The New World Encyclopedia defines community as derived from the Latin communitas (meaning the same), which is in turn derived from communis, which means “common, public, shared by all or many.”
I recently listened to a podcast where this was teased-out a little. The root of community is having things in common, and to get there we need healthy effective communication – the ability to kindly interact in a way that lets us have community. At the core of it all, the payoff is human connection – that we are actually doing life with people.
Now, I think this is important. Many leaders don’t want this to be at the top of the list of outcomes or deliverables that people expect of them. They are fine if it is there on the side, but it is not anywhere close to the number one goal for their leadership, and therefore it is not a goal for their organization.
Many leaders want performance above all; they can’t comprehend this post. How can one possibly defend that the purpose of an organization is not to output something, to deliver on a vision?
Philosophically, I think this is a deep subject to be explored. How can we create organizations that truly embrace and understand that we should be doing life together first? Everything else should serve that.