What's Next for Community Programs in 2019?

A few years ago, when I predicted that the future of all leadership is community leadership, people generally didn’t even make the connection that the skills being honed by community professionals might apply more broadly.

Our 2019 State of Community Management research makes it clear that this transition is happening. Communities are becoming a core governance structure for getting work done, adapting culture, and innovating. Community structures give us opportunities to lead in a new and more effective way - energizing individuals, empowering them, and challenging them to be their best without the controlling and power-heavy methods of the past.

As community approaches spread across more organizations, they are shifting and transforming culture, decision-making processes, work habits, measurement approaches, and professional development pathways. Without good strategy and design, this can increase friction and create confusion, inconsistencies, and changes to the balance of power that are unexpected – all of which hamper performance and potential.

Executives can harness the potential of community programs by:

• Investing in an ecosystem strategy and design
• Developing community leadership centers of excellence
• Including HR and Finance teams into ecosystem strategy and operations

No individual can do this alone.

Organizations need to blend what executives know about running a business with what community leaders know about crafting engaged cultures and designing for behavior change. Community leaders need to decide whether they are ready to take on business leadership opportunities, which come with new responsibilities and accountability that can be intense.

Community professionals can tackle this opportunity for business leadership by:

• Pursuing business skills through training, mentorships, fellowships, and reading
• Partnering with a program manager or executive
• Building cross-functional relationships to understand the other roles and functions

Building strong partnerships between business leaders and community leaders will be required to maximize the potential of communities to transform organizations. As that happens, community teams will grow and include more specialized skills to support their impact. We’ve seen these partnerships be the key to institutionalizing community approaches and maximizing their value.