Hyper-local communities- Self-sustained livelihoods for its members

Contrary to popular belief that intelligence precedes compassion & empathy, Eminent scientist Penny Spikins from York University says that humans learnt to live in close-knit communities, developed social skills like empathy, compassion before gathering knowledge & inventing languages.

Empathy taught us humans to be receptive of emotions from fellow humans. As humans spread all across the globe in search of new homes, this little aspect of evolution clings on to them to this date

Organizations, to an extent, follow the Darwinian theory of evolution. Organizations that adapt to changing environment are best equipped to survive & grow.

This also means that humans aspire to associate themselves with such organizations for their personal growth as we start to seek stability & predictability in our careers

Having said that, it’s also a fact that the best and most successful organizations run without a real sense of ‘community’ around them

This possibly explains why large organizations don’t fare well in innovation in an era where lean, nimble companies are in vogue. Companies, large or small need a passionate community to survive

Enter Hyper-Local Communities

The emergence of hyper-local news portals, radio shows & blogs show that there is a huge untapped market for “what’s going on in my neighborhood?”

It’s also a fact that if problems are local, solutions should also come from the local community. As popular wisdom goes –

“Knowledge of a community is more than the sum knowledge of each of its members”

As a result, these hyper-local communities requires a new engagement model that offers consumers and small businesses new resources, inputs and opportunities for profitable engagement

Engagement in a close-knitted community has the following components

1. Discovery

Communities can be based on geography, interest or expertise. For instance, ‘Backpackers in Auckland’ is a very specific community that talks about an interest group in a specific locality.

While getting people together can be done through social networking platforms, the biggest question to be answered is “Will people really talk to each other?”.

One way to overcome this is to start small, make the neighborhood curious by showcasing results & enrolling more members

2. Making people share their story

The whole purpose of building communities is to let people share their stories. Bringing people together & let them share their experiences is the most fundamental part of any community.

Peer learning helps a lot as people from the same localities typically have similar issues & would be interested to learn how others tackled them

3. Me vs We

By getting people to share their stories, the community members learn to empathize with each other. Problems & solutions of ‘me’ become ‘we’ through the power of compassion.

4. Sense of empathy

Imbibe a sense of empathy among members by striking an emotional chord by talking about real issues. Issues could be business related, civic or political.

For eg, if retailers of the community face difficulties in procuring from wholesalers who won’t supply small volumes, create empathy among retailers in the locality to bid as community rather than individual shops

5. Build knowledge & competency hubs

Communities also serve as hubs to generate businesses. SHGs (self help groups) have been working tirelessly in rural India to generate livelihood for semi-skilled women in communities. When people talk to each other, they could build teams based on their competency & bid for projects.

6. Believe in serendipity

Goodness comes from the power of communities. Most serendipitous things happen when people get together for the sake of greater good – it could be a jackpot project, a job opportunity or a check from an investor

So what are you waiting for? Explara now gives you an awesome platform to build communities you love to interact with. Its cooler & a lot more addictive than meetup, trust us.

Team Explara

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