Building Meaningful Community Partnerships
Published in ATÖLYE Insights · 12 min read · November 15, 2024
Community-Powered Transformation as an On-Field guide to Building Partnerships
Author: Busra Serdar, Community Associate, ATÖLYE Editor(s): Melissa Clissold, Milan Dragacevic
Why Do We Need Partnerships?
Good partnerships within your community and wider network can achieve so much:
- Strengthen relationships and trust
- Generate innovative ideas
- Enhance engagement
- Boost positive brand perception
- Enable sustainable change
At ATÖLYE, over the past decade, we have cultivated various partnerships - network partners, community partners, hub partners, and more. Though each serves a unique purpose, all share a vision of creating meaningful change.
For us, building partnerships is much like building communities. Over the past decade, we have honed our approach to community design and amplify impact through what we call community-powered transformation (CPT) — a process that leverages the power of communities through mapping, curating, engaging, and activating connections of all kinds.
With this approach to partnership building, we can tap into the full potential of our networks.
Below, we share three case examples (and some tips!) from our latest partnerships, aimed at inspiring community leaders and builders to develop impactful partnerships. We have framed these tips within our CPT framework, discussing how to map, curate, engage, and activate your partnerships.
Map: Search, Find, and Make sense.
Building impactful partnerships begins with a deep understanding of your community landscape. Mapping involves identifying and analyzing potential partners, community members, and your community's position within the broader ecosystem. This groundwork creates clarity, helping to identify who will bring the most value to a partnership and ensuring that you're designing relationships that are both purposeful and aligned.
The Mapping phase isn't just about listing contacts; it's about sense-making. By understanding the roles, strengths, and challenges within your community, you gain the insights needed to inform every step of the partnership journey, creating a strong foundation for the work ahead.
Tip 1: Identify Key Community Members and Potential Partners
Start by identifying individuals and organizations that align with your community's goals and values. This includes both internal stakeholders (team members, engaged community members) and external stakeholders (potential partners, influential voices in your field). For example, in a community focused on sustainability, you may look for partners who lead in green innovation or have a strong commitment to environmental initiatives.
Case in point: In the early stages of our partnership with Today at Apple for our collective Earth Day and Accessibility Day event series, mapping key sustainability influencers and organizations within the local ecosystem was crucial. This process allowed us to build connections with stakeholders who shared our vision and were well-positioned to add value, strengthening the partnership from the outset.
Tip 2: Analyze Relationships and Networks
Mapping is more than just identifying individuals; it's also about understanding the connections among them. Analyzing the networks within your community can reveal unexpected alignments, overlapping goals, and potential synergies. Look for relationships that already exist between members, as well as areas where new connections could create added value. For example, you might discover that two seemingly unrelated partners share a common goal or complementary expertise. By bringing them together, you lay the groundwork for a partnership that's stronger and more interconnected.
Tip 3: Assess Community Strengths and Challenges
Lastly, take stock of your community's unique strengths and any current challenges. What expertise, resources, or perspectives does your community bring to the table? And what gaps might a partnership help to fill? Recognizing these factors early on ensures that you're building partnerships that address real needs and leverage genuine strengths.
Curate: "A table with many legs"
"From users and customers to community members, transformation starts with curating the right group of people. Identifying key individuals who have high potential for engagement and value creation, as well as being intentional about who's in the room and who isn't, creates an environment of diverse voices who share a common purpose." - Deniz Dönmez, Life After Design Thinking
What is the Legs Theory?The Legs Theory is a theory I came up with, and it refers to how we curate the stakeholders of any partnership, whether it be for an event series, a collaboratively written thought leadership piece, a joint program, or shared perks. It emphasizes that for a community partnership to be solid, it is important to curate the right internal, external, and leading representatives who hold different angles with different superpowers, to hold the partnership as solid as the legs of a table.
Tip 1: Bring in the Right People and Define Roles
To establish the Legs Theory successfully, start by bringing in the right people, both internally and externally. A strong partnership has participants who each "own" a corner of the work, contributing their unique skills and feeling motivated by the partnership's common purpose. For instance, one partner may excel at external communications while another is skilled in operations. Once the right people are in place, clearly define roles and responsibilities to ensure alignment. Make sure everyone understands the main goals, timelines, and success metrics.
Tip 2: Foster Co-Ownership and Alignment
With the roles established, it's essential to foster an environment where each partner feels a sense of ownership over the partnership's purpose. Encourage participants to contribute their strengths and ensure alignment on the vision, so everyone is invested in bringing their best. This co-ownership creates a strong foundation for collaboration and shared success.
Tip 3: Take an Active Role as the Facilitator
As the orchestrator of the partnership, engage in different streams where you can add value - whether by supporting content, assisting with operations, or contributing in other ways. However, it's essential to ensure that you or another team member takes on the role of facilitator and connector, acting as the project lead who keeps everything aligned and moving forward.
Example Case: Unfold Event Series
Our Unfold Event Series stands out as a successful community partnership, curated between ATÖLYE Architecture focused on content curation and visual world, the community team supported operations and the start of the relationship, and XXI became the external platform for communications and outreach. Each partner played a distinct role in shaping the series - ATÖLYE Architecture focused on operations, the community team led content curation, and XXI handled communications and outreach. This division of responsibilities allowed each partner to leverage their unique strengths, creating a balanced and effective collaboration.
