Field of Dreamers and Barn Raisers
For quite a while, I’ve been working with businesses who have or are preparing to build or expand a web presence or social community. They ask me to help focus their strategy and to help bring people to their communities. They want to attract, impress, and ultimately engage fiercely loyal participants.
If you’ve been online for a while, you’ve probably noticed that a percentage of new arrivals get a key strategic point of community sites out of order. Field of Dreamers are sure if they build their idea their way the people will come. Except the people don’t necessarily see the same thing.
More strategic folks Barn Raisers avoid the risk by building the community as they build the site. They believe that people will help build a powerful idea. Barn Raisers invite collaboration from the people they’ll be serving and so what they build is often a gathering place for people even before it’s fully finished.
A Barn Raisers Guide
Here are 7 ways to leave a field of dreams and get people to help you build a thriving reality.
- Look for similar dreams and listen to everyone who knows about them.
Ask, search, and explore to find every reality that has the slightest things in common with your dream. Spend some time at each site you find. Meet the people there and see how they use each site. Hear every other guy’s dreams, wishes, needs, and point of view. Get curious. Ask questions constantly. Wonder about what people think of what’s old, what’s new, what’s in every space in the market. Have some ready questions such as this one: If you were going to build a space for people who like to imitate frogs, what features would consider important to include? - Turn your dream into promise to do one thing better than anyone else.
Be able to articulate exactly what that is, why it’s important, and how fits in to a person’s life. Check back with those you spoke to and tweak your promised offer until the folks you’ll serve say it’s relevant to them and fits their lives. - Plan from conception to launch.
Invite people from your outside usual circle to check in on what you’re doing along the way. Weigh their comments for value, sort them, and remember to put the good one to use. Thank everyone of them. - Turn your promise into a space for conversation, interaction, creation, and sharing.
Build a connection conduit. If your promise becomes a blog, keep it sleek and without barriers. Make it easy to see and interact with you. Offer variety in resources and multimedia. Find ways to interact through events. If you’re building a community site, go easy on bells and whistles, execute your promise clearly, and better than anyone has before. Then use extra resources to find more ways for people to converse, interact, create, and share while on your site. - Be obsessed with easy.
If you think something is easy, make it easier. When you’ve done that all you can, ask your grandmother or someone who’s never seen it to try using it without directions. If they don’t breeze through it, go back to the drawing board to make it easier.yet - Ask visitors for feedback and ideas on new ways to use the site.
Let the rule be that everyone gets to pick their best way to do things. That develops into the kind of space that has the climate for relationships. - Build ways into your site to link out to and to celebrate your participants.
Showcase your heroes. Begin with the folks who help you build the site. Give away five great referrals every morning and five more in the afternoon or evening. People notice folks who appreciate others.
If you invite folks to be part of a powerful idea, you’ll find that you suddenly have a knack for making spaces where people collect, connect, and start conversations. It might have something to do letting people help form the environments that they’re going to inhabit. It’s like painting a house that we’re going to live in — pride of ownership.
Barn raising has always been a brilliant strategy — building the relationships while you’re building a site.
It takes a little practice. And it takes leadership to let go enough to get the good stuff without getting the chaos. The best results always calls for the best from each of us.
I’m hoping as we build barns we might bring some Field of Dreamers to work with Barn Raisers on a community site. I thought maybe they might like the process. Do you think the two together would have a chance of success?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Boy, the timing on this one couldn’t be better. We’re in the process of almost exactly this, but I wouldn’t have called it this. Its nice to see in black and white that what we came to intuitively is on the mark.
I love the ‘graduation’ alive in your analogy, from ‘my vision’ (field of dreamers) to ‘shared vision’ (barn raisers). It implies the shift from me to we, the culture shift you’ve been talking about.
I’m a country girl who remembers childhood barn-raisings as communal events that built community and gave everyone a piece of every part of where we lived. It’s as you said…
“…letting people help form the environments that theyâre going to inhabit. Itâs like painting a house that weâre going to live in â pride of ownership.”
Not sure anyone can really be all that loyal to anything they don’t feel they’re a welcome, respected and creative part of.
It also occurred as I was reading this post that if fierce loyalty is we want, we have to give it first. And to do that requires all the things you’ve mentioned above, starting with really and genuinely listening: being in relationship with the people we want to serve BEFORE they’re in relationship with us (make sense?).
We’ve learned tons from the people we’re serving/consulting with. Still very early days,but already its making the process very forgiving, dulling the impulse to be perfect or hide mistakes or flaws.
What a great metaphor! You need to find the customer and build the relationship first! Then you’re sure of providing something of value.
Hi Liz – This is brilliant advice. It’s already given me some ideas. One of the things I’m finding challenging is to keep my ideas simple but I’ll keep trying.
And as you say – I’ll keep imagining that someone’s grandma is trying to use it.
Talking of ideas, I’ve been working on a way to get to SobCon. I’ll email you.
I’m loving this… as you know, I’ve just started a new blog, or rather, well, I’m still blogging about writing but at a new address… and it does feel like a barn raising or what I’ve always imagined a barn raising would feel like.
