…they aren’t lies, they’re core Truths!

Myths are stories, but with a critical difference. They have symbolic importance. They embody what the community is all about: its purpose, its beliefs and its actions.

Regular stories that relate things like events and achievements and that are captured in photos, videos and words are good for collective memory-making and co-creation…all great things for stickiness.

Myths are slightly different.They become elevated to a special status because they have more meaning.

For the Apple tribe…yes, there is one… the story of a very young Steve Jobs flouting convention and pitching Venture Capitalists in his shorts and sandals in the earliest days of the company perfectly symbolizes the values of the group: be different, don’t conform (Apple users all think they’re more creative and less conformist than the rest of the world. They can be insufferably smug. I confess that I’m one of them.) This story is told and retold by Apple users who weren’t even born when it happened.

The life story of Mary Kay Ash, the founder of her eponymous company, is also told and retold by thousands of Mary Kay consultants. She was passed over for promotion by her previous employer in favor of a man she had trained. Infuriated, she left and started her own business brewing cosmetics on her kitchen stove. Working from home was important at that time. She needed to support and care for her family as her husband was dying.

The empire she built was based on recognition and celebration of women’s entrepreneurial ability. The pink Cadillacs and the huge mutually supportive annual event at Dallas are all about enabling women to beat the odds and become their best (the bee is a key piece of iconography for the company…it flies despite its improbable aerodynamics).

The Mary Kay consultants I interviewed would tell this story with tears in their eyes. It perfectly embodied the values of the company. And, importantly, they felt it was a perfect expression of their own self-story.

How Myths can be Master Narratives.

Paula (not her real name) had been fired despite leading a graphics company’s sales department to impressive records. She ran the department according to her own personal values: support your staff, make them feel they can do anything, don’t use fear as a driver.

The company took a different direction that contradicted these values, and despite delivering superior results, she was let go. Faced with trying to figure out how to support herself and her two-year-old son, she accepted an invitation from her friend to go to a Mary Kay party. She recognized that the company’s values were her own, joined as a consultant and rose through the ranks.

Paula told the story of her joining as if it was ‘meant to be’. Mary Kay Ash’s story was both an inspiration to her and reinforcement of her own choices. It was almost the same story.

The founder’s story was the Master Narrative of the company. It embodied its values, and was reflected in the personal narratives of its members.

Can you make myths?

These special stories will emerge. The art is recognizing them for what they are and then celebrating and circulating them. If you think they express accurately (and inspirationally) what the community is all about, find ways for the membership to absorb and retell them. Often, if they’re really good, membership will find ways to do it on their own!

From Homer to Hollywood, Troubadours to Tweeters, stories have entertained, informed, bonded and reminded us who we are.

These are critical benefits for communities.

They’re vehicles for shared memories. They’re the narratives and dramas that vividly describe why we’re together, what we’ve done and why others should join.

The most successful recruiters into networks and groups (including religions) are good storytellers. They’ll dramatize how and why they joined. They’ll tell stories about the group’s successes, and it’s memorable events and moments. They’ll narrate how people were transformed after they joined, or how the world became a better place because of the actions of the network.

Stories can be written testaments of events, achievements, and sometimes disappointments. They can also be videos. And photos can be worth a thousand words. Post them on your site. Scrapbook events. Nominate a member to be the documentarian of what the community has done, whether it’s a successful barbecue or a change in legislation.

Identify stories that brilliantly articulate what your community stands for and what it’s achieved… and post them prominently on your site to demonstrate why people should join. Circulate them to members to remind them why they have joined. Use them to the spread the message of the network’s purpose to members and potential members alike.

The crescent, the cross, the Apple, the rainbow flag, the red flag, the stars and stripes, the Nike swoosh.

They’re not just visual shorthand for the name of the community. They’re shorthand for meaning. Over time the actions of the community have invested its symbol with values, beliefs and collective memories. They become potent representations for its worldview. They’re telegraphers of common values to the membership, and perhaps a sense of alienation to others.

And symbols are not just visual. When you hear the sound of a Harley around the block you can make a good guess that the rider values freedom and brotherhood (even if they’re a dentist by day and slapped on a tattoo for the ride).

What’s your community’s symbol, and does it stand for something…yet?

The Commitment Curve helps you increase a community’s stickiness…and predisposes more members to do more things on behalf of the group. It’s a tool that helps you organize techniques for creating stickiness and action into a strategy.

It works by creating a succession of ‘asks’ of the membership of increasing levels of investment…investments of time, of emotion and sometimes money.

This tool has been used effectively by the best activist groups, movements and political campaigns. The 2008 Obama Presidential campaign is generally acknowledged as a great example of a highly effective use of a Commitment Curve strategy.

But the Commitment Curve is something that any kind of community should use.

The principle is to begin with low-barrier-to-entry asks and then ramp members up to higher barrier/higher reward ones.

A low-barrier ask would be something like signing a petition if your network has an activist agenda. Or it could be uploading a photograph or commenting on a community blog post if it was any other kind of group.

Higher-investment asks could be things like showing up for a meeting, writing a blog post, hosting an event, or leading a local chapter.

The point is that

a) Investing time or money into a community generates emotional commitment to it, and creates stronger buy-in to its goals.

b) Starting with low-barrier asks widens the net of potentially sticky members, and then predisposes those individuals to take the next, harder step because of the investment they’ve already made.

If you’re objective is to increase the stickiness and involvement of your community… whether it’s a small town, a stay-at-home Moms group, or a local Church…plan how you will migrate members up the Commitment Curve.

An active community will keep its members. But being obviously active will attract new ones.

