Here goes a popular saying in Nigeria, “A child is raised by the village”, this literally shows the place of communal activities and the benefits of having a community to look after you. A community is a group of people who share a common belief, idea, or language t and located within a bonded region.
They may be located in different parts of the world, but their belief system is the same, and they provide support to individuals alongside social connections which is important for economic and social development.
The concept of community has been deployed in different fields of learning; from kindergarten to the tertiary level, individuals paired in groups serving as a base for administrative duties. Quite a number of people have been able to maximize the opportunities found in these settings. A community can either be with formal structures or informal structure, but the goal and objectives serves as a guiding light to why this was formed in the first place.
What’s your role in your community?
For groups to remain relevant and functional, individuals within such must take up tasks or activities that promote the ideals of such an entity, promoting progress. No doubt, there are quite a few fellows who don’t thrive in such entities, reasons vary from person to person, but there’s a place for everyone in the community.
A classic example of individual places can be seen in the Lord Jesus disciples, where we found individuals with different characters and abilities working together as a team to promote God’s kingdom on Earth. Peter was outspoken and audacious, John was the soft-spoken fellow always within the bosom of Jesus, listening to his heart beats. Judas Iscariot, well known for his role in keeping the purse and betraying Jesus; Matthew, the publican who sits daily to receive taxes on behalf of the ruling party in their days.
At the Lagos Business School; LBS, there are different structures meant to harness the power of communities. At its core; for the programmes, is the group structure, made of a number of students within a said class that allows them to interact with each other, form a close-knit relationship in their MBA journey and support each other.
So far, it has been quite a journey, the group helps to shape individuals and affords a place to understand difficult concepts taught by the faculty.
On the other hand, the school has different communities that cater to different needs of the students, the Data Analytics club is one powerhouse that helps shape fellows into world-class analysts using different stacks and concepts. The MBA career centre is another group that functions primarily because of the students, and she plugs students to available opportunities within the alumni association, hence promoting their growth.
Another place where we see the power of community is the local healthcare centres. Here, people leverage on each other to survive their ordeals. Pregnant women are grouped together to share their experiences and proffer support to each other before their due date. I have seen recuperating folks grouped together to facilitate their healing process, where everyone is cheered to give their healing process a chance to materialize.
The medical folks aren’t left out, as they leverage on their network to help diagnose and treat patients, in event of a lack in their facility they refer to another within the state.
What has been my experience?
I’m super grateful for my community; the MMBA4 class, group 2, they make life easy, with tutorial sessions to help folks with little/no accounting experience to understand accounting concepts and even get a footing in the world of data.
No doubt, the Analysis of Business Problems (ABP) has been a tough nut to crack, but with collective inputs from everyone, helps to refine our thinking processes and also the understanding of the problem, hereby making the right call.
Every community has its unique challenges, though some may apply to others, hence the approach to solving theses must be different. A common challenge has been the coordination issues. Who do we get people to work together?; Who will lead the team?; How can we measure each output?; A silent destroyer of communities is communication barriers, communities where two or more languages are spoken by the members must agree to a common language that everyone understands.
Messages and instructions must be passed in a clear and concise manner, providing simplicity in its words and everyone understands the assignment.
These and many more have been the bane of many communities.
A great way to solve these challenges is to involve everyone from the beginning, identify the outliers (those who are super active and the passive ones). Initiate avenues for both groups to mix together and offer each person an opportunity to contribute. Create a sense of belonging, allocate tasks to everyone and have a working committee (leads and sub-leads).
A clear understanding of the goal and objective of every group is paramount to her success.
On the business front, community matters, as these are your loyal customers who have bought into the vision of the company.
The power of communities lies in her people and the skills they possess. A shy follow might be knowledgeable in a particular field most don’t know, and the contributions help pave the way for a better understanding of the problem.
Your community needs you, not just your presence but your inputs as this is seen and felt by the others. In conclusion, you belong to a community; either at school or at home, value each other, contribute immensely and support each other. This way, you leverage on the strength of one another and finish strongly.
What difficulty(-ies) have you identified in your community, and how did you solve them?
#MMBA4