Keep it coming,
Anne Wayman, now blogging at http://www.aboutfreelancewriting.com
This is an exceptional guidebook. I’m looking forward to clicking the posts that you’ve referenced. I filled out your survey and it’s very obvious to me that you are already implementing the feedback.
I’m most looking forward to seeing what you have to say about doing one thing better than anyone else. My intention for Delightful Work is to coach the leap to self-employment better than anyone else. I love the focus and targeted direction this gives me.
Thanks Liz, these last few posts of are alive with authentic energy.
One more important thing to add. START! I run into so many people who have the greatest dreams and plans and they work hard on their plan neglecting the fact that they actually have to take action and get it going. As Liz states above, get started and let the community that follows help you to perfect it.
Great Post,
-doozieUp!
be obsessed with easy — BRILLIANT
I really love your ability to inspire people toward meaningful collaboration and I totally agree with Karen’s estimation: “be obsessed with easy — BRILLIANT”
That’s soooo important for web-based discussion. I am always telling people, ‘don’t make me click.’ Information sharing should feel as natural and wholesome as the impetus to pass on a good idea.
Lisa!
You’ve captured what’s captured my heart and imagination. That when we invest in people they invest back. A community can come together deeper and in more ways than just to meet in a space.
We grow exponentially.
Guess we’re all hearing the same things. Keep simple, focus on the vision of community, and get started.
I’m going to find those folks who want to make it easier yet. 🙂
@Betsy, it sure seem easier to build the product the customer actually wants. 🙂
@Cath, I think you perfectly reach your audience.
@Anne, Here we are lone rangers again. A community is a nice thing to share. I agree.
@Tom, thanks for the encouragement. Thanks for noticing. I’m keeping my focus on this idea.
@Michael, You’re so right. Dreamers dream. Doers do. Getting started can be the hardest part. 😉
@Karen, Who doesn’t like to be called brilliant by a brillian woman?
@Shannon, As natural as wanting to pass on a good idea!! Tell those Red Wings that they should give a raise for that!
Great post Liz!
Hi Liz,
Totally identifying with gathering folks together before the place is finished. Much of the work I am doing, and the relationships I’m building have to do with a barn that will not get raised for a few years yet…Currently just finding folks that are willing to help me move the stones and stumps, clearing the site…But this is work too, and building the relationships for this phase also crucial. What’s been wonderful is that the relationships are more ‘concrete’ then I could have anticipated.
Hi Elaine, thanks!
Hi Richard,
I keep getting images of settling this nation. Building relationships to build communities seems so much the same. A sort of survival.
I am reflecting on your metaphors and I like the differentiation between the two
…first I think about my blog and comments (which are few) and they only rarely answer the questions I ask…I am getting comments that say “you write well” not much about substance and there is no dialog…just comments…this is not how I built 2 spiritual communities…???
So this barn raising concept would make me want to look and say how do I get the give and take going…
Secondly, I got back to my Architects website idea of how to teach them the power of a blog space in relationship to their work and their designs and their power when they are not writers…and most not social media people…what if one got together designers, social media folks, marketers, contractors and blog designer and they developed a foundation for this site….that seems to me like an amazing structure (and in our case at least, 50% less energy consumption/carbon footprint) Wow…now how do I pull these two ideas off?…let me clear away some brush…
Hi Patricia,
Blog coversation is really a new genre. I wrote about it in my ebook. It takes learning to leave things open so that people have room to say something more.
I’m putting together a team to guide the projects. That’s the key … making it so that you and others don’t have to follow what I do blindly. 🙂
Liz – I’m so enchanted by what you are doing here…
You’ve managed what no one else has done in years – to get me to keep coming back eager to see where this is going.
I’m an intermittent blog reader at best – yet I’m invested deeply in where you are headed with this. I think you are so far ahead of the curve on this that it will take everyone else by storm!
Glad to be here to be a part of it… but even moreso? Thanks for letting me know it was going on. I would’ve hated missing this! 🙂
And I’ve always been obsessed with easy – it’s my mantra when it comes to building something!
Lucretia,
My computer has had me for 6 hours now working fixing a problem. The post I planned today is going to have wait until next week. Sorry to put it off like that. grr.
It’s rolling I wanted you to know. 🙂
I haven’t seen a more compelling article on why you should launch a blog before you write a business plan!
“Obsessed With Easy,” I think I’ll get that tatooed onto the back of my left hand.
And here I was thinking I need to hire a life coach, duh, Jannie.
Hi Kathy,
Never thought of it that way, but you have a point don’t you . . . as long as the blog isn’t the business, it’s a good way to go. 🙂
Yeah, I can see that. 🙂
Hi Jannie,
Just hire a coach who helps you keep focused on the simple path.
Liz,
I just wanted to say that I absolutely fell in love with this line…”letting people help form the environments that theyâre going to inhabit” and that I can already envision the day that people yearn to receive the “I’m a Barn Raiser” badge from you!
You are born to inspire, Liz! So glad that our universes have intersected. 🙂
@LisaPetrilli
Lisa!
I can’t wait to get back to barn raising with folks like you! It’s such a great feeling to pitch in together and make something greater than we could ever make alone. We need each other to change the world. 🙂