Five Pillars of Community: Ongoing Ecosystem

Establishing the Pillars of Community within member-driven organizations is vital to their success.

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Having a strong community encourages and activates the full potential of the communities you are trying to build and serve. How do we create strong communities?

‍As featured in Why Community Matters series with Kiki L’Italien of Association Chat

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Join us over the next several weeks as we answer this question and feature each of the five pillars in JUNO’s Five Pillars of Community: Connecting Humans for Organizational Growth, available for download here.

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As we continue to solidify Community Pillars within our organizations, one of the most important pillars to take into consideration is creating and sustaining an Ongoing Ecosystem. It is just human nature that everyone wants to know that what they are investing in will last. If people hop on this track, will it remain sustainable for many years to come? Although at times, it can feel uncertain that any organization is heading in the right direction, companies must continue to evaluate the vision of the company because if people think for one second that this organization is off-track, they will quickly distance themselves. Creating, understanding and modifying the organization's vision can keep an Ongoing Ecosystem.  

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Think about some of the businesses with the most success and longevity like Ford, Coca-Cola, Apple and Microsoft. No one thinks about these companies going out of business because their vision is set in stone. Ford: “Go further,” Coca-Cola: “Taste the feeling,” Apple: “Think different,” Microsoft: “Be what’s next.” These companies have shifted slogans over their combined hundreds of years of business experience, yet they still find ways to establish their lasting vision through messaging. They are always giving their communities new ideas, creating new branding opportunities and communicating their vision and how it fits with the future. When organizations are constantly thinking about their vision and rebrand according to the circumstances, the people in them always have something to look forward to.  

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An Ongoing Ecosystem needs vision because it keeps people thinking beyond the future. A strong brand can change with the times but still maintain that same community vision to draw people in and keep the community moving forward. What people really want to know: “Is this thing going to exist by the time we are done?” If there is no messaging surrounding this pillar or no thinking about tomorrow, there is no plan of attack to create success and motivation. When people decide to give their talent, time and energy to anything, they really want to know if it’s going to last. Communicate sustainability and continue to enhance the brand to maintain community motivation. Always be thinking about tomorrow rather than what happened yesterday, and the organization will be in a much better position for success

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