As a solo founder, I’m a member of a few online communities where I can connect with other like-minded business owners to share our challenges and offer support. I recently travelled to New York to attend an in-person retreat for one of these communities, which I’ve been a member of for six years.
It was great to finally meet people IRL after interacting with them virtually for so long. The event was a great success – we spoke about our businesses, reflected, learned about each other, deepened existing connections and generally had a lot of fun.
But this wasn’t by accident. The event was designed thoughtfully and intentionally to be a live manifestation of the culture already present in the virtual community.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines “community” as: the people living in one particular area, or people who are considered as a unit because of their common interests, social group or nationality.
Being part of a community creates a strong sense of belonging and identity. This recent retreat, and the other communities I’m part of, got me thinking: what would it be like if our team members felt this too – supported and connected, with a shared sense of purpose? And therefore, what can leaders learn from online communities to build a sense of belonging in their teams?
That’s what I’d like to share in this piece.
It’s important, of course, to lay out the clear differences between online membership communities and work teams.
Firstly, members pay to be part of an online community and receive a service in return. It’s in their best interest to make the most of their investment, and they can opt in to participate as they wish. This is not the case for team members, who have very different obligations to interact with others.
Secondly, members of online communities are not required to work together, although this can and often happens. Any further work that comes out of a connection is a bonus, not an expectation. Team members, however, have to collaborate with others frequently to get their work done.
So, bearing those caveats in mind, I’d like to share some reflections on what I see in these communities that leaders could learn from.
Overall experience
The member experience is at the centre of an online community. Community leaders take great care to craft it to keep members engaged so that they stay and bring in new members. They need to consider the onboarding process so members feel welcome and can get up to speed, the materials or content they need to access, the events they can attend and how they can get to know other members.
In the best communities, this is meticulously considered and designed around the desired culture the community leader wants to create. This is where team leaders can take inspiration.
I’ve long been inspired by the company Asana, whose leaders describe their company culture as a product (with features and bugs to be fixed). If team culture is considered a product, then team members are the end users. We can use techniques like human-centred design and design thinking to consider their experience of interacting within it.
What to consider: What experience do you want your team members to have when they are working together, and how can you design for that? Even better, how can you and your team co-create your collective experience of work so that everyone feels invested?
Cadence
For many paid online communities, scheduled events are the main part of the experience. Members can choose to attend a range of formats. This might include learning events, masterminds, Q&A sessions or structured networking. Each event type has a clear purpose and intended outcomes, so members know what to attend, and when, based on what they need.
For teams, this can inspire how you think about meetings, but with an important difference. In online communities, members are not obliged to take action after the events they attend. But within a team, meetings are intended to move work forward. Tangible outcomes and follow-up ensure the time is well-spent.
What to consider: Think intentionally when you bring your team together synchronously. How can you create different meeting formats that support their work and progress beyond status updates? This might include formats for knowledge-sharing, problem-solving, or even to build community and connection.
Skills and expertise
Online communities come to life when members connect with and support each other. A member directory, where each person lists their skills and expertise, can facilitate this. When a member needs help with something in their business, they can search the directory to find someone with the relevant skills.
For online communities, accessing another member’s skills and expertise is a bonus. In teams, it is an essential, yet often (in my experience) untapped resource.
What to consider: How can you find ways to ensure the skills and expertise of each team member is 1) known and 2) leveraged? This could be anything from discussing roles and responsibilities when launching new projects to building your own team skills directory for everyone to access. I recently ran a team workshop where each participant shared something they could offer to others and something they would like support with. It uncovered some hidden skills and passions within the team. Learning more about each other’s contributions is a valuable exercise.
Communication
The central platform in online communities is organised for easy navigation. Members can chat with each other, post requests for support or share what they’re working on. Different spaces have clear titles and descriptions so members know what to share and where. For teams, this idea applies directly to how you define and structure your various communication channels. The goal is to ensure that team members can find information quickly and collaborate with others when necessary.
However, a key difference is that online community members can choose how much they want to engage in the platform and even set their notification preferences. For team members, the sheer volume of communication they receive can cause stress and overwhelm. This is an opportunity to create structure so communication tools do not become a barrier to getting work done.
What to consider: How are your most important information sources, such as shared folders and documents, organised? How can you set shared guidelines for what communication channels – such as Slack, Teams or email – to use and when? For example, if you articulate expected response times for different methods and create agreed signals, team members can more easily identify urgent messages versus information that requires reading, but not a response.
Guidelines
Clear guidelines and rules of engagement are one thing that makes successful online communities function so effectively. Some of this is for the safety of all members – it may relate to confidentiality or intellectual property – and much of it is to maintain the culture the founder has established. Sometimes members get warnings or are even removed for not adhering to these guidelines.
For teams, this idea can shape the culture and expected behaviours. Of course, you can’t just remove someone from your team, but you can use this idea to discuss the expectations and environment you want to create for yourselves.
What to consider: A community’s founder is responsible for establishing guidelines, but within a team, I’d recommend doing this together. How do you each need to show up to be successful? What are the behaviours you want to see (and the ones you don’t)? What working principles and values do you want to hold yourselves accountable to? You can then use this as a baseline for discussions about your culture.
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Bearing in mind the obvious differences between a paid online community and a workplace, leaders can take a lot of inspiration from the former to build belonging and connection in their teams.
Many online community leaders will say that keeping a community active and members engaged is hard work – it takes a lot of intention, attention and care. This is no different for your team, but the effort can pay off extremely well.
When you see your culture as an opportunity to shape your team’s experience of working together, you can think about what you can intentionally (co-)create to make that experience as optimal as possible – so that people feel a strong affinity, feel supported and are open to supporting each other.
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