We function as parts of different communities every day, at work and elsewhere. Often, we do not fully appreciate the influence we can have by developing our sense of being a part of these groups. Rachel van Doorene recently attended a workshop with Peter Block on this subject.

In the busy world we live and work in, it is all too easy to lose sight of the people around us and the important roles they play. Meetings, tasks and more meetings rule our diaries and taking time out to attend a community event was not high on my priority list.

As luck had it, my schedule shifted and I was able to attend a two-day session hosted by Louise van Rhyn of Symphonia for South Africa. She had arranged for Peter Block to facilitate a community building workshop.

Little did I know what was in store for me.

The workshop had approximately 200 delegates from all walks of life: corporate, religious, government, small business, education and more. The dialogue was robust and engaging and I believe it provided a great opportunity for relationships to be forged and opportunities explored.

Peter was fascinating to watch as he facilitated the delegates around a number of core questions. He displayed great empathy and care for the delegates, and yet his dry sense of humour made me smile often as he blatantly challenged our prejudices around title, position and power.

The strength of these sessions lies in the simplicity of the model. The model is essentially built around questions (and powerful questions at that). His model works around Six Conversations: the first conversation looks at the invitation; this is followed by the conversations of possibility, ownership, dissent, commitment and gifts.

About Community
A key to creating engagement in your workplace is to establish a sense of belonging for all the employees. Community is the way that people experience belonging. In his book, Peter explains that “We are in community each time we find a place that we belong. The word belong has two meanings. First and foremost, to belong is to be related to and a part of something. It is membership, the experience of being at home in the broadest sense of the phrase. It is the opposite of thinking that wherever I am, I would be better off somewhere else. Or that I am still forever wandering, looking for that place that I belong. The opposite of belonging is to feel isolated and always (all ways) on the margin, an outsider. To belong is to know, even in the middle of the night, that I am among friends.”

He goes on to say, “The second meaning of the word belong has to do with being an owner: something belongs to me. To belong to a community is to act as a creator and a co-owner of that community. What I consider mine, I will build and nurture. The work then is to seek in our communities a wider and deeper sense of emotional ownership; it means fostering among all of a community’s citizens a sense of ownership and accountability.”

Creating belonging in Mentorship
Within the mentorship relationship you have a great opportunity to:

a) Evaluate your mentee’s sense of belonging within your organization
b) Contribute to building community within your organization
c) Raise awareness of incidents and scenarios that break down this sense of belonging for employees and,
d) Challenge the degree of ownership and accountability that employees take for the wellbeing of the organization.

No matter what your role in the mentorship relationship, are you hindering or growing the sense of community within your organization?

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