Community

“How should we emerge from the pandemic to heal, restore hope and work together toward an extraordinary future for our communities?”

Community Transformation Key Components:

1. Leadership: Community Transformation Requires Skilled Leadership. Leaders are skilled to prepare and develop people and solutions to accelerate community transformation. Business and Community Leaders can develop innovative community transformation plans by leveraging the training and expertise of community transformation experts.
2. Reach Out: Seek to Foster Community Transformation Outside of Your Local Organization. The community cannot be transformed directly by what happens inside your organization. Business and Community Leaders can be seen as “change agents,” in position to make a difference in their community. Business and Community Leaders can become a force for good in their community by seeking community transformation beyond their organization – through “mutually-beneficial, win-win partnerships.”
3. Culture of Excellence: Create and Maintain a Culture of Excellence in Communities.
   • In Your Circle of Relationships: Business and Community Leaders can work together to create and maintain a culture of excellence in their circle of relationships. Business and Community Leaders may be the only positive influence people in their circle of relationships. These leaders are strategically placed where they can make an impact for good by creating and maintaining a culture of excellence with their stakeholders. (Staff, suppliers, vendors, customers, investors, etc.)
   • In Your Sphere of Influence: Business and Community Leaders can work together to create and maintain a culture of excellence in their industry, region, locality, etc. Working together in your sphere of influence could mean leading your business or department with excellence, enhancing the culture of excellence in your industry, region or locality. Focus areas could include: Work/life balance, ethical business practices, dignity of work, compassionate leadership, with consideration for the poor, underserved, and marginalized, wise stewardship of scarce and valuable resources and more.
4. Multiply Your Impact: Collaborate With Others to Make a Greater Impact: Business and Community Leaders can collaborate with each other to make a greater impact in a locality. Exponential benefits can be gained from forming “mutually-beneficial, win-win partnerships.”
   • Cross-Sector Collaboration: Business and Community Leaders and their organizations exist in the community across sectors of the locality. Cross-Sector collaboration increases their impact. Example: A Business or Community Leader partnering with a non-profit leader and a school principal to serve at-risk students is seen as “crossing sectors.
   • 4 Primary Areas of Collaboration:
     • Collaborate – Partner/Work together within sectors and across sectors.
     • Communicate: Share perspectives and insights learned in your sector with other leaders, that is, sharing your informed point of view.
     • Cooperate: Help the community grow and excel by sharing expertise, skills, people, etc. when mutually beneficial outcomes can be achieved.
     • Co-Create: When synergy exists between and/or across sectors, there are opportunities to solve problems and/or create partnerships or entities that never existed before.

Conclusion

How can we heal, restore hope and work together toward an extraordinary future for our communities? Seek “mutually-beneficial, win-win partnerships” that solve problems make the best dreams for the community come true.

Reference: Diagram: “3 Sectors of a Community” taken from “To Transform a City,” © 2010, by Eric Swanson and Sam Williams, Zondervan Publishers.

Communities can be described as consisting of 3 sectors: Private Sector (For-Profit Businesses), Social Sector (Faith Communities, Family, Non-profits) and Public Sector (Education, Military and Government)