This human castle, called a castell, was created in Barcelona by a group of visiting youth from the Balearic Islands. Our family had been watching these groups prepare, dance, and then gather together to build competing castells. Even though we could not understand their language, there was a strong sense of community among the groups. They had a shared culture, history, and goal.
In the Daily Gumboot review of the book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, the reviewer’s book club considered author Alain de Bottom’s challenge of what ideas the book club had for future editions of the book. In considering the pleasures of work they came up with “Camaraderie, laughter, community and mentorship”. Sitting in Barcelona watching youth build their castell, there was lots of all four.
Gwyn Teatro writes in Guiding Rookies ~ Three Steps To Doing It Well of her experience in bringing new employees into an organization. Her first guideline is to “Help Them Connect to …”
- Organizational purpose
- Values on which the organization is built
- Internal and external networks
In short, connect to the broad community that the organization represents. By connecting and being part of a community with shared vision and goals, we can create great things. The youth building the castells in Barcelona had a clear organization purpose, shared values and history to build upon, and we watched their internal and external networks at work as they competed against teams from different areas. The end result — a human castle of amazing proportions was beautiful to watch.
What is your organizations sense of community?
Your post reminds me of the importance of organizations going beyond the confines of their “walls” and connecting to the greater community. That’s where being purposeful shines brightest. Thanks for helping me to expand my thinking and for the link too!