Community Backbone

This is about overcoming the different barriers in the community, building trust among the key players, connecting around a common purpose and creating a strong attractive future outlook that carries the community forward.

The Community Backbone is our backbone process (see Self-Leadership, Team and Organization Backbone), adapted and applied to the needs of communities.
We define community as a large number of social actors that are connected by a wider framework (regional, topic, sector, interest etc.). The connecting force in many communities is not strong enough to align the actions of individuals or subgroups. Therefore, these communities are not able to fulfil their full potential in terms of power, strength and efficacy. The whole is smaller than the sum of its parts: possible synergies of collaboration and alignment are not being optimized.
The Community Backbone works on building the best alignment, identity and momentum across a community. It works to:

  • overcome obstacles in the community
  • build trust amongst key community players
  • connect around a common community purpose
  • create a strong, attractive community vision
  • build momentum for community development
  • define Macro Areas of Attention to make improvements in the community
  • strengthen accountability in and for the community
  • foster self-efficacy of its members and the community as a whole
  • unleash the participants’ passion for their community, e.g. McDowell Community Backbone

Community Backbone Presentation

Community-Backbone-Presentation

Community Backbone Example

Community-Backbone-Example

Community Backbone McDowell County 2019 McDowell West Virginia US