There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about. Margaret J. Wheatley

Since the dawn of time, weve learnt that humans cannot exist alone they need to interact with others and form a community, to exchange vital information and resources needed to survive. Even today, when so much has changed, the importance of community has remained a constant.

As we deal with the challenges and opportunities presented by developments such as rapid advances in technology, leveraging this human affinity for collaboration and sharing can be the secret sauce for driving organisational success. In fact, the power of the community can be all the more prominent for businesses in Asia Pacific as access to resources such as technology can differ greatly across and within markets in the region.

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The culture context

Fostering a strong organisational culture is top of mind for business leaders today. However, there can be little by way of guidance on what a strong culture entails. While the contribution of some aspects, such as investments in talent and changing the mindset of employees, is often discussed, others key aspects, such as promoting sharing and collaboration, are equally important in creating an effective organisational culture.

Lets take the example of data culture to put this into context. In a strong data culture, people are united in their shared purpose to use data to better the organisation. The passion and willingness to support the growth of others may start with an individual or a single team. However, it soon spreads across the organisation, once people realise that key problems cant be solved in silos, they require data from multiple systems and collaboration across many teams. Overall, people with different perspectives develop a sense of belonging by collaborating and actively contributing to the success of others.

For organisations looking to foster a community-driven culture, it is essential to codify knowledge and document best practices so that they can be shared widely. In addition, organisations should provide both the time and the right environment for their people to participate in internal and external communities.

Reaping the benefits of a connected community

A strong community thrives on learning, inspiration and recognition. We might see advanced users mentoring new users, and even learning something new themselves in the process. Then there are people and teams who build on each others ideas and approaches to create new ideas and solutions. And when these efforts are recognised, it builds pride and energises efforts.

A great example of this is the Tableau Community, which has grown organically to one million data champions globally, both from within and outside of Tableau. This community of data users learns, teaches and shares ideas with each other in various ways such as answering questions on community forums or joining Tableau User Groups (TUGs) to meet like-minded people, ultimately helping people connect and be better together with data.

A core contributor to our Tableau Community isSarah Burnett. Sarah is the Head of Data Democratisation at a large financial organisation in Singapore. She is one of our Singapore Tableau User Group leaders, a Tableau Social Ambassador and a regular speaker at data and visualisation events. Sarah didnt know the extent of the Tableau Community until she attended the Tableau Conference in 2017 in Las Vegas, where she was initially overwhelmed being surrounded by 14,000 plus data geeks. Managing to nab the last seat at the last table of a 500-person strong Makeover Monday Live session, was the key turning point for Sarah and the strength of the Tableau Community. Makeover Monday is a weekly social data project that brings together hundreds of data people to share, learn and inspire one another to develop their Tableau skills. Resurrecting her twitter handle@sezbee, Sarah went on to complete all 52 makeovers in 2018, taking her from a Tableau Rookie to a Tableau Rockstar. In a short span of two years, Sarah is now actively involved in the Tableau Community via Twitter, leading the Singapore Tableau User Group, being a Tableau Social Ambassador and presenting as a thought leader in visual best practices.

At an organisational level, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Australias national agency for health and welfare statistics, has seen the power of community first-hand. The institute deployed Tableau in 2017 and published more than 1,500 public visualisations within the first year, which was a big success in support of the governments open data agenda. The organisation credited a strong community and intentional support system for their success.

All in all, businesses must recognise that creating a successful organisational culture cant be achieved without enabling communities. Culture is dependent heavily on having a shared purpose across the organisation and building a foundation of collaboration. Where strong communities exist, culture can thrive naturally.

Original post:

Building Communities To Drive Organisational Success In Asia Pacific - Forbes