Teach. Learn. Share. Play. Repeat.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Building Community...with Purple Cows and Zoysia Plugs

   How do we build and sustain community?  Reaching out to people who share your vision for creating community is a great start. Allowing them to use their strengths and leverage their talents is a idea and practice that has interested me for a while. The Purple Cow, by Seth Godin is 2009 marketing book that is one of my all-time favorites. My copy will never make the trip to the used book store or the garage sale table.  It is gold...or even better-- purple. Godin writes about marketing and so much more, but in this book he discussed how "sneezers" in an organization pass along "idea viruses." I found a similar theme in Peter Senge's 1994 The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook. The zoysia plug metaphor is used to discuss community building. Zoysia grass plugs are planted in a scattered mosaic and then slowly grow together to create a full lawn.  "Zoysia plugs" in a classroom or school are "the informal leaders who know how to 'make things happen.' Find them, wherever they might be and support them however you can" (Senge, et al., 1994, p. 527). 
    Whether they be influencerssneezers or zoysia plugs; the right people, doing the right things, at the right place and at the right time can work magic in community building.  
  Video:Flipgrid response & sharing stage

  I may have recently found the "right thing" for a community kickstarter. I attended the Silicon Valley Ed Camp "unconference." I learned about a website and app called Flipgrid.  Flipgrid allows the user to ask a question of their team, group or class and the respondents simply click a video record button and respond to the question.  The collected videos are then seen by all on a grid and the typical social media "likes" and comment sections are available to use. You quickly have group input to a question with the ability for the team to see what everyone has said and respond to their ideas easily.  It is visual. It is easy.  It is what people are already doing on their phones when they have leisure time. 
    Who are your "zoysia plugs" and are they getting the fertilizer they need?
Pictured: Zoysia plugs











         













    

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