GLN 2025 - Building Community Now - TeachAbout

[Paul Terlemezian]

Session Leader: Judith Glick-Smith, Ph.D.

In the face of an loneliness epidemic, extreme polarization, and unbridled anger on social media, what options do we have to Build Community Now?

• What is our role as individuals?
• How do we, as leaders, help others navigate this fractured world?
• Who decides the process for building community?
• Because change is constant and continuous, how will we know when we have accomplished our goal to build community?
• Now never ends. Therefore, building community is an ever-evolving process. How can we assure that we will continuously evaluate and recreate our community in an on-going basis?

Here are the zoom details:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85383220879?pwd=mXpWalPwlyaYtyASPOrBHrY1E...

• Meeting ID: 853 8322 0879
• Passcode: 764101

The format of this session will be:

1. Five minutes of welcome and introductions
2. Segment A - Ten minutes of listening to the interests and perceptions of those who wish to learn about Building Community Now with Judy off-camera and muted.
3. Segment B - Ten minutes of formal presentation by Judy regarding Building Community Now.
4. Segment C - Ten minutes of listening to the reactions to the formal presentation while Judy is off-camera and muted.
5. Segment D - Ten minutes of open conversation including Judy.

[Judith Lee Glick-Smith]

A bit of background

My premise is that when people learn to maximize their ability to live and work in flow, community grows, people care for each other, and people are better able to navigate our VUCA world together.

What do I mean by "flow?" 

• Flow is a state of optimal experience characterized by a deep sense of engagement, fulfillment, and immersion in activities. Initially researched and conceptualized by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, flow occurs when individuals encounter a perfect balance between the challenges of a task and their personal skills. In this state, people experience heightened focus, a loss of self-consciousness, and a sense of control over their actions, leading to peak performance and personal satisfaction.

• Flow is universally applicable, occurring across different cultures and types of activities, from creative pursuits to sports and daily tasks. Understanding flow introduces the potential for enhancing productivity, creativity, and overall well-being.

• Flow is a feeling that is unique to the individual.

• Flow is neither positive nor negative.

• Flow is present-based. Flow is neither future oriented nor is it situated in the past. Flow happens in the present.

• Flow impacts well-being in a circular way. Flow facilitates well-being, and having a sense of well-being facilitates the ability to work and make right decisions while in a flow-state.

The characteristics of flow

1. You have clear goals and are receiving immediate feedback within the moment.

2. There are many opportunities for decisive action.

3. Awareness and action merge

4. You focus on the task at hand.

5. You feel in control of your actiions.

6. Awareness of the self disappears during the task and feels stronger following task completion.

7. There is temporal distortion. Time sppeds up, slows down, or has no meaning.

8. The experience is autotelic. That is, you do the work for the sake of the work.

For more context, visit my Substack at judithglicksmith.substack.com.

[Judith Lee Glick-Smith]

Our questions for today's discussion:

• Building community is personal: What is the individual’s responsibility to oneself and one’s community?
• What are the characteristics of a functioning community?
• What skills are needed to build community?
• How do we nurture individuals (both leaders and non-leaders) within the community?
• The process of building community is present-based and never ends. How do we evergreen the process?
• How do we measure the progress and success of building community?