'Community' is a very floppy kind of concept - just when you think you have it propped up nicely on the sofa - it falls over and spreads out across the rug.
It's so easy to forget that we all have multiple personalities, many functions, hats, worlds we inhabit. Over the past few days I have sat in meetings in a variety of different roles. It never ceases to amaze me in this connected world how so many have 'locked in syndrome'. Some sort of narrow thought that ways of being are only one dimensional. That you can be one way in one situation and another way in another situation.
Sometimes worlds collide. So, for example, you may be a loyal customer spending significant sums on coffee at a particular store and then you think of the school fundraiser you have been asked to handle - what could be more natural than to ask that local store manager for a little support? But hey, you crossed the invisible line from 'person who spends money and receives outstanding customer satisfaction' to - to 'someone touting their kid's school' - the deal broke / the contract split - and now the macchiato isn't so frothy anymore.
Somewhere we forgot about the 'whole person' and we bought into the 'fake personality'. The fakery that exists in job titles, status displays of wealth, positions of power, physical posturing, glossy manes. The whole person is far better to be and to be around.
The coffee store owner has to see real people in his store - not coffee drinkers - we have to see a real person running the store - not a provider of hot delicious beverages.
So the dilemma is obvious - should we all stay tight shut in our boxes - shoppers remain firmly in the shopping seat and fundraising for community stays in its own narrow corridor - or should we re-examine how we see each other?
So what about if the store manager's team is raising funds for Breasts For Life or some other charity and they have a Giving Page - is it OK for them to ask their loyal customers for support? Can they cross the line between serving to sharing? You can't walk up the high street anymore without being offered numerous opportunities to save something or other - charity walks the high streets daily fundraising...is that OK?
As we all know the new(ish) brand dimension is community - I sat through a world brand talking community the other day for well over 3 hours...in truth they weren't really talking 'community' in any meaningful way.
The real point of this blog is that there are no lines anymore - whether we like it or not - we all have multi-dimensions and we are all intricately woven - so being awkward, rude in one scenario is going to leak into another just when you least expect it.
That is a hard call - how do you stay true to your first principles all the time?
T'was ever thus - when we used to live in villages it was easier to understand - you had a fixed group of people and they got to know you - the whole of your life - warts and all - you understood and expected to present a consistent face to the community - the whole person - in this global village it's easy to think new rules apply - they don't - reputations traverse the world now - anonymity didn't exist in the village and it doesn't exist in the global village.
Global citizenship demands a lot of each of us now - just ask Sepp.
