Your culture must be a community within communities

Primarily there are three kinds of organisations:

Those for people and/or planet.
Those for profit.
Those for people, planet, and profit.

This third kind of organisation is pursuing the so-called triple bottom line (environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and economic prosperity);

Organisations purely for profit are in my view headed for dinosaur status. Why?

Profit is not a reason for being in business rather it is a result of being good at business.

Whatever you do in your business, you are affecting the communities in which you operate, positively or negatively, or more than likely, both. Build a culture of community in your organisation and you can embrace sustainability which is the zeitgeist of our time.

Here are some actions you can take:

Be aware of the communities or tribes to use the vernacular, your stakeholders are a part of. We all belong somewhere. And why we belong where we do provides key insights into who we are and what we do.

Learn about tribes. Seth Godin is one of the gurus I admire and his book Tribes is well worth reading.

Support your employees community work. One of my clients, Andrew Spink, the General Manager of the Devere Hotel in Swindon, United Kingdom, can show clear correlation between high employee engagement and supporting their community work. In Andrew’s case he pays his employees for 5 days work of their choice that they do in the local community per year.

How are you helping the communities in which your business operates to thrive?

Befriending and supporting the social entrepreneurs within your local community and beyond is a another key way to work alongside today’s movers and shakers.

How about online communities? How are you embracing them. Many of your employees are whether you are aware of it or not. Get ahead of the game and ensure that embracing social media in positive ways is integral to your business.
As my friend and colleague Kwai Yi says, Are you running a socially responsible and ethical business? because social media will find you out if you are not.

One of my clients allows employees to contribute to social media before 8 am, between 12 and 2 pm and after 4 pm. What are you allowing?

The best organisations I have observed in the past 20 years are those that operate and treat people like family. Is your business operating like a family?

Creating a community culture within the communities in which your business operates is one of my 8 critical factors for success in modern business. The other 7 I have written about in my posts of June 14th, 13th, 11th, 9th, 7th, 4th, and 2nd.

Be the difference you want to see in the world
Ian
Founder Differencemakers Community
Please download my ebook about the 8 critical factors here.

Please join me in Manchester on July 7th for a one day summit on the 8 critical factors. Details here.

To invite me to conduct such a summit for your organisation please visit here.