Community building – read and act on the book Get Together 社群建立：讀與行《Get Together》這本書

（文末節錄中文摘譯）

In four days, I hosted two virtual events for two communities. One for Oranje Express and one for my company. I was exhausted. But at the same time, I was thrilled and satisfied. I felt connected with a new group of people. Empowering each other to share their passion and talents to more people can be such a fantastic thing.

Community building is not something new. But after reading the book by Stripe Press – Get Together, I had a few new perspectives to look at the whole thing. In the past, I thought a community is just a group of people gathering together –which is not wrong. But to form a community that’s self-organized and can grow sustainably, a long-term vision and tangible strategy are necessary. That’s what the book is all about. It’s a guidance to build a community that’s powerful and long lasting. In the book, those hard-earned experiences are written in stories. You will be inspired by all the lively stories and feel like you are part of it. You will learn their secret recipes about community building and be able to start building your own.

With those stories and principles in mind, I went through two community events recently. I had a glimpse of the sparkle they mentioned in the book that was lit up by passionate individuals. Most amazing thing is, these individuals are around me.

I am going to share these two stories with you. They came from two of my friends, Brenda and Yati. Brenda is a master student in Theology. Yati is a technology consultant in my company. I am also going to introduce the three key principles I took away from the book Get Together.

Principle # 1: Spark the flame. Find out the “why” of your community and its purpose.

Brenda is a friend of mine. I met her around ten years ago in a publishing house in Taiwan. She was one of the marketing coordinators at the publisher. Unlike stereotypical marketers, she was not the most outgoing one. But once you found a common topic that she is interested in, she can talk for days with you. Those topics are, travelling, photography, films, Polish poet Szymborska, etc. One time I sent her a postcard during my travel to Czech Republic, and few years later she still thanked me for that token. I already forgot about it.

Then I graduated, went abroad, fell in love, resided in the Netherlands for a few years. One day I received her text, I am coming to study in Amsterdam. Do you want to meet sometime? That’s when we picked up our contact again. She is pursuing a degree in Religion and Theology, about to finish her course in two months. Then the Covid-19 pandemic broke out.

During the months-long lock down, I was reading this book about community building published by Stripe Press. I called her. Hey, why don’t you share some of your thoughts about what you have learned from modern theology with our community at Oranje Express? You said there were some links that you discussed between Dostoevsky and viruses, right? Being a knowledge worker for more than a decade, she took no more than a few seconds to join my initiative.

There we had our first online meet up with the community for a media platform called Orange Express. The topic was “When Dostoevsky meets the Corona Virus”. The originally planned 70 min meeting got extended to two hours, with ongoing conversation lasting for the following days. Everyone was engaged, opened to share their thoughts even with strangers.

That’s the power when you found someone that’s passionate about what they do, and connect them with the right audience. You sparked the flame that is brighter than when shining alone.

Principle # 1: Spark the flame. Find out the “why” of your community and its purpose.

To us, the purpose is to share knowledge.

Remember Yati? She is a colleague of mine. I didn’t know her until three weeks ago. When I joined a 30-days veggie challenge campaign at my company that aims to encourage participants to reduce animal consumption for a month. To start, we all got added to a WhatsApp group. I wasn’t the most active sharer as my cooking skill is more function-oriented than taste-oriented. But she is not. She enjoys cooking and she makes fabulous dishes every day! Every time when I looked at those pictures while lunch time was still two hours away, I said to myself, we got to make her share her skill and passion.

So we asked her to. We hosted the vegetarian cooking workshop online for the first time for the group of participants. She managed to get two cameras working. One aimed at her and the other focused on her stove, just like in the real TV cooking show. That evening within one and a half hour, I made the best vegetarian curry dish and home-made Naan bread from my kitchen. All from raw ingredients. My boyfriend ran to me and took part of the meal as his second dinner. And he asked, can you make more of this next time?

I also learned one thing. Indian curry doesn’t contain any curry powder. I’ve never used such amount of cumin, coriander and turmeric powders that I had to open the lids of the spice bottles. This friend of mine had a nice spice plate in her kitchen. It served all the secret weapons…powders in the shape of a flower. She had it done so elegantly in just a few seconds to season her dish. Me? I did not. I was even rolling my Naan dough with an empty wine bottle. In my head, this Chinese saying came up and mocked me, “When you want to accomplish something good, you must first prepare your tools well (工欲善其事，必先利其器)” Well, I guess it was a lesson learned from the ancestor’s wisdom.

To us, the monthly meet-up for Oranje Express and the virtual cooking workshop within the veggie challenge are both new starts. These communities didn’t exist before people who share a common interest and passion stick together. After that, we will need an easy, repeatable format for more activity initiators to follow to keep the experience going. We are not there yet. But the next step is clear:

Principle # 2: Stoke the fire. After you get people together, you need to glue them further. Attract new folks, cultivate a common identity and see if they keep coming back.

If people don’t return, it’s only a one-time event. A community forms a relationship that attracts people to keep coming back to one another. Therefore, principle number 2, as described in the book, is to glue your community members further by cultivating a common identity together. “Together” is the key. As the quote said in the very beginning of the book, “build a community with people, not for them.” Pay attention to those who come back again and again. As they are the core members of your community.

Principle # 3: Pass the torch. Find out leaders and empower them to shape your community.

Last but not least, a community is not a top-down organization. It’s somewhat decentralized. This leads to the last but I’d say one of the most important elements of leadership—to cultivate more leaders in the future. You don’t just encourage people to talk and share ideas, but to find and raise more leaders to bring the community forward in the future.

