Every coworking space in the world is different, which is exactly how it should be. Every space should be a reflection of its members, neighborhood, town, values, mission, extended community, and brand vibe.
Which means it’s hard/impossible to have absolute best practices for all of coworking. We don’t even have absolute best practices among our members of the Lab community of community-focused operators.
An event that works for one space may not work for another. In fact, events in general may be a core part of one space’s offerings while being an afterthought for another.
An offering, such as daypasses or fractional offices, that is a primary source of revenue for one space is crickets, or nonexistent, for another.
One space may have an active and buzzing common space, while another leans toward quiet, heads-down work.
One space may have a super-active Slack, while another is focused exclusively on the in-person community.
One space encourages open zoom and phone calls in the common areas, while another has specific areas for calls and frowns on taking them in common areas.
And a space that has 40 members has an entirely different reality and approach to belonging than a space that has 400.
What works for one space may not work for another.
And those differences are the strength of this movement.
At its finest, coworking is a global community of people running shared spaces, building community, facilitating connection and collaboration, making a local impact, and creating belonging.
And within that, there is an enormous amount of variety and diversity.
So jump into the global coworking community with both feet.
Learn everything you can about how other people run their space, build their community, facilitate connection, encourage collaboration, and create belonging.
Then, try things in your own space.
Be open to new ideas.
Take what works for you and discard the rest.
In coworking, we share generously and learn abundantly because all of us know far more than any one of us ever will.
If you’re feeling siloed, or trying to build on your own, you’re playing on hard mode.
Connect with other operators, share what you know, ask questions, come to Coworking Convos, go to industry events, reach out to other operators, and join the Coworking Creators Lab.
Because in coworking, there is something for everyone. And when you figure out what your something is, you can transform coworking—and maybe the world—with it.
