Community is one of those words get bandied about too much for the wrong reasons by the wrong people. I twitch when I hear managers talking about “forming communities” or “managing communities”. People behave communally if you are very lucky and have done all the right things. They form communities – not you. By their very nature communities are more influenced than managed – more lead than controlled. You can’t expect to throw in some technology, dragoon some staff and wade in acting like a conventional manager.

The skills required to cajole a group of people into engaging with each other, trusting each other, and beginning to work out together how to behave together are subtle and complex. They are very unfamiliar to those brought up in command and control cultures and won’t be learned over night. The instincts you develop for how to build up trust online can be taught but are difficult to put into practice without time served watching and understanding how online life works.

These challenges are mirrored in the “real” world. As the implicit contract between staff and corporations shifts from a job for life stability, to a look after yourself and build your networks mentality, the way we enlist the willing support of our staff is going to have to change. The web isn’t the cause of this shift, it was happening anyway, but arguably the web is reinforcing the changing behaviours and making their impact wider, faster. The move from “command and control” to “engage and support” is going to happen and learning the skills, and the right words, is going to matter more and more.