I love a good campfire.
Watching the flames dance and flicker, feeling the warmth, and smelling the aroma of wood smoke. And I love how a campfire draws people into a circle of community.
As Scoutmaster for Troop 711, I get to watch older Scouts teach the younger boys how to build fires. First, they show them how to gather fuel in three sizes (tinder, small twigs, and larger sticks) and arrange them in layers. Then they demonstrate how to introduce heat down at the bottom of their structure. Finally, they show how to blow on the tiny flames—gently at first and then strongly as the fire grows.
In fact, a campfire is a good metaphor for community, because they both need the same three things: Fuel, Heat, and Air.
Building fires is a skill that can be taught. Building community is a leadership skill that can be learned.
Fuel: Include and Invite
People are the fuel for the fire of community.
Leaders have a powerful role to play in building community by collecting people together and building them into a structure. You get a big say in who is included and how they fit.
What do you want that community to look like? Does your community mainly function at headquarters, or does it extend to branch offices, remote workers, and part-time employees? Does it include vendors, customers, or industry connections? Does it feel more like a family or a team? Does it cross functions and levels?
Boy Scouts start by putting the most flammable fuel together at the bottom. Leaders can invite their most active community-builders and empower them to be cheerleaders for spreading community behaviors to others.
Other employees are like bigger logs—slower to catch fire but able to burn long and strong. Leaders need to strategically and intentionally include these staff members to play a role. Without them, the sense of community may flare up and then die out just as quickly.
Heat: Give people permission to act
Here in Texas, it’s often so dry that parks will post bans on fires. The wood is ready to burn. In our society today, people are ready for authentic community. Many of your employees are like dry fuel that is ready to catch fire—they just need a source of heat.
Caring for others is the heat that drives human community. People in your organization already want to care—but they need permission from leaders to act. When leaders give people permission to do things they already want to do, great energy is released.
Giving people permission to care does not usually cost any money. Employees will voluntarily pool together to raise money when needed. What they do need is permission to use company time, company rooms, and company emails. They need permission to organize their own efforts and know that you support them.
Air: Spread good stories
The biggest mistake I see new Scouts make when building fires is not giving their structures enough air. Sometimes they stack their kindling too tight. Other times they just fail to blow on the flames. Either way, the fire can’t get going.
Leaders have to give their organizations some air, too. Community is not a program. It’s the result of daily interactions between people who consider themselves connected to each other. It’s a mistake to stack programming or events and expect community to emerge. It’s better to have fewer planned events but then blow on the flames.
Leaders can fan the flames and strengthen the sense of community in the workplace by spreading the stories of positive daily interactions. Scouts have to get their faces down right next to the kindling to see where the embers are glowing and blow on those spots. Similarly, leaders have to put themselves in physical proximity to employees so they can listen for good stories.
Here are a few of those daily interactions I’ve heard about recently (from different companies):
• A senior manager brought dinner to a board member who had just received a tough diagnosis
• A new employee was invited by a peer to an email prayer chain where staff, vendors, and customers can share personal concerns and needs with each other
• A partner visited employees in the field just to encourage them
• Staff members “gift-wrapped” every item in a manager’s office while he was on a trip—including his computer keyboard and the pictures on his walls.
Leaders can blow oxygen on these efforts by re-telling stories of caring in company newsletters, meetings, and informal settings of all kinds.
Pull up a (camp) chair
A campfire is inviting. People are naturally drawn to it. Authentic community is the same. Once you get it going, employees will want to stay, and great people on the outside will start asking how they can get in.
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