by Flemming Funch
The New Civilization Network is intended to be a place where useful connections form, where people find the collaborators and resources they need to manifest the things they dream about doing. Or, shall we say, NCN is an exploration towards creating structures that accomplish that, and that allows such teams of people to inter-connect productively with each other.
Now, as to people finding what they're looking for, there appears to be a problem. I know that some people do find important things they were looking for. But the tendendency is to leave after you do so.
That might or might not be bad, but I want to mention that it isn't how I thought it would work. What I'd most of all like to see happen is that there's visible connectivity between a bunch of teams of people who are doing important work. I.e. they stay in touch, and they report on their successes and failures. They share in their process so we can all learn from it.
But that isn't happening very much. There's a lot of successful people doing important things on the member list of NCN. But most of them are not in touch. They're busy doing what they're doing.
So, I'm looking for the keys to making it meaningful to stay connected, even when you're really busy with important work.
Sometimes it seems like nothing really works. NCN is just some people hanging out and chatting about things. And some people do that for a while and then leave in disappointment or disgust, declaring that nothing ever got done.
But at the same time many people have come up to me and told me about crucial connections they formed here. However, the kicker is that these are usually people who aren't visible now and who don't participate in any discussions and don't post anything. And usually it happens in person. I.e. I meet somebody at a conference. Sometimes people I already know, but just as often people I had no clue of. And they come up and tell me that they're members of NCN and they casually mention some important and crucial connection they found in NCN. "This is where I found so-and-so, and we started this company doing so-and-so, and it is going really well". And I maybe hadn't heard about any of it. The weird thing is that it often seems like it is a secret. Somebody sort of whispers this in my ear, only because I happen to be standing next to them.
So, there seems to be a phenomenon of it seeming natural to leave and get busy the moment one finds what one looks for. Or, some people never really participated in much of anything, but just searched through the member database, found the people they needed, contacted them, and went and did something with them.
I would love to keep the spotlight on the stuff that works. I want to know who forged connections that became productive. I want to know how they did it, and what they're doing now.
Doesn't have to have anything to do with NCN. I'd also like to hear from the people who're already doing it. How did they find the right people to work with, how did they get the right resources together, what is motivating them, and what are their successes and failures along the way?
For the people who are most active in NCN, in the sense of posting things and participating in discussions, etc., there seems to be a phenomenon that often ends in disappointment. I.e. if you come in hoping to do something with NCN, or trying to make NCN do something, then you might end up having spent a lot of energy on it, but might eventually be disappointed that "nothing happened". But if you can manage to not have very many fixed expections, you might find it very stimulating and productive to be here. And many people do well with that, don't get me wrong.
But, one way or another, I think it is about how to keep the energy, and channel the energy, so that the successful activities can stimulate the environment that makes it work for more people.
If all the people who are successful in getting their team together and working on their life dream are then LEAVING or don't have time to show up in the first place, it obviously doesn't help much in the rest of us learning something from it.
It is quite natural if people who are busy, and who already are doing what they know they need to do, don't have a lot of time to hang around and talk smalltalk about many different things. If you're working around the clock to cure cancer, you might not want to spend half your day arguing about politics or why this person doesn't get along with that person.
So, I'm looking for the stuff that it WOULD be meaningful for such people to connect with. I.e. a mechanism by which they can stay in touch with a bigger network, and at least let us know what they're doing, without distracting them unnecessarily.
And I'm looking for the factors that makes the energy dissipate, rather than channel into something productive. If the answer is in something I'm doing wrong, or haven't thought of, I'd certainly like to hear it, because I don't know.
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