What is the secret for a smoothly running community?
I have lived in community since 1999, when I first landed at the Osho Community in Pune, India. After that I had 11 years in the "Tri-Bay Community set around the Sanctuary Thailand, where I was a key part of creating and holding the community together. This included events, spaces, festivals, communications, processing and mediations.
After the I started to run pop-up communities for 4 to 6 weeks long, which became 3 months during the pandemic. These were based around co-working and creating our creative projects with the support of our friends. Often tantrapreneurs, we would share with each other how we built our businesses, found our message and filled our retreats.
I also spent time in various spiritual communities such as Agama, Ratu Bagus (shaking), Amma, Papaji-linage, learning about the wonders and also the shadows of guru-centric community. In the last decade I have been exploring land-based projects, and living in eco villages and projects such as EcoVilla Costa Rica, Essencia in Portugal, and Paddington Farm in Glastonbury. These communities add n the element of self sufficient and sustainability. For 7 years I live with a partner who turned his farm into a small organic community in the Netherlands.
Over the years I have been really studying the secrets of successful communities. Which one have happy members, and which ones are thriving?
I studied the agreement fields of long established communities such as Findhorn, Damanhur, Angsbacka and Auroville. I tested different agreement fields out, and listened to feedback. I made great choice, and I made big mistakes. I learned from it all.
Here is a summary of some of the things that make community work well.
After the I started to run pop-up communities for 4 to 6 weeks long, which became 3 months during the pandemic. These were based around co-working and creating our creative projects with the support of our friends. Often tantrapreneurs, we would share with each other how we built our businesses, found our message and filled our retreats.
I also spent time in various spiritual communities such as Agama, Ratu Bagus (shaking), Amma, Papaji-linage, learning about the wonders and also the shadows of guru-centric community. In the last decade I have been exploring land-based projects, and living in eco villages and projects such as EcoVilla Costa Rica, Essencia in Portugal, and Paddington Farm in Glastonbury. These communities add n the element of self sufficient and sustainability. For 7 years I live with a partner who turned his farm into a small organic community in the Netherlands.
Over the years I have been really studying the secrets of successful communities. Which one have happy members, and which ones are thriving?
I studied the agreement fields of long established communities such as Findhorn, Damanhur, Angsbacka and Auroville. I tested different agreement fields out, and listened to feedback. I made great choice, and I made big mistakes. I learned from it all.
Here is a summary of some of the things that make community work well.
Container for a Community of Love
FOUNDATIONS |
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Shared Intentionality This gives a community cohesiveness and directionality. Sometimes people move into the middle of nowhere to live on the land with others, and only then discover that they have lost something essential: that fire of purpose that moves them every day. Having a collective goal makes a strong community, and everyone can find their role within a collective vision.
Alignment of values This is a glue that holds a community together. It might be that the community is substance-free, or that everyone has a daily practice. Maybe it is an organic community, or follows one type of spiritual practice. On the whole, I find that too narrow a spectrum creates problems. For example, maybe you are an astanga yoga community. But after some time, one member realises they are damaging their knees and they want to practice qigong. If the community will ask them to leave because of this, they will be torn between belonging and following their own truth. So it works better with wider values such as health, peace, sobriety etc.
Commitment Like a relationship, commitment is important to build community. However, it also needs to be the middle way. If you ask people to over commit, they will feel like they are in a cult! Remember that people need time alone, time one on one and time in the group, so do not ask them to commit too much to group activities or they will need to rebel. I have found that for a month-long community, one shared meal a day 5 times a week and one forum circle, and a daily practice of 45 minutes is enough to commit to. If you are building more long-term, then his needs to be ore flexible.
STRUCTURE |
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Time structure We all need time to focus and time to be spontaneous. Much as I have tried to be creative, I have to admit that the Mon to Fri/ weekend model works really well! Especially for self employed people and entrepreneurs, they need self imposed boundaries else they can work all the time. So I run co work retreats on a simple structure of 8am yoga, 9am breakfast...work time 10 to 5, play time after dinner. With weekends for hiking, day trips and adventures, as well as alone time. This sent fixed like a retreat: it is only a structure, and people can arrange their own life within it.
Shared Meals This is harder than it sounds, with some vegans, some ket ad other intermittent fasting!! Yet sharing food is the essence of community, and some of the greatest magic happens over a meal. So I let everyone make their own breakfast (some do smoothies and others have their avocado toast), but bring in a chef for shared lunch, only on weekdays. This allows us to work more without needing to go out for food or cook. It also means the intermittent fasters can skip breakfast or dinner should they wish! Some like to go out for dinner after work. So this brings maximum flexibility. Weekends nothing is planned, so we can go off on adventures.
Space Structure It is essential to have a yoga hall. The temple space of the community. The place to have our yoga, our song circles, dances and temple nights. It is everyone's space and is not belonging to one person. Then we need work space, more dedicated to being focused. Everyone needs private space. And ideally you have many hang out spaces and nature that people can walk in. A body of water really is an essential space, be it the sea, a lake, a pool or sauna complex.
Organisational Structure So many communities start with the idealisation of a non-hierarchal, fully equal structure. They dream of a place where every voice is heard. Until they have sat in enough 3-hour long meetings discussing the colour of paint for the fence, and no conclusion is reached. Doing away with leadership rarely works, if ever. However, finding healthy models of leadership, collaboration and empowerment can be really successful.
We often assume all leadership is unhealthy because we saw so much corruption of power. But most shamanic society had a chief, as well as other keys roles such as the shamans, healers and cooks. Some people really want to lead, and there are other who don't want to take that responsibility and would actually rather follow along. Many like to follow a journey of empowerment, learning from others with more power and gradually building their own capacity for power and leadership.
There is also a case for specialisation: what if it was the handyman who decide which paint to use, and not the whole village? So long as everyone knows their voices will be heard should they have a strong objection to this choice he makes, they are mostly happy to let him do that job, leaving them free to focus on their own speciality. So there may be one overarching leader, usually a founder. There may be leaders of different topics and areas. This can be seen in almost every ancient tribe ever studied.
Leadership goes wrong when the community gets so big that leaders do not look in the eyes of those they are taking care of, as we see in modern politics. A village chief is more compassionate and connected than a nation's president.
Do not be afraid of leadership and power. Rather, learn about healthy power. The book The Power Path (by Jose and Lena Stephens) is absolutely invaluable for studying this topic.
And whilst we talk about power, we should mention money.
Money is also helpful as we can buy land and resources. Some people have money to offer and other would rather bring their energy and skill. Those with money may have less time for gardening. Those with no money may have all the time in the world to garden. So a good structure allows for people to contribute in different ways. Just beware of "drainbows": those attracted to the idea of community because they think it will take care of there every need. They come to take, and have nothing to give. Using money as an entry point can help ensure a certain level of self accomplishment has happened.
COMMUNICATION |
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