community unmanagement

The "Chief Conversation Officer" meme cropped up again recently here and here. And it's been coupled with some conversations with community managers such as Scott Drummond.

What I find interesting is that a bunch of people from diverse areas have picked up the label "community manager" - some from a knowledge management background, others with histories in marketing or PR, still others with technology backgrounds or even social activism.

What these people have in common is that they have been tasked with managing a "community". And "community" seems to be any group that is not a formal organisation or a bunch of autonomous individuals. This needs a bit of unpacking.

Organisations and Individuals

Organisations are established to create predictability through coordination. This coordination requires hierarchy and hierarchy requires managers who will coordinate subordinates. Interaction outside their formal roles was deemed irrelevant. In effect, the employee relationship was between an individual and a corporation (or government department) through a manager.

The creation of corporations also created consumer mass markets. And corporations tended to model their consumers as individuals. Everyone knew that these consumers interacted with each other but these interactions were secondary to their individual relationship as consumers with corporation.

The Rise of 'Communities'

This division of the world into individuals on the one hand and organisations on the other has always been artificial. What technology does is make it harder and harder to maintain that artificial division. Communities are what fill that gap. The social glue. Or may be a shock absorber between David & Goliath.

Unmanagement

The problem with these non-organisational groups is that you can't manage them. You can't sit down with members of a community, agree objectives and resources and then get on with it. Well, you can do a bit of that but communities tend to reject managers - "Who died and put you in charge?" is the first reponse. "I'm not coming back here again" is the second. They need stewards, facilitators, hosts and bouncers. Sometimes they need leaders but that leader may not be you. But they do not need managers.

What makes a Community Unmanager?

• You care. I don't want to say "passion" because it's a horribly over-used word but community unmanagers have to care about both the topic they are involved in and the people around them. If they don't then their community will feel betrayed.
  
• You help other people make stuff happen. Facilitation. Listening. Responding. Encouraging. Exactly how you facilitate is up to you. You can be gentle and nurturing. You can be aggressive and confrontational. It depends on the kind of people either already in your community or who you want to attract to it. But be mindful of what you are like and what that means for everyone else.
• You are aware of your environment. Online this may mean having the technology skills to get people up to speed with the tools. It might mean having an eye for design. It certainly means being a good host.