Organizational Communities can be a source of insight and competitive advantage for organizations that are willing to listen. In order to take advantage of this opportunity, decision makers should connect with these communities, treating the connection as a partnership.

Decision 3D helps organizations develop community partnerships.

Decision 3D will work with your organization to design, develop and deploy a Partnership Infrastructure that improves communication and information flow between an organization’s decision makers and its communities. Decision 3D uses a processes called Decision Due Diligence to facilitate Partnership Infrastructure development.

Definitions:

• Community – A group of people that share a common interest or objective
• Organizational Community – A community whose shared interest or objective is related to the operations and/or outcomes of an organization; members may be inside or outside the official boundaries of the organization
• Partnership Infrastructure – The tools, processes and desired behaviors that facilitate effective communication and information flow between parties
• Decision Due Diligence – A proprietary process developed by Decision 3D to assist in community partnership development. Click here to find more detail about the process.

Examples:

• Project Community – Members share interest in the outcome of a specific organizational project; members may be internal or external to the formal organization, depending on the scope of the project
• Brand Community – Members share interest in a particular brand of the organization; members are typically internal and external
• Geographic Community – Members share geographic proximity, though may work for different divisions or functions; members are typically employees
• Divisional Community – Are part of the same formal organizational structure, though may work in different locations; members are typically employees
• Functional Community – Members share skills and developmental interests; members are typically employees
  
  

This is not to say that groups of people cannot think and behave similarly. A group of people that share a common interest or objective is called a community, not a demographic segment.

There are many distinctions between a community and a demographic segment. Let’s look at a few and consider why the continued use of demographics makes less and less sense in today’s connected society.

Interests vs. Attributes

By definition, a community is created based on shared interests. If a company can identify a community whose shared interest is relevant to the company’s objectives, you have a nice hand in glove fit. Here is a self-defined group of people that are already talking about something the company wants to learn about.

On the other hand, a demographic segment based on attributes, is just a random heap of people that will have a variety of opinions on any given topic.

Many vs. Single

By definition, individuals can only be associated with a single demographic group at a time. It is kind of hard to be “35 – 44″ and “45-64″ at the same time. The problem with this is that if your interests and opinions differ from the majority of your “Group”, then you have essentially no input.

An individual’s opinion can be represented many times by being affiliated with multiple communities.

Choice vs. Defined

People choose to be a member of a community or not. It is their choice to engage and be heard, or not.

As a demographic statistic, you are defined by a characteristic that has nothing to do with your thoughts or opinions, and you have no option but to be affiliated with a specific group.

Engage vs. Research

Companies are looking for information from groups. Gathering information from a community is a rather straight-forward, and cost-effective process. Simply join in the conversation the community is already having. A company can just listen, and obtain significant understanding. Actively engaging in the community conversation yields even more benefits.

Getting information from a demographic group is a tedious and expensive process; focus groups, surveys, etc. Once you gather the data and process the information, you only have a snapshot in time, that is probably already out of date. To maintain current data, the process needs to be repeated over and over again.

Emergent vs. Stable

Communities are emergent, meaning that they form spontaneously as necessary, and disappear as the need diminishes. This means that when you find a community, it is by definition active, full of energy and ideas.

Demographics are nice and stable. Men are men, women are women, a nice straight-forward way to collect data. IMHO this leads to a false sense of security about the information you collect, because there is an underlying premise that stability connotes meaning, and therefore is good.

Current vs. Unknown

Because of their emergent nature, communities inherently deal with what is current. Discussions are about current events; conversations address current issues.

A demographic group has no center, so there is no focus of discussion, or even a discussion for that matter. The group only exists in the data tables of the demographic researchers. The only conversation among the “group” is one that is forced and artificial, in settings like focus groups. So what do you really know?

Conclusion

This all reminds me about the old joke that asks why do dogs lick their (well you know) …because they can. Why do companies collect demographic data … because they can, not because it provides the best insight.  I believe that all the nice structured data collected in demographic research provides a false sense of security to company decision makers, and ultimately does a disservice to the company’s stakeholders.

Engaging with communities is new, it feels soft,  non-analytic and not very comfortable to company decision makers, but in the long run it will lead to better decisions and yield better results than over-reliance on demographics.