Designing communal spaces (digital or IRL), whether social gatherings or work sessions, requires more than an agenda. Before you get to agenda building consider:
What is the intention of the space you’re inviting others into?
How do you signal and reinforce that intent?
How do you curate the people that show up to that space?
To design more welcoming and effective gatherings we can answer these questions combining participant Archetypes and @rafathebuilder’s “Gravity In Community Design.”
Participant Archetypes:
Archetypes can be useful sense-making tools, whether it’s a better understanding of ourselves, of others, in the context of group dynamics. (The archetypes we’ll be referencing are summarized here.)
An individual's range of archetypal motion (the different archetypes they tend to inhabit) plays an important role in shaping the way they show up in collaborative groups.
We spend most of our time in one or two archetypal energies - those that are most comfortable to us, based on our history and lived experience. But we also contain each of the other archetypes within us - they’re just not as fully developed and therefore expressed less frequently.
We can use these to inform our invitations to intentional spaces, increasing the chances we have complementary archetypal energies in the room together, as well as understanding when and why tension or conflict arises.
Space Shapes:
Rafa’s created a simple framework to use when designing a gathering space. (His presentation can be found here, including his citation to Values Based Design). I first came across his work during the 2nd DAO Ambassadors Residency with @CreatorCabins.
He offers three basic shapes to describe the intention of a gathering:
Circles - for non-general, exploratory activities
ex. a brainstorm to generate potential vision/goals, or an open space for discussion around a general calling question, or a meeting space for interpersonal connection
Funnels - for focusing a group towards a goal or vision
ex. a process to create concrete objectives and strategies towards a large, shared goal or vision
Tubes - for moving towards an objective quickly
ex. prioritizing strategies, creating and executing on an action plan
Note: Rafa defines Tube shaped spaces as moving you towards your own goal quickly. I find it useful to describe Tubes as an individual or group working towards a specific objective quickly. This aligns these shapes on the strategic planning ladder of 1. Circles - Brainstorming, ideation, team/community formation 2. Funnels - goals and outcomes, 3. Tubes - objectives and activities.
Rafa adroitly points out that these shapes can also describe an individual’s interior space. In other words, with what energy are they showing up with? Misalignment here can result in tension with or within the group.
Imagine you designed and called people to a circle shaped space, with the intention to connect or brainstorm without limitations. And into this space walks someone whose interior is very much in the tube energy. Several outcomes are possible here including:
This individual thinks “I came here to get work done and everyone is just throwing out random ideas” and withdraws from the group.
This individual attempts to change the shape of this space with directive questions: “How would we accomplish that idea? What steps would we take? Let’s map out a plan on the board…”
Here, they’re trying to shift from a circle to a funnel and focus the group’s energy towards something specific to work on.
Combining Archetypes and Space Shapes:
To show the interaction between space shape and archetype we’ll use the following language:
“Primary” archetypes for each space shape - individuals who’s strongest interior energy is well suited to a specific space and often take leading roles either in calling that space type or in catalyzing activity within it.
“Secondary” archetypes have a strong interior energy that prefers a different space shape, and they may require some time/activity up front to realign their interior space with the intentions of the exterior space.
(+) - the affirming behaviors that archetype may express in that space
(-) - the retreating behaviors that archetype may express in that space
To illustrate, let’s start with a circle space, where the intention is to create a place for connection or exploration (i.e. social gatherings, community building, brainstorming, open conversations) using one primary and one secondary archetype to describe potential interactions.
Using the above examples, you could design a community gathering or collaboration space and consider:
Am I comfortable in the Host energy? If not, who is that I can invite?
Do I have Shepherd energy in the space and am I on the same page with that individual in regards to the intention of this space?
What other roles or capacities do I need filled? Which archetypes are well suited to those?
Putting This To Work
Are you planning a community vibes gathering? A strategic planning work session? A product design session? Consider the shape of that space and which archetypal mix is needed or desired.
The table above can be found here, including open space for adding how these Archetypes might show up in a Tube or Funnel space. The latter two are empty - I invite you to think of the archetype with which you most identify and add comments about how you think that archetype shows up to a Funnel or Tube shaped space. Let’s discover the rest of this framework together.
Interested in using archetypes to build better teams? Shoot us a dm on twitter.