Strategies to Build a Thriving Community: From Disengaged to Engaged
I am lucky to be a part of the Flexible Workspace Australia (FWA) Community Managers Committee. We run online talks/events throughout the year available to FWA members and non-members. These events are not only for Community Managers, they are for anyone working in an environment with a diverse range of humans and are searching for tools and insights into how to develop, and be a part of, thriving communities.
For this event Paz Pisarski, co-founder @ The Community Collective, was our guest speaker, and Paz shared with us her wealth of knowledge around building thriving communities.
When researching for this talk on engaging communities, we asked the event attendees whether or not they believed they were part of an engaged, neutral, or disengaged community. The majority replied their community felt neutral, followed by disengaged.
Engagement is the magic ingredient of any flexible workspace, whether you’re hosting a tight-knit crew of 20 or a buzzing community of 5000. A thriving, connected community brings energy, collaboration, and the sense of things just clicking.
To build a thriving community, it’s crucial to understand your desired outcomes rather than just focusing on the act of engagement. Do you want to increase occupancy? Educate the greater community on the benefits of coworking? Generate referrals? Or simply get to know your members better?
Getting your members to advocate for you goes hand-in-hand with an engaged community. This should be at the forefront when designing ideas for events.
Here are some ideas we workshopped that made sense to me and may provide some takeaways for you too!
Define and Promote Your Offerings Beyond Physical Space.
What can you offer to your members?
Flexible workspaces can offer the possibility of new connections, relief from isolation, expanded professional networks and a sense of community.
As a community manager your ability to regularly engage or check in with your members will keep you up to speed on what they are seeking.
Facilitate introductions between members who could benefit from each other’s skills. The more insights you have on your members, the easier it will be to make these connections, which can have a huge positive impact, leaving them with a stronger sense of community and support.
Manage expectations. Ideally, you aim to introduce added offerings to your members within their first year, but it’s often possible to deliver some of these benefits within a few months. Achieving those early wins helps build positive momentum for consistent member engagement.
Create Scarcity and Unique Offerings:
There is a trend to delay action, based on the concept of always being ‘on’, and the understanding that there will be another chance at another time (think adding yet another series to your ‘watchlist’ on Netflix!)
Make events feel special by emphasising their uniqueness. This can create a sense of urgency and increase participation, motivating immediate engagement.
Build a Culture of Connection and Support
Leverage people’s habits—many people check their emails and calendars first thing in the morning, especially on Mondays. Sending your communications at 8 AM on Monday can improve visibility and engagement.
Make your space a hub where people can build habits around connection. These can be simple regular drop-in events that revolve around existing daily habits, like the mid morning coffee run, lunchtime, afternoon tea. Be conscious of the habits of your space and tap into those.
Gathering Feedback Personally and Regularly, and Dealing with Member Concerns
Maintaining engagement means you have to regularly, or at least systematically, collect feedback.
Perhaps grab a coffee with a member and ask some leading questions, or create a habit of sending a quarterly email asking “How would you rate the level of activity and communication from our space?”
This will give you key insights into whether your engagement efforts are on track.
When collecting feedback, be mindful of different communication styles. Some people are naturally more vocal, and what might sound like complaints could just be their way of wanting to be heard—more bark than bite. These interactions can take up a lot of your time if you’re not prepared.
Consider asking members to send a voice note, and let them know you’ll respond in kind the next day. This approach helps them feel acknowledged while giving you time to understand what they really need.
Use a ‘Community Guidelines’ document to set clear expectations for members, framing it as a guide to promote respect and consideration rather than a list of do’s and don’ts.
When addressing issues, refer back to these guidelines to ensure consistent and fair responses.
(If you do not have a Community Guideline in place, get in touch and I can forward you a template to work from).
At the end of the day thriving communities are built on meaningful connections. Whether you’re sparking conversations over a coffee, sending that perfectly timed email, or hosting an event that gets everyone talking, it’s these little moments of engagement that add up. So, go ahead—create those unique experiences, facilitate introductions, and keep checking in.
Remember, building a thriving community is not just about getting people to participate; it’s about creating meaningful interactions that resonate with members’ needs. And if you need a little nudge or a handy Community Guidelines template, I’ve got you covered. Wherever you are trying to build community- it’s great to know that there is increasingly some science to back the art of creating the spaces and places people value.
And at FWA with our Community Managers Forums we are sharing best practices between a whole range of coworking spaces with a view of growing vibrant place based coworking communities across the Country.