This is Part Four in a series on Connecting to Your Community, inspired by the Salon Discussion on the subject last March. Below is an excerpt. For the whole article, follow the link at the end.
Previously in this series: Learn to Share: A Primer | Part One: Setting the Stage | Part Two: Identifying Your Motives | Part Three: Becoming a Catalyst
Developing Synergy
HYPOTHESIS
The best way to balance our commodity-driven culture is to contribute to the community through the open exchange of knowledge, ideas and information.
Two or more people working well together become more valuable than each person individually. This state is a form of synergy, and is more commonplace than you might think. Musical ensembles bring works to harmonic life in a way that each instrument alone cannot achieve, politicians campaigning together can drum up more votes than either of them can individually gather, and a group of individuals rallying for a united cause can achieve more than one person spending an equivalent amount of time working toward that cause on their own.
Put Yourself in the Right Place at the Right Time
As you proceed through identifying your motives and becoming a catalyst, you must pay attention to your surroundings. Keep your eyes peeled for opportunities to join a community and give of yourself for its greater good. Kirsten, one of the I Heart Art: Portland council members, recently wrote about putting herself in the right place at the right time, and I agree.
The next time you are drawn to someone, just go up to them and say hello, and see what happens. I happened to be at a talk with Matt Stichcomb from Etsy, and I just happened to run into some friends there, and I just happened to find myself in a meeting with Matt and about a dozen people at eight o’clock in the morning… I went because I was drawn to an opportunity. I had no idea where it would lead me, but I knew that it was important.
—Kirsten Moore
I disagree with the notion of pure chance, luck or karma. Kirsten talks about having a sense for situations and people that might lead to her next opportunity. She doesn’t aggressively pursue people or groups—rather, she recognizes when someone or something fits within her needs as an artist and contributor and puts herself out there to explore the possibilities.
Likewise, my own involvement with the I Heart Art: Portland project began with a casual meet-up at a local bar. Members of the Portland Etsy Team were invited to have a drink with some of Etsy’s visiting administration. I had not really met anyone locally as far as community was concerned, so I knew that this was a great place to start.
One thing led to another, and I ended up spending a large part of the evening chatting with Shannon, the administrator of the Portland Etsy Team, about how to get more involved. A few weeks later, a message went up on the team forum (that she had encouraged me to join) about an open call for interest in a collaborative project between Etsy, Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Craft. And I Heart Art was born.
Once you find these places to be and these people to talk to, start initiating conversations. You don’t need to be incredibly extroverted (we established in the last chapter that I’m not), you just need to say hello, let your passions guide you and see where you end up after 30 minutes or an hour.
One day over lunch, my friend Diane introduced the concept of 30,000 foot-level conversations. She and I had been deep in discussion about the meaning of “free” and her recent investigation into the benefits of giving yourself away. I enjoyed that conversation so much that I started a weekly-ish coffee or lunch rendezvous with someone from my sphere of Twitter followers, and dubbed them Twitterdates. Each week I find someone new to meet up with and we have conversations that often reach outside my comfort zone and help build my own community in the process. This simple little method of meeting new people and putting myself out there has opened doorways to extremely interesting conversations, new opportunities and much more.
Read the full article on Isaac’s new blog, The Ambidextrous Brain.