People stay in active communities because they do stuff that satisfies their original need for joining. And because they’re interacting with others, which builds sticky relationships.

But being active, and showing it, is good for growth too. Potential members need to see that the group is doing the kind of things they want to do, and with the kind of people they want to do it with.

Do you have events planned? Is your home page crammed with scheduled activities? Are there pictures, videos and write-ups of past ones? Are there lots of people attending the next event? Show that. Is there a feedback tool that shows progress towards the goals of the group? Is there an active feed showing members actions and conversations?

Be as unsubtle as you can.

This is an insight that derives from best-in-class Movements: communities that are on the move to make change. But it’s applicable to all successful communities.

Ask your members to do things.

There are two key reasons to do this. Obviously you’re more likely to get things done that achieve the community’s objectives…the reason why many of your members joined.

But you also increase their commitment level. Once a member has taken an action (like recruiting someone or hosting an event, or sending out an email blast) they will feel more emotionally invested in the future of that group.

You won’t, nor should you want to, appeal to everyone.

If the members of a community don’t share values, or a vision of the world, or needs, then it’s questionable whether it’s a community at all. If there are none of these things present, what exactly is the glue that’s holding them together?

If they don’t share an identity, or a common purpose, or enjoy the same things, I would argue it’s a loose arrangement based simply on convenience or habit and it has few strong ties.

Really effective groups draw a line in the sand and stand for something. They’ve made decisions about what they do and don’t believe and what they do and don’t want to get done.

The result is committed members: they’ve joined and are active because they’re aligned with a well-defined purpose and values.

Is this an extreme or narrow view?

Actually, I’ve seen it proven many times, and in a whole range of community-types. It’s clearer to see in those that are very explicit about their purpose (such as activist or political groups) or clear about their values (such as religious organizations).

But I’ve also seen how important it is for regular ‘everyday’ organizations such as companies or brands. Or those where membership is predicated on proximity, such as villages or towns.

All of them should define how they are different from other groups or places…and then live that difference.

(this is a summary of the sixth ingredient, following #1-5 summaries, previously posted)

It may seem trite to have a list of ingredients. We’re talking about high-functioning communities here, not a sponge cake.

But over and over, the same motivations, techniques and principles emerged as I talked to members and leaders of successful communities. You really can identify the key ingredients that are essential to making strong social glue.

What follows is no more than a list. I’ll be covering each ingredient in much more detail and they’ll be illustrated with examples from real communities.

And this list is not exhaustive. If you think there are other key ingredients, then please go to the community section of the site and start a forum or group to discuss them, or write about them on the community blog. Or comment on this blog.

The more cooks in the kitchen, the better!

So far, I’m up to twenty ingredients. Here’s a summary of the first, and arguably, most important five.

1.  What’s your Purpose?
You can call it a Purpose, a Worldview, Ideology, Belief System, a Creed, Values, Vision, Mission, whatever. If a group doesn’t have one, potential recruits won’t know what they’ll get if they join. You and your members won’t have a clear mission that defines the group’s behavior. There wont’ be a values or belief system that the community shares, identifies with and becomes wedded to. And you’ll be fuzzy about whom you recruit and reject…and eject (all equally important in maintaining the integrity of the community).

2.  Make Love.
As important as a Purpose or Ideology is to a successful community, Love is more so. Purpose and Love are the two critical ingredients (like eggs and sugar in a cake).

But Love trumps Ideas.

People join and stay in communities primarily for the people, not the belief system or worldview (no-matter what they might say). It’s not the word of god, or the political manifesto, or the mission or values that’s the primary reason for joining and staying. It’s the other members.

This was an insight I gained from talking to members of cults and cult-like communities. And it was confirmed when I went to Meetup and we researched the key reasons for becoming committed to a group.

We found that it was after attending four of five events that people felt as if they truly belonged. At that point the connection they felt with the other members transcended (but not replaced) the original purpose for joining the community. It was the other people that became the reason to stay. So, welcome new members and introduce them to others. Create lots of opportunities for interaction…

3.  Rub people together.
Community is a contact sport. The more people rub together, the stickier they become.

If people interact frequently with others who share the same interests, causes and values, enduring relationships will occur. This is true for both virtual and real communities, but is more effective in face-to-face groups where two things are at play: a) the investment people have made to show up is often translated to investment in the future of the community, b) all the unconscious forms of communication that research is proving to be so important…body language, facial expression, voice intonation, laughter…get a chance to work in a way that is not possible, or is seriously compromised when online.

4.  Create a Safe Space.
This is not about protection from attack or harm (although it can be). It’s about creating what people often call a ‘safe space’ to be themselves. This is a huge, and I would argue, the most important emotional benefit received from belonging.

It happens when people feel that they are amongst ‘like-others’. They can relax and be themselves without fear of censure that they might get in environments where they can’t choose the others around them (such as their workspace or school). The ability to self-actualize is a huge motivation to join and stay in a community. Given this is most likely to happen when surrounded by ‘like-others’, having a safe space is highly dependent on having the ‘right’ members.

5.  Get the Right Members
There are right and wrong members. Frankly, not everyone should be welcome.

For people to feel at home and be themselves, to interact happily and to get what they need from the other members, to feel like they truly belong, to recruit successfully, the community must have the right members.

What makes a member right or wrong? The right ones are those that agree with and support the Purpose and values of the group. They’re the ones who contribute and show up. The wrong ones are the flakes, the passengers, the ones who are in the wrong place because they don’t really buy into the mission of the community. They’re the detractors (constructive criticism is good, undermining is not).