Real Community Requires Three Types of Networking

Have open plan coworking spaces delivered on their promises of greater flexibility, frequent collaboration, and diverse networking opportunities?

According to estimates noted in the 2018 Global Coworking Forecast¹, 1.7 million people will be working in 19,000 coworking spaces around the world by the end of 2018 and this quick expansion is proving their popularity.  However, the forecast also states that consolidation will drive some coworking spaces out of business, and to remain successful, they need to focus on creating communities by offering more community-building events.

Coworking spaces are currently offering networking opportunities that are either operational or social in nature.  Members can gather key contact information from other members for the purpose of purchasing products and services to support business operations or members can meet, greet, and interact on a purely social level during events like happy hour.   These types of interactions are often missing a key component of building community – strategic, structured, constructive conversations that lead to learning and personal growth.

Community is what binds us.   As Maslow² said more than 70 years ago, we not only have a basic need to belong to a group where we share social relationships with family members, neighbors or colleagues, but we also need to feel respected and valued for our expertise, opinions, and contributions.

At this very moment, coworking spaces have the incredible power to bring members with different backgrounds, different perspectives, and different business models together to learn and develop each other’s talents.   But this requires a willingness to accept that building community requires some structured conversations.

The coworking space that nurtures community with all three types of networking opportunities, operational, social and strategic, will not only survive, it will thrive.

Our goal at GreaterThan is to provide members of coworking spaces with the forum for constructive conversation.  To learn more about our workshops, contact us at info@greaterthancourses.com

1. Deskmag (2018.) The Global Coworking Forecast 2018. https://bit.ly/2EMPh9r
2. Maslow, A. H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychology Review 50(4): 370–396. doi:10.1037/h0054346