Communities are gardens that need tending.

People joined your community for a reason - they have a shared passion, interest and desire that calls them to connect.

However, people only become active in your community and invite others to join if there is a climate of empathy, trust and connection, that allows rich and intimate relationships to form.

This doesn't happen automatically - it must be cultivated.

activate your community

What is a community?

A community is a group of people with a shared interest and location.

While online platforms and tools are helpful, actual communities are comprised of people who live, work, pray and collaborate in person.

They include neighborhood associations, civic organizations, spiritual communities and businesses.

The Old Way of tending community doesn't work.

The Old Way

Community: laissez faire, connections develop based on similarity (age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, education, politics), resulting in tribal and adversarial resistance to those who are different

Learning: solitary, anonymous, boring, ineffective (90% is forgotten in 1 week)

The New Way

Community: intentionally crafted so diverse connections develop, celebrating our unique perspectives, shared agreements for kind and truthful communication, resulting in empathy, trust and solidarity

​Learning: social, transformative, story-based, in small diverse groups, over time

activate your community

How the New Way works:

Your community learns powerful skills

in small, diverse groups over time.

Your community is sorted into groups of

4 diverse people, where they have a

​1-hour conversation,

over 5 sessions.

Members are placed into groups of 4 people in your community who are as diverse as possible.

Members have 5 peer-facilitated conversations, using a discussion guide and rotating peer facilitators, to learn new skills and gain a deeper understanding of each other.

The results are that they make new diverse friends, experience empathy, trust and solidarity, and discover new ways to live their purpose in their lives, career and community.

After the initial learning journey, the learning continues - each quarter your community decides which learning journeys to experience together.

activate your community

The Results of the New Way

Small, diverse learning cohorts transforms hearts + minds, connects us to our purpose + values, ​and inspires action.

RESPECT

percent experience respect from their diverse peers

EMPATHY

percent experience empathy from their diverse peers

ACTION

percent take new actions as a result of the conversations

HABITS

percent form new daily habits as a result of the conversations

Results from a landmark 2020 ion study on small diverse group conversations, n=103.

activate your community

Who is Unity Lab for?

Unity Lab serves the people, communities and organizations in the United States
​who want to create greater empathy, trust and belonging,
​collaborate and thrive together.

Unity Lab is for you if:
​

• You want everyone to feel safe, like they belong and can show up with their whole self. 
• You community is divided and/or languishing, and you sense that there is something in the way.
• You fear what could happen to your community if you do not cultivate it intentionally.​

Unity Lab is NOT for you if:
​

• Your community is really about you, rather than your people connecting and flourishing.
• ​You believe people can't change, or learn new ways of connecting.
• You have given up hope on your community and are content to let it whither.

activate your community