Henry Mintzberg has some interesting thoughts in the July-August 2009 Harvard Business Review on “Rebuilding Companies as Communities”. He suggests that “Middle managers, who see the connections between operations and strategy, can be instrumental in rebuilding a sense of community in businesses.”
Shared Purpose is the Bedrock of a Community
In our book, “The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan”, we suggest that leadership is about inspiring and enabling others to do their absolute best, together, to realize a meaningful and rewarding shared purpose. Your organization’s shared purpose must be the focal point where vision, values, and priorities come together to turn potential into something meaningful and rewarding. This is the bedrock upon which any sense of community in business is built.
Threat or Contributor
It’s not too much of a stretch to think about onboarding new people as finding the right people to join your community, and then helping them contribute to that community. This is why it is so important to make sure your new hires share your community’s vision, values and broad-stroke priorities, and then contribute to that vision, values and priorities after they join. They’re either a part of the community or a threat to the community. There is no middle ground. Strong communities band together to deal with threats and to support their accepted members achieve the shared purpose together.
