How to Foster Collective Flourishing

What’s the secret to a workplace where people truly connect and thrive? It starts with intentional actions that put relationships at the heart of your culture. Here’s how you can build a thriving workplace: 1. Keep communication open ↳ Be honest. Listen to your people. Check in often and act on what they say. 2. Lead with empathy ↳ Teach leaders to care. Understand your team’s needs. Show kindness in hard times and celebrate their wins. 3. Value teamwork, not competition ↳ Create projects that require input from many. Reward the group, not just individuals. 4. Support work-life balance ↳ Offer flexible hours, remote work, and mental health days. Show you value people, not just workers. 5. Reward those who build relationships ↳ Recognize employees who strengthen bonds with coworkers and clients. Make it clear these efforts matter. 6. Invest in team-building ↳ Hold retreats, workshops, and social events. Give people time and space to connect. 7. Create mentors ↳ Encourage experienced employees to guide others. Build connections across all levels of the company. 8. Align values with people-first policies ↳ Make your company’s mission about people first. Show that well-being comes before numbers. 9. Celebrate personal milestones ↳ Acknowledge birthdays, work anniversaries, and big life events. Show you care about their lives outside the office. 10. Measure success by relationships ↳ Don’t just track business outcomes. Measure how happy your team is, how long they stay, and how strong their connections are. Which of these practices does your workplace already use? Which one will you implement next? Let’s hear your thoughts below! ⬇️ ♻️ Repost to inspire change in your network. ➕ Follow Ricardo Cuellar for more content like this.

How can parks catalyze social vitality and build community? Here are ten ideas: 1. Design for liveliness: Jane Jacobs argued that parks need to be closely integrated with their surrounding streets and offer “functional physical diversity among adjacent uses, and hence diversity among users and their schedules;” this means four tenets in design: intricacy (stimulating a variety of uses and repeat users), centering (a main crossroads, pausing point, or climax), access to sunlight, and enclosure (the presence of buildings and a diversity of surroundings). 2. Ensure clean and safe environments: parks must be clean, well-maintained, and safe for people to use them. Investments that do these make it more likely people will visit and linger, increasing opportunities for social interaction. 3. Offer diverse opportunities to gather: a wide variety of programs, classes, events, and exhibitions bring a wide variety of people to the park. Events that encourage interaction are especially useful to breaking down barriers between people. 4. Partner with locals on co-management: these not only cultivate a group that can advocate, care, and organize events for parks, but build networks of neighbors with shared passions. 5. Provide ample opportunities to volunteer: this helps maintain the quality of parks while bringing people together in ways that build connection and meaning. 6. Furnish intergenerational play zones & senior social hubs: designing specific areas to encourage interaction across age groups—for example, comfortable/shaded seating, chess/checker tables, and bocce ball or shuffleboard courts—nurture new kinds of social ties and bridge divides in society. 7. Include dog runs: these build a connective network of neighbors around a like-minded passion. 8. Endow community gardens: these foster a sense of collective responsibility, especially when managed by local volunteers, as well as creates a beautiful, welcoming space that can be used for intimate social gatherings. 9. Mount generous shared food experiences: these attract a wide range of people to discover new tastes and activities, break down cultural barriers, and offer chances to meet new neighbors; one idea is to create regular, organized events where park-goers can bring food to share with one another builds community around shared food experience. 10. Supply diverse recreation facilities: a variety of affordable facilities offers year-round opportunities for shared activities and social interaction.   Any other ideas? Please post in the chat. Thank you Darren Hinton for these ideas. #parks #community #neighborhood #relationships #isolation Cormac Russell Frances Kraft Usha Srinivasan Lauren Hall Sarah Strimmenos Jennifer Prophete Gordon Strause Kara Revel Jarzynski Democracy Policy Network Sam Pressler Tracy Hadden Loh PlacemakingX Kevin Ervin Kelley, AIA Lory Warren Noah Baskett Dr J.R. Baker Matt Abrams Daniel Selz Daron Babcock Anna Scott John B. Carol Naughton Erin Barnes

No community is an island. It’s always bigger than “us”. This 4-stage framework can help community builders who are working within a larger cultural movement, passion, or industry. How can community builders best support the communities & movements larger than the space they directly manage? I've found this framework to be instructive. It's adapted from a 2014 paper on Building Rhizomatic Social Movements (link in comments). The author explored how various grassroots groups evolved into sustainable movements over time. While these social movements aren't a perfect parallel to other types of communities, I've found the research super relevant. The communication patterns needed during the chaotic early stages of an emerging movement are different from those needed during the later more mature stages. If you're a community builder, think about the larger group “your” community is a part of. How do they work together? How can your group help support the broader ecosystem? STAGE 1 - CLUSTERING Traits: Loose collection of different groups that share a common label but don't work together closely. Each group values independence & variety of participants. Result: Brief partnerships between different groups with little direction. How to Foster: Create open areas where groups can gather without being forced to work together. Emphasize the importance of independence. STAGE 2 - NETWORKING Traits: Regular interactions between people in different groups. Cross-promotion of shared actions, & campaigns from other groups. Result: Temporary bonds between groups. Shared information, experiences, & actions, but may not lead to sustained efforts. How to Foster: Make it easier for people to interact & share information. Encourage groups to collaborate on common goals. Highlight connections, while recognizing how hard it is to achieve real unity. STAGE 3 - COALITIONS Traits: Increased discussion & promotion of long-term strategies. A focus on shared identity & beliefs. Result: Organized alliances centered on shared actions & campaigns. How to Foster: Develop programs & mechanisms for ongoing interactions and collaborative decision-making around shared long-term goals. Help support emerging leaders. STAGE 4 - ORGANIZING Traits: A strong commitment to shared beliefs, values, & identities. More structured. Unified campaigns. Result: Coordinated communication, resource sharing, & decision-making procedures. How to Foster: Encourage formal ways to work together, including shared leadership & decision-making structures. Promote compromise & the shared aspects of identity. -- Not every community needs to, or should advance through the stages mentioned above. But if you want to accelerate the growth of a movement, industry, or ecosystem, it is worthwhile to consider the stage & needs of the broader space. That way your community's efforts can create the most impact.