Learning to be "Better Together" - Our Door is Open: Creating Welcoming Based Cultures in Organizations and Communities

Our Door is Open – Creating Welcoming Based Cultures in Organizations and Communities

There’s a lot of talk about service systems these days. The people we serve, often labeled as “clients” or patients, too often take on the role of tourists in “the system”. It seems like we’ve created this service machine and forgotten that the “end” we should keep in mind is people living a good life and a safe life, together in community.

Bruce defines welcoming as “the initial and ongoing interactions with people and environment that result in a feeling of belonging and a willingness to engage.”

Creating welcoming work place cultures and welcoming relationships with, and among, community members isn’t rocket science! For the most part, Bruce Anderson’s model and strategies for creating welcoming behaviour and environments calls us to build on natural talents and instincts. In this workshop, we saw how many cultures value and practice welcoming.

If you subscribe to the belief that it is as important for community organizations to build relationships and help people to connect with one another as it is to deliver services, then welcoming is a “core competency”.

The feedback gathered from the sixty or so folks who participated in the two workshops with Bruce was consistently positive and, dare I say, hopeful! The workshops provided us with practical ways of understanding welcoming and organizational resiliency. In addition, we saw many examples of things that we should “try at home” and, to paraphrase a famous guy South of the border, “yes, we will”!

For more information on Bruce Anderson and his organization, Community Activators, visit www.communityactivators.com. Also, visit the Mills’ website, www.themills.on.ca, for a couple of Mills’ Minutes (video clips) with Bruce.