You can’t force community in a coworking space

Years ago I was in Austin speaking at the Peers conference. At the afterparty I was chatting with an attendee who had tried coworking but said it “just wasn’t his thing.”

When I asked why, he said his only experience with coworking had been at one of the big, shiny spaces and that the whole experience didn’t feel authentic.

When I dug deeper, it wasn’t the space he didn’t like, it was the way in which the idea of community was hoisted onto him. As he told me, as soon as he walked into the space, the team talked about how they really focus on community.

Which is good, right?

Except it wasn’t good.

This guy was told how he was already a member of the community, even though he had just walked in the door.

The barrage of community jargon continued and this poor guy was bombarded with how great things were in the community, how he was already a great fit, how all the days, and all the events, and even the beer were all about community.

At this point, my friend hadn’t met a single person in the space besides the person giving him the tour. And every second that passed, he was less and less interested in joining that “community.”

He left and never went back—to the space, or to coworking.

He felt manipulated and bullshitted by something that felt forced and inauthentic.

As you might guess, I encouraged him to check out other coworking spaces in his hometown, and referred him to a space run by a friend of mine.

I hope he gave coworking another try.

But he may not have. And understandably so.

Community can’t be forced, it can’t be bought, and it can’t be hoisted onto someone.

Community is a web of interactions and connections that strengthen over time.

Community is a group of humans who genuinely support and care about each other.

Community is a force multiplier.

So yes, focus on community, but you can’t bypass the hard, patient work of actually building community and beeline straight to marketing and selling community.

Because people can sniff out bullshit and they may never come back.

The interaction and tour could have been infinitely better if the person giving the tour talked about how they were working to build community, and that having a space of connection and belonging was part of their vision for the space. They could have asked him what he was looking for in a shared space. They could have introduced him around.

This is how you invite people into your community.