadership actively present. “STEP BACK!” :-P
JEROME CHANG
WEST: Santa Monica
1450 2nd Street (@Broadway) | ph: (310) 526-2255
CENTRAL: Mid-Wilshire
5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) | ph: (323) 330-9505
EAST: Downtown
529 S. Broadway, Suite 4000 (@Pershing Square) | ph: (213) 550-2235
NORTH: Pasadena (Opening 2015 Q4!)
600 E. Colorado Blvd. (@Los Robles)
On Jun 11, 2015, at 7:33 AM, Tony Bacigalupo wrote:
> Hey Will, I encountered a lot of the same challenges back in 2013 and
> addressed them by figuring out how to get people to engage with each other in
> a different way. I knew I couldn't just get people to be an excited part of a
> participatory culture just by willing them to change, so I thought about how
> I could re-engineer the culture from within.
>
> Since it was around the turn of the year and people were making New Year's
> resolutions, I thought a goal-setting group would be good. I knew I needed
> one!
>
> So I kicked off a 5 week accountability group, called it Cotivation, and
> targeted people who were interested in membership but had not yet joined. I
> made the start date of this program an excuse for people sitting on the fence
> to jump in and give it a try.
>
> Existing members were also welcome, so we had a cross-section of brand new
> members and longtime residents. Deep bonds were formed immediately, and we
> ended up having a really strong comeback in terms of both business and
> culture that following year.
>
> As Jacob mentioned, he and Susan encountered an even more similar situation
> to yours when they expanded. Susan's version of Cotivation was a huge help to
> them as well.
>
> So, in general, I'd say it's helpful to look for ways to reboot culture from
> within through some new participatory programming. We're doing training for
> new Cotivation organizers next week, so if you're interested in that hit me
> up to discuss!
>
> Tony
> --
> New Work City • Cotivation
>
>
> On Thursday, June 11, 2015, Will Bennis, Locus Workspace
> wrote:
> Jacob and Jeannine,
>
> Thank you both so much for sharing your stories. Very helpful getting these
> other perspectives (even if they don't give me an obvious solution).
>
> Will
>
> On Thursday, June 11, 2015 at 10:52:46 AM UTC+2, Jeannine wrote:
>
> Hiya, Will,
>
> We had this also when we went from one space to two. I tred a lot of things.
> But in the end for us anyway it came down to this right here:
>
> Plus it would creat a strange double-pricing structure for two spaces that
> otherwise are part of the same community.
>
> (Emphasis added)
>
> That was how I thought of it also. Our second location was also set up
> specifically to deal with a problem I could not address in the first space,
> which the inability to have storage/warehousing/shipping. So I thought of it
> more as an annex or supplement to the first space conceptually.I am a locaton
> independent kind of girl anyway.
>
> I was dead wrong. Couldn't have been more wrong. It didn't clear up until I
> finally accepted that the second location had its own identity, its own
> groove, and all efforts to make it be like its sister location or to spread
> the community over both locations had the effect of strangling them both off.
>
> Here's how strong the effect is: our second location is set up on a revenue
> sharing model with the owner of the building. Community management is now in
> the hands of one of the coworkers there, who also is paid for this on a
> revenue sharing basis (each of us gave him a piece of the action). I had
> thus accepted that I would be lucky to break even with that many fingers in
> the pie. I was wrong about that, too. Once it broke away to do its own
> thing, it did better with more costs.
>
> The reasons the problem appeared are of course interesting; but more
> important it seems to me is to identify what is stopping you now,
> irrespective of how it happened two years ago. You can't get the community
> back, you can never get back to where you were, for the same reasons you
> can't step in the same river twice -- the water has continued to move in the
> mean time. You can only go forward with the two separate, different,
> communities you have, only one of which is having an adolescent identity
> crisis. :-)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jeannine
>
> --
> Visit thi
