Dear friend,

Community is the difference between performing and thriving. So in this quarter’s newsletter we'll take a closer look at the key elements of thriving communities.

A Long History

There is a reason communities have been integral to human life since they emerged 12,000 years ago in the Levant. Both formal and informal communities are powerful mechanisms for making things happen. In essence, a community is a group of people united by shared values, vision, or purpose, whose aligned commitment empowers them to create change greater than any of the individuals could achieve alone.

Throughout history, we have experimented with various ways of organising and structuring people based on extrinsic rewards - essentially, some people paying others to deliver outcomes and results. However, when we are looking to make something happen that is not beholden to the ones with the resources, communities persist and usually outperform. Think of the suffragettes, and of the networks in Ukraine, such as Rebuild Together, that constantly organise rebuilding of damaged neighbourhoods.

In Business

Businesses would be smart to combine the two. Direct resources to cause action in service of the desired business outcomes; but also explore what it would take to build a self-motivated community to deliver outcomes consistent with the business purpose. If you can merge those two, you might become the custodian of a community that is self-motivated and driven to best utilise the resources available to deliver the shared objectives.

A notable example of this is Steve Jobs' return to the CEO role at Apple in 1997. He undertook what he called ‘cultural archaeology’ to find and rekindle the spirit and drive that was the foundation of Apple. Through this collaborative exercise, people discovered new connections, a compelling mission that was bigger than the company's profitability, and came together powerfully to make a real impact. Over the next 15 years, the share price increased 100-fold, setting the company up to become one of the most valuable in the world.

However, for communities to become powerful and a driving force, rather than merely being a mechanism for staying connected, some key elements are often overlooked.

Purpose

Most communities we can point to seem to have a purpose. However, when you look a little deeper, many are primarily driven by self-preservation. They discuss recruiting new members, organising events that will attract participation and secure support for their future existence. When the purpose of the community becomes about the community itself, it loses power.

Commitment to Results

This is the key differentiator between communities who are thriving rather than merely driven to continue their own existence. The most powerful communities are not only crystal clear as to what their purpose is, but also to the explicit results they are committed to produce. They attract membership, collaboration, and determination from people who share a similar commitment. It is the one factor that creates aligned action, rather than endless conversations driven by good intentions.

A Stand for Each Other

In thriving communities, participants' primary focus is not on themselves or their standing in relation to others. The driving force is delivering the committed outcome, rather than personal success. There is an inherent understanding that the most potent results come when everyone is performing at their best. In the most powerful communities, people are committed to everyone being heard, thriving, and being successful, as that is the only way to produce the best possible outcome.

Clear Expectations and Boundaries

Thriving communities have clear expectations and boundaries that help build and maintain trust among their members. These guardrails could serve purposes such as minimising mission creep, ensuring financial discipline, managing conflicts of interest, and safeguarding vulnerable people. The best way to capture these is not to describe or overly constrain how the community operates, but rather to ensure that any rogue elements can be constructively dealt with.

Governance

Thriving communities never stand still. They evolve and shift as they learn and circumstances demand. To maintain a purpose that remains relevant and timely, and commitments that deliver the intended impact, community members must regularly ask themselves questions. Conversely, at times, the community may need help staying focused on its purpose and commitments in a world that seems unstable and confusing. To ensure this, thriving communities are clear on how they govern themselves, to make sure they are always on the 'right' path. NOTE: governance can take many forms and does not imply board or formal hierarchical constructs.

Leadership

As a leader in a mature organisation, realising the power of building communities, where do you start? It all starts with generating a shared purpose that people personally care about. This goes beyond a vision and a mission that gets rolled out, it requires an act of genuine engagement and co-creation. BioNTech did this. They held parallel facilitated group sessions across the whole company for people in each group to create their purpose and values of the company. They then had representatives from all these groups form new groups that pulled together their collective creations into a set of revised purposes and values. This process was repeated until all the missions and values had been amalgamated and a single purpose and values statement was created for the company. They learned two things. Firstly that their people created a statement that was in essence the same as the leadership team had created for themselves. Secondly, that almost everyone in the organisation could see their views captured in a way that truly brought them together and motivated them to step up the game to deliver on the purpose.

Our Commitment

Here at FirstHuman we have become inspired by our inquiry into the power of community. We therefore made the decision to create a community for senior leaders that are interested in coming together in their commitment to develop, self-reflect, learn, and support each other. To demonstrate our commitment to this we have created The FirstHuman Community where 100 leaders will get unprecedented on-going support from us, our network and their fellow members to further their growth, career and commitments in life and work.

We will shortly send out the official invite for our network and the people they lead to explore and join the community. Below is a sneak preview for our newsletter readers and an opportunity to be a step ahead of the rest ;-)

Warm wishes,

Oddi and Richard

100 leaders will get unprecedented ongoing support by coaching, interactive talks with executives, peer-group discussions and development materials. It will launch 15 October 2025 and the first 50 to secure their place get a special offer.