By Valarie Willis

In May, we had a webinar that discussed strategies for building organizational communities in tough times. The truth is, we should always be focused on building community, connecting people and sharing information.  Leaders need high visibility and close connections to foster high levels of engagements and confidence. Don’t miss an opportunity to connect, celebrate or acknowledge someone in your organization.

As part of the webinar, I asked people to send me some of the strategies that they employ to build community.  As promised, let me share some of these great ideas.

It seems that food is still a great community builder:
•    Have pot luck lunches
•     Open snack cart once a week
•     “Take a Break on Us” – company treats for a break

Ensuring that people are connected to the right information was also essential:
•    Use virtual technology to build community and get people knowledge and information
•    Share the good news as well as the bad. Sharing positive news gets people to focus on the positive.
•     Have an idea night, solicit ideas to grow revenue and offer small rewards
•     One company has an internal TV which has a leadership channel.  The leaders share their thoughts on leadership and what’s going on in the business.

It seemed that our attitudes and behaviors as leaders matter:
•    Be sure to treat people as people and not employees.
•    Laughter is still good medicine.
•    On person uses the “PATS” model  (Positive Attitude and Team Spirit) complete with inter-departmental recognition.
•    Just have bare-bones honesty with an authentic desire to improve my client’s success.

Thank you for sharing your ideas and strategies. It is always good to hear from our listeners–we learn a lot from you.

If you missed the webinar, you can still hear it by going to http://www.bluepointleadership.com/books-article/webinar-archive.htm

Valarie Willis is a Senior Facilitator at Bluepoint Leadership Development and can be reach by email at valwillis@bluepointleadership.com