Hi everyone!
(Applause)
Welcome!
(Applause)
This is really great! I see you all smiling.
I heard you from backstage.
I feel a little shy and hesitant giving this talk,
but today,
I'm going to share things I've learned from running TEDx community.
I have a question for you.
Have any of you ever run a community?
"Community management" may sound a bit intimidating,
but how many of you have talked with friends or acquaintances
to start something new together and actually translated into action?
Oh, there are many of you.
Perhaps, I don't need to give this talk.
(Laughter)
Upon running a community, have you encountered problems like,
difficulty finding participants
or getting people to do the job you requested?
Yes? So have I.
I was a programmer until 2009.
I currently work in what is called community design and management.
As I was "a geek,"
managing a community did not come easy since it involved people,
so I experienced some failures.
Today, I'm going to share some lessons I've learned along the way.
What is a community in the first place?
Does anyone know?
Simply put, it's a human connection, and there are several types.
One is a relationship determined by family and bloodline,
called "blood relation."
Second is a relationship determined by where you were born and raised.
This is called "territorial relationship," fostered in local communities.
Finally, there is a social relationship
that is determined by the organization you belong to.
In other words,
it's a community that is bound by a contractual relationship.
But the type of community I want to address today is something else.
Before I get into it,
there is one thing I would like you to do.
Could everyone please stand up?
Please pair up with the person next to you whom you've never spoken to.
We're short on time, so be quick!
(Laughter)
Please share three of your favorite things,
such as hobbies, activities, books, or anything.
Are you ready? Go!
(Audience Chatting) (Laughter)
May I? Are we done?
Please be seated.
Did any of you like the same activities
or have common interests?
Wow, there are more than I thought.
The community I'm going to adress today is formed by shared common interests.
It's a relationship
that not only connects people with common intellectual curiosity,
but also involves a high degree of empathy.
This kind of community shares knowledge
and sometimes acts together driven by a common goal.
Members normally volunteer.
The fundamental difference from other communities
is that this community has no sense of obligation.
How do you manage such a community?
There are things I've learned from my mistakes.
Today, I'm going to share five lessons I've learned in community management.
First -
oops -
"Fun is a principle of human behavior."
In 2009, I started working with a community called TEDxTokyo,
but prior to this, I never worked in a community.
So I had no idea what it would be like.
One day, I attended a meeting.
It was not at all what I had imagined.
I thought it would be something like
middle aged men wearing formal suits sitting at a table
having serious discussions the whole time.
Instead, we all met at a cafe on the second floor of a concert venue
that's like a hideout.
Attendees were not only Japanese but also Americans, French, Indians.
There were designers, programmers, consultants, marketers, etc.
People of many different nationalities and professions gathered
and were just chatting away.
They made all sorts of small talk for about 40 minutes out of the one hour.
Despite the lack of time, girls' talk lingered on.
"I have a crush on him."
(Laughter)
They touched on broad subjects, including background of war.
There were a lot of intellectual exchanges.
It got me really excited.
That's when I felt, "This is so cool!"
I had no idea that such an exciting and eclectic community existed.
Through the TEDx activities,
I started visiting other communities as well.
Some communities were as interesting as TEDx,
while others lacked the excitement and vigor.
As I started to think why some of the communities lacked the excitement,
I found a trend.
There were fewer participants.
I could tell by the look on their faces that they were bored.
It was exactly what I had imagined what "a community" would be like.
It's like having an inconclusive meeting forever
in a fluorescent-lit office space.
It's just too boring!
(Laughter)
I had a chance to talk with the leaders, and they too were troubled.
He said, "People attend our meetings
because they share our vision for this community,
but it's hard to retain them."
That's when I realized,
the "fun factor" is very important in this type of community.
If you don't deliberately design something that piques their intellectual curiosity,
people run for the hills.
You have to be alarmed when you face such a high turnover rate.
To combat this, you can choose to bring in new people on a regular basis
or choose a theme that interests everyone.
"A deliberate design" is necessary
in order to fulfil their curiosity.
The second lesson is "the design of uncontrol."
As I said before,
variety of people join this type of community.
So their lifestyle varies,
and everyone carries different workloads.
Some have completely different days off from work,
so it's not easy choosing a date for gatherings.
I actually have a story to tell related to this lesson.
One member worked for a mega company, in the corporate planning division.
His role with us was to find a venue.
He was usually very busy,
so he couldn't find a venue for our upcoming event.
Everyone was getting impatient,
so we decided to hold an urgent meeting.
About 15 people came to discuss this matter.
An hour before the meeting, I got a call from him and he said,
"The medium-term business plan has to be reworked from the beginning.
so I just can't attend the meeting."
I said, "What? I had everyone come for you!"
(Laughter)
He just couldn't come.
I thought, "What do I do?"
Yet I thought honesty would be best
and decided to tell everyone, fearing they'd be pissed
because everyone came by setting their own schedule aside.
Contrary to my expectation,
they said, "No Problem! Let's focus on other agendas and see what we can do!"
We did a lot of brainstorming,
and selected the presenters on the spot.
What I learned from this is that even if you make plans ahead,
not everything goes according to schedule.
In such a diverse community,
where individuals have different lifestyles,
everyone needs to be flexible and find tasks they can work on at the moment.
No matter how hard you try,
you can't control peoples' schedules or lives.
Therefore, you should not make important decisions
or design too much ahead of time.
Instead, be flexible and embrace change.
The third lesson is, "Matching the Needs."
In 2011, I started TEDxKids that uses TEDx format,
to reach younger audience.
