Building a Working Space Family | What makes a "good co-working Community?"
An arguably core value of coworking, the community that resides inside a working space is the foundation for both the direction and vibe of the environment on which owners have to either create and nurture. Many coworking spaces claim a great community as a marketing tool but what actually is a “good community?” Sandbox is proud to have a wonderful family here and share our insights into building a community like our own!
First of all a good community should be considered safe. Safety in this case can take many different forms such as physical and mental safety. When building a workspace that will contain many different members and users, implementing rules that help foster both confidence in the users and at the same time making sure reasonable limitations are set, are key to starting up a good community. While interactions are very important in a co-working space, it is important to cultivate a sense of respect for each other’s work and private spaces in order to increase comfortability.
Building upon this, a good community usually contains a sense of pride in their work environment. Without pride of the co-working space, residents are usually in a grumpier mood as they do feel that they are not being treated the way they should. Co-working spaces try to build this pride through numerous solutions ; introducing new amenities and facilities in order to increase the quality of the space, creating events that cater to it’s residents so that they are provided opportunities to grow in their respective skills or the staff’s general treatment of the users as a whole.
When a sense of safety and pride is implemented, a good community makes sure that everyone can feel included. Everyone wants to feel like they belong and co-working spaces try their best to make sure the environment fulfils all types of requirements. Whether through community building events such as fun monthly meets filled with food or a hiking trip for people who enjoy the outdoors, a good community is capable of fulfilling not only work goals but also life goals as well. Through shared experiences, people will more likely feel a sense of attachment not only to the each other but to the space as well.
Finally, a good coworking community in spite of cultural differences has all its members respecting each other’s values and opinions. Strong communities tend to always have more potential for collaboration with others and a great co-working spaces aim to maximize this collaboration. Community building is a step by step process and without proper mechanisms in place then the overall effectiveness of coworking becomes obsolete.
Great communities are not built in a day. Transforming an initially empty space into a vibrant place where people look out for each other to make the overall quality of life better is the ultimate goal for co-working spaces and will always be an ongoing process. However through the right methods and mindset, co-working spaces are a great example of how the collaboration will always triumph over individualism.