a single source, nothing corroborates it

Run the community from a member's chair

The first skill is looking at the group as somebody inside it rather than as the person in charge, which changes what you notice and what you fix. Health shows up as members visibly weighing what a decision does to each other and coordinating without being asked, so map where they think the edges of the group are and work from that outline.

The method

1. 01

   Run your community from a member's point of view rather than from the leader's chair, and treat that switch of perspective as the first skill to learn, not a nicety.

2. 02

   Empathy in a group is not shown by an absence of arguments; look instead for members visibly weighing what a decision will mean for the other members before they act.

3. 03

   Once trust exists between members they start coordinating without anyone asking them to, and the group produces more than the same people did separately.

4. 04

   Ask individual members where they think your community's reach stops, then overlay everyone's answers into one composite outline, and treat that outline as the current edge of your audience.

What it returned

• Hillman makes taking the member's perspective, rather than occupying the leader's role, the opening lesson of his own community building teaching.

• Hillman describes doing this with observation and questioning, accepting that the resulting shape is rough and keeps moving.

Sources

• The Importance of LinesAlex Hillman · dangerouslyawesome.com · Discovery of Others · 2011-02-01
• The three necessary ingredients for community. Do you have them?Alex Hillman · dangerouslyawesome.com · Factor #3 Community Empathy · 2012-11-01