Sharing decision-making right can be scary. But that’s the secret for a community to grow strong and sustainably. Once you establish more leaders that shared a common passion, they will shape the direction of your community, and even bring it further than you never could on your own. It’s an unexpected journey with a group of people loved the same thing you loved. How amazing is that!

If you are interested in these principles, check out the book Get Together: How to build a community with your people (2019, Stripe Press). By Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh, Kai Elmer Sotto

社群建立：讀與行《Get Together》這本書

在四天裡，我為兩個社群組織了兩個線上虛擬活動，一個為荷事生非，一個為我目前的公司。活動結束後我筋疲力竭，但心底卻有深深的驚喜與滿足。好似我與一個我從未認識的群體產生了連結。可以開發她人分享她們所具有的熱情與才幹，竟可以是一件如此美妙的事情。

建立社群並不是甚麼新穎的事情。在讀完《Get Together》這本書之後，我卻獲得一些新鮮的觀點來看這整件事情。過去我總認為「社群」不過是一群人的聚集，這並沒有不對，但要建立一個自我組織且能永續發展的社群，一個長遠的視野和可行的策略卻是不可或缺的。《Get Together》這本書就在談這件事情，它提供了建立一個強大且可永續發展的社群導引，並以生動的故事，娓娓道出這些從經驗裡習得的方法。在鮮活的故事裡，你覺得自己就屬於那些存在著的社群，同時，你也習得他們的秘密處方來建立你自己的社群。

在我的兩個線上社群活動裡，我腦海裡帶著讀過的字句與概念，一窺了那些他們在書裡提到的「社群的火光」。這些火光由具有熱情的個體所引燃，最美妙的事情是，在我的社群裡，這些個體就在我的（虛擬）身旁。

以下我就兩個小故事，分享這兩個社群建立的過程（或起源）。這兩個故事來自我的兩個朋友Brenda與Yati。Brenda是一個研究宗教與神學的學生，Yati則是我公司裡的科技顧問。在陳述她們故事的過程裡，我也將介紹三個我在書中習得的社群建立原則。

我與Brenda在大約十年前相識於台灣的一間出版社，中間我們一度斷了聯繫。幾年前因她的一個簡訊，我們又重新搭上線，她訊裡說到自己跑到了阿姆斯特丹，重拾了學生身分，說我們有空可以見見面。見了幾次面，新冠肺炎就這樣打亂了所有人的計畫，將所有的聯繫通通虛擬化。

在一次的通話裡她提到自己正在上的課，說課堂裡談到杜斯妥也夫斯基在十九世紀裡寫下的文學，對今日人們看待新冠病毒有所啟發。我們聊了一個多小時，說這麼有趣的主題，何不與更多人分享。於是，我們在五月為荷事生非舉辦了「當杜斯妥也夫斯基與新冠病毒相遇」的線上成員Meet up座談。原本計畫70分鐘的講座，討論了近兩小時，第一次見面的陌生成員，可以如此開放與投入地分享他們的想法，實在令人難忘。

我發現當你把對某些事物擁有熱情的人，與對的人事物做連結，當中點燃的火花是如此耀眼，且比當她們獨自閃爍時還要燦爛。

原則一：點燃火花。找出你社群存在的理由和目的。

對荷事生非與我們來說，這個社群存在的理由就是分享知識。

Yati是我公司裡的一個同事，我在一個三十天蔬食挑戰的活動裡認識了她。在我們的活動群組裡，她是最活躍的其中一個。不同與我功能取向的廚藝，她是一個真功夫的廚藝愛好者。每每看著她在群組裡分享的食譜與照片，但距離午餐時間偏偏還有兩小時，我都對自己說，不讓這個人與我們分享她的廚藝還真不行。

於是，線上廚房就這樣開始了。Yati在她的廚房架了兩台相機，像烹飪秀一樣，一個鏡頭指向她，另一個指向她的爐具。在一個半小時中，全部從基本材料做起，我完成了我人生裡第一道印度疏食咖哩加烤餅。男友完食之後對我說，你未來可以多做這道料理嗎？

對我們來說，荷事生非的社群聚會和疏食挑戰的線上廚房都才剛起步。在這之後，我們所需要的是一個簡單且可重複的形式，讓社群裡的成員能夠就著前人的經驗，將同樣的社群經驗持續延續下去。

原則二：把火點旺。在人們聚集之後，你需要幫助他們與彼此更緊密連結。吸引新成員，並為群體發展出一個共同身分（好讓成員有歸屬感）並觀察他們是否持續出現。

若人們不返回你的社群，你所建構的就是一次性的活動。一個社群的存在，在於它能吸引人重覆歸回某一群人所建立的關係裡。因此，書中的第二原則談到如何透過形塑一個集體身分，將人「黏著」在一起。「一起」是一個關鍵。書首就提到「不要『為』你的成員建立社群，要『和』他們『一起』建立社群」。因此，你需要著眼與那些常常現身的社員，因為他們是構築你的社群的核心角色。

原則三：傳遞火炬。在群體中找出更多的領袖，激勵並賦予他們能力來持續形塑你的群體。

最後，社群不是一個上對下的組織，它是去中心化的。這與我認為領袖的一個重要特質不謀而合──開發更多領袖。你不僅僅是去鼓勵人發言與分享想法，更重要的是去挖掘那些潛在領袖來帶領社群未來的方向。

分享決策可能聽起來有點可怕，但這是一個社群壯大和永續發展的秘訣。一旦你建立了更多與你共享同樣熱情與視野的領袖，這些人會形塑你社群的方向，或甚至帶領你的社群前往一個你所不能及之處。這是一個未知的旅程，但你有這些愛你所愛之事的人作為你的旅伴，不太壞吧！

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