10 Techniques for Building Beehives
from Building Beehives: Creating Communities that Generate Returns
Building beehives requires a new way of looking at the world.The main task of management, when working with a community, changes from supervising subordinates to enabling colleagues. People, in their hearts and minds, hold the perspectives, the knowledge and the experience that will create the honey in the hive.
To bring this know-how to bear on organizational needs, managers need to cultivate relationships built on trust and healthy growth.Here are ten techniques that embrace this new way of working, giving guidance on how to build beehives that deliver results.
1.Share the idea with all who have a stake in success.
This includes those who will gain from the business benefits being achieved, such as managers, members, clients and stakeholders. Also include those who support the community’s concerns. This may bring you into contact with people outside your normal sphere of influence, such as members of academia, research groups and policy organizations. Each of these people has the potential to make valuable contributions to your community and help your organization achieve its goals.
2. Interact with potential bees.
When you are talking with people who may participate, ask for ideas, suggestions, and the names of others who would benefit by taking part. Listen to understand their perspective and concerns, especially if different from your own. You may be able to identify new participant payoffs. Embrace multiple perspectives as long as everyone is working toward the same concerns.
3. Identify a coordinator.
This is one of the two most important roles in the beehive. Responsibilities include:
* Identifying important issues as they arise
* Planning and facilitation of events
* Linking members of the beehive
* Fostering professional development
* Coordinating development of documents, websites, learning events
* Cultivating the health of the beehive
This coordinator should be a “people person” with strong interpersonal communication skills and a genuine desire to help the community succeed.
4. Identify resident experts.
This is the second most important role in your beehive. These people will have “deep” knowledge of the community concerns. For example, if your beehive focuses on how to improve the annual meeting, the resident experts will have knowledge of the annual meeting in all of its varying capacities (history, revenue source, vendors & exhibitors, membership, professional contributions, etc.). The resident experts are sources of guidance for group decisions. They wield their authority through their know-how and experience, rather than by decree.
5. Invite people to participate.
Communicate to people through their preferred media. If they are telephone people, call them. If they are email people, write them. If they read Discovery Magazine, put an ad in it. In your invitation, be clear about (a) the business benefits, (b) the community concerns and (c) the participant payoffs. Tell them what you are hoping to accomplish and ask them to be part of the effort.
6. Make it easy for members to contact each other.
As soon as the beehive forms, publish a directory with phone numbers, email addresses, and expertise. You may wish to include a section in the directory which members fill in any way they want. If they choose to put in personal information (e.g., “I like to sail and have three grandkids”), it will help increase rapport with colleagues. If they choose to put in requests for assistance (e.g., “I need help increasing membership”), it facilitates transactions within the community.
7. Invite open discussions.
Allow divergent ideas; don't push consensus. If small groups form in your community to champion an alternative perspective, help them explore further. This multiplicity of perspective bolsters the work. Tackling issues from many sides is one of the strengths of a community. As long as people are focused on the same shared concerns of the group, differing perspectives strengthen their abilities.
8. Communicate, Communicate, And Communicate!
Do everything you can to keep people in the loop. Come to know your beehive’s preferred communication vehicles and use them. There will probably be several. You may need brownbag lunches, one-on-one meetings among core members, emails and listservs. Do whatever works. It is no accident that the words communication and community have the same root. Whenever possible have beehive members take responsibility for the communication. Construct communiqués so that they invite participation (e.g.,, rather than exhaustive minutes, highlight main points & invite others to fill in gaps).
9. Stay open to continued suggestions
The community will evolve. This is normal. A community is a living thing and changes over time. Create ways for new ideas to be reviewed and processed easily without derailing progress.
10. Develop presentation toolkits
Make it easy for members of the beehive to share their work with colleagues and other interested people. You may wish to assist them in developing PowerPoint presentations, brochures, CDs, or product samples. These toolkits support your beehive’s success. Each member will reach into other communities to support and endorse the work they are doing in this beehive. Toolkits make that easier.