Online Community Tips

Every Fall our skies are filled with the honking sounds of thousands of migrating Geese traveling away from the frigid Canadian winter on their epic journey to the warm Southern United States. As soon as they take off they form the iconic flying ‘V’ formation and one goose begins to lead the flock on a strategic mission to their final destination. Studied extensively by scientists and equally referenced by motivational speakers, geese have a number of lessons that can also help us lead our online communities.

Beginner’s Mind

What do all beginners have in common aside from the theme that they are novices? As intuitive as it may seem, beginners are often owners of beginner’s mind, a concept in Zen Buddhism called shoshin. Shoshin refers to an attitude of eagerness and openness towards and with no preconceptions of what is being studied. As such, beginners have a freedom and an ease to ask questions, decode what is unknown to them while evolving their clear slate of mind to absorb that which is new. Experts or even intermediate learners often lack this attitude imprisoned by what they think they know or what they think they should already know and, as a result, fail to ask the right questions--the ones that would stimulate deeper understanding or a new way of approaching the concept. Their rate of growth the moment they lose shoshin diminishes drastically, almost exponentially. But are these students also the best teachers?

"The opposite of autonomy is control. And since they sit at different poles of the behavioral compass, they point us toward different destinations. Control leads to compliance, autonomy leads to engagement.” –Daniel Pink in Drive