I recruited a variety of volunteers and worked with them.
One day, my friend introduced me to this young lady.
She was a joyful person who enjoyed chatting with everyone
but once in a while she sat at a table and became an observer.
I wanted to know what she was up to so I went over to her.
She said, "I'm not sure what I can do."
I thought about the tasks she could take up
and was almost going to make suggestions about how she could contribute.
But I held my tongue there.
Before I started TEDxKids,
I often asked people to do specific tasks.
But when I was assigning tasks as an event organizer,
I was only sharing a portion of my work.
I learned from this event that when people are "given" a task,
they won't be intrinsically motivated as they don't see the task as their own.
Once they feel overwhelmed with the workload, they quit.
I wanted to avoid making the same mistake, so I held back.
But there was no progress with her for about three weeks.
I decided to talk to her again.
Although I normally don't make suggestions, I told her,
"We have some tasks available."
"You might be interested in working on this or that."
She replied, "At work, I'm always in the office
talking to the same people about the same topic every day."
"When I was a university student,
I worked at NPO and talked with various people about our future.
In this community, I want to communicate with more people."
TEDx community has what we call "Participant Team."
It's what the previous presenter was talking about.
The team designs participants' experiences through communication.
I mentioned it to her hoping she'd jump at it but she didn't.
She said, "I'll think about it."
One week later, I received an email with just one sentence: "I'll do it."
She became the most ardent volunteer.
She sorted out what she needed to do, laid out all the tasks to be tackled,
and frequently communicated with other participants though email.
At the time, I had just started at TEDxKids, so my hands were full.
I couldn't pay attention to many details,
but because I had her, I could let her take care of all that.
If I hadn't held myself back and decided her job for her,
things would have turned out differently.
I realized that it's important to give room and offer support
so that the person can paint the room with their favorite color.
The fourth lesson is this: "Leadership is action, not status".
As I mentioned previously, various people come to the community.
Quite a few motivated people show up saying,
"I want to be a leader!" And they run for the leader.
But from my experience,
about half of them end up doing nothing after taking up a leading role.
Their title on Facebook still says "leader,"
but it makes me wonder, "Are you actually doing anything?"
Once I started seeing this pattern, when someone asked me for advise,
I began telling them,
"You'll need to translate your ambitions into visible actions to prove yourself,
and people will consequently acknowledge you as a leader."
Those who take my advice seriously and take the necessary actions,
do make up a great team.
I realized that rather than giving them a title,
it is important to stimulate them to act.
Because when people join a community to volunteer,
"the leader" is just another stranger.
But if they dedicate themselves to the team with a strong work ethics,
people will acknowledge the leadership,
which is crucial to becoming a leader.
The Fifth lesson is this: "The design of a break."
When we work together for a long time, members go through different life stages.
They get married, have children, change jobs, launch a project and so on.
There is no consistency in terms of how busy they are.
At times, they cannot fully commit to the community.
Nonetheless, after all the working years, a sense of fellowship develops,
and you start feeling obliged to remain loyal to the team.
"I don't really have time for this, but I have to attend since they need me."
This mindset not only jeopardizes the quality of the output,
but also has a negative influence on others.
So, after every event,
when it's time to plan for the next year,
I always ask members what they are up to.
If they are facing major life events,
I advise them to take a break from volunteering.
To make things easier,
I also divide the community structure into several layers.
The core team that does all the planning is composed of members
who can fully commit.
In this team, I only include people whose activity rate is about 80% to 90%.
I inform everyone at the interview of this,
so they have an option to join another team
with relatively loose constraints and minimal commitment.
Members can choose to participate in the community using social media.
They can share the latest posts from the community on SNS
and still feel positive about their participation.
When they become available again,
they can choose to fully participate the following year.
Creating space where they feel comfortable
allows them to commit on their terms.
Finally, many people ask me,
"What is most important to you when you manage a community?"
My answer is always this:
"community temperature,"
meaning, how "hot" or enthusiastic community members are.
I often compare this to a campfire.
Have you ever built a campfire? Of course you have.
Have you ever set the fire?
Or handled charcoals at BBQ?
Isn't it pretty hard to set the fire?
You lay tissues and twigs
and stack thick and dry branches on top and then light the fire.
Even if you can't start a fire with your first attempt, you keep trying.
Once the fire is lit,
you add thick flammable wood for the fire to burn steadily.
Community management is comparable to this.
At first, it's rather hard to light members' motivation,
but once everyone is on fire, you can sit back.
Not interfering is advisable.
Occasionally, the wind blows and the fire dwindles.
At this point, try to shield the wind or add more flammable sticks
to control the "temperature."
Generally,
many people may think that a community must go on forever.
But actually, once you achieve a goal, you can put an end to the community.
I mean, when the BBQ you are grilling is fully cooked, you stop the fire.
You can't eat if you keep watching over the fire!
(Laughter)
At this point,
eating BBQ with all the members becomes more important.
And once you achieve a goal, you can end things there.
If you force yourselves to go on, you put strain on yourself and others.
I think this is an important perspective.
Our world is full of problems.
Businesses can't always generate solutions.
Many companies feel their businesses are irrelevant to the problems.
So they end up not participating in important activities or events.
If we can create a place where various people share their ideas
and can truly feel that they are part of the community,
working for "no money" may rather become a rewarding experience.
If we can replicate places like this,
communities will be able to solve more problems.
I truly believe this.
And if we can accomplish this,
we can create a wonderful world that our children will be proud of.
Thank you for listening today.