Open Space Collaboration

Greenway’s Community-Mindedness

As individuals and as a firm, the principals and staff of Greenway are committed to strengthening the communities in which we live and work. We recognize that communities come in all shapes and sizes, from local to global, and that a key part of community is communication.

Community and communication come from the same root word. Community means common, public, general, and shared by all. Communication means to share, divide out, unite, to participate in and make common. In short, strengthening the bonds of community–whether it is in a home, a business, a town, or the global community–requires communication. We have to learn how to hear and talk to each other if we are to identify common interests and develop shared goals and strategies to create communities that thrive and that are pleasant places in which to live and work.

People should be empowered to co-create their communities with others, and should believe that the power they wield to participate in that creation is legitimate. Top-down leadership seldom works optimally because the “followers” often simply don’t like being told what to do. Shared leadership (or servant leadership) is more effective because it can help people to believe they have something to offer–and they do–and it legitimizes their voice. People like to matter.

When we work with businesses, communities, and other organizations, we work to communicate with our clients and create a sense that we are on a shared mission (because we are). In effect, it’s all about creating the future, whether your trying to improve the bottom line, spur innovation in your business or community, or simply are just trying to help in the transition to a different, better way of doing things.

We are all on the same boat together. Wouldn’t the trip be more enjoyable if we talked to each other, and wouldn’t it be nice to have a say in where we are headed?

Read about
Community Created Humboldt here