The partnership resulted in over 10 editions of the event series, attracting thousands of attendees and sparking conversations on diverse topics, from public policy to AI, antiquity, architectural research methods, and the transformative impact of design across disciplines. Through this curated approach, we built and sustained a vibrant community of architecture enthusiasts, academics, and professionals, connecting them across Istanbul, Dubai, and globally on digital platforms.
Engage: Create the Right Conditions and Let It Grow
Community engagement seeks to build a group of people that naturally flock together because they are benefiting from the intellectual or social value that the community is creating.
Tip 1: Treat Community Partnerships as Vehicles for Long-Term Value Creation
Rather than viewing community partnerships as short-term, low-impact marketing tools, approach them as opportunities for lasting transformation. By curating the right people and establishing the right conditions, you create an environment where partnerships can flourish naturally. Once this foundation is set, you can take a step back to observe and support the growth that follows, while remaining ready to guide if needed.
Tip 2: Establish a Give-and-Take Balance, with Flexibility for Growth
Successful partnerships benefit from a well-defined give-and-take balance. Set clear expectations about what each partner will contribute and receive, but also leave room for flexibility. By allowing some "loose ends" within the structure, you create space for authentic ideas and initiatives to emerge organically - ones that you may not have anticipated at the start. This balance encourages innovation while keeping the partnership grounded.
Tip 3: Embrace an Abundance Mindset
In partnerships, there may be overlapping areas of expertise - or even some competitive tension. Instead of viewing this as a challenge, approach it with an abundance mindset, seeing it as an opportunity to grow together. Overlapping strengths can become collaborative assets, enabling you and your partners to create a greater, shared impact. By cultivating this mindset, you foster a spirit of trust and co-creation that can strengthen the partnership over time.
Example case: EKA Creative Community x ATÖLYE
The EKA Creative Community partnership exemplifies how two organizations with shared methodologies and visions can come together to build something greater, while learning and growing from each other's unique approaches. EKA's mission is to unite young professionals from diverse fields to foster collaboration and impact-driven work. This vision naturally aligned with ATÖLYE's commitment to multidisciplinary, community-powered transformation.
Since launching this partnership, we have:
- Co-created 15+ events that fostered cross-disciplinary dialogue and skill-sharing
- Welcomed 6+ creative talents into the ATÖLYE team/community through EKA referrals
- Established ATÖLYE's Istanbul Hub as a home base for the EKA Community, providing them with a physical space to connect and collaborate
- Facilitated 10+ member referrals from ATÖLYE to EKA, reinforcing a mutual pipeline of talent and ideas
- Served as Ecosystem Partners at Impact Fest 2023, amplifying our collective voice on a global stage
- Co-hosted the Design Kids Tuesdays Istanbul Chapter, a regular event that connects emerging designers
- Shared client work opportunities, creating mutual value and allowing both communities to benefit from each other's networks and expertise
Despite our similar values and approach to community building, working with EKA has allowed us to engage with different methodologies and styles, broadening our perspective and approach. This partnership has been a reminder that even when two organizations share a vision, they each bring distinct strengths and ways of working. By actively supporting each other's initiatives and leaving room for flexibility, we've been able to grow together, enriching our communities and expanding our impact.
Since the day we launched this partnership, the mindset we held brought us impact in areas that we did not foresee at the beginning along the way.
Activate: Giving people Autonomy and Trust Goes a Long Way
"Community-Powered Transformation aims to establish systems that mobilize many-to-many interactions. ...Community members who mobilize themselves without a central node take action, bring more people in, grow the community's sense of purpose, and strengthen and sustain the transformation." — Life After Design Thinking
Tip 1: Build Systems for Autonomy Within a Cohesive Framework
Develop systems and frameworks that give your community the autonomy to launch new initiatives while maintaining overall cohesion and stability. Onboard members to the guiding principles, empower impact-driven members with the freedom to use the platform, and allow them to mobilize others in ways that align with their vision and purpose.
Tip 2: Reach Out to Like-Minded Communities for Broader Impact
Engaging with other communities, both locally and globally, can amplify your reach and deepen your impact. Identify communities that share your values and purpose, and initiate collaborations that allow for mutual support. This reciprocal engagement can open doors to new ideas, resources, and connections.
Example Case: Member-led Initiatives
Member-led events allow our community members to create content, develop thought leadership, and build communities for which they are passionate by using ATÖLYE's space and platform. Sometimes, these events are entirely new concepts that members develop from scratch, while other times, they build on existing ATÖLYE event concepts or activations, infusing them with their unique touch.
Some recent member-led initiatives:
1. Global Goals Jam Istanbul in partnership with community members Serra Utkum İkiz and Ekin AL (Onarım Atölyesi)
2. The Design Kids Tuesdays Istanbul with community member Salih Aydın & EKA.
3. Sustainability Salon Series by the Dubai Climate Collective with community member Gunjan Nanda.
4. Notion Community Meetups in Istanbul and Dubai with members Saadique Merchant, Furkan Menekşe, Akif Sarı and Çağla Diriker.
These member-led events exemplify ATÖLYE's commitment to activation through trust and support.
By providing the space and framework for members to take the lead, we actively engage with their passions and expertise, fostering a dynamic environment where initiatives can flourish.
This approach not only strengthens our community's sense of ownership and purpose but also sustains the transformation that community-powered partnerships enable.
Closing Remarks
Building meaningful community partnerships is not just a strategy - it's a powerful catalyst for change. By embracing the Community-Powered Transformation (CPT) framework, we can bring a practical, on-field approach to how communities connect, grow, and thrive. This journey begins with careful curation, fostering engagement, and empowering activation, as demonstrated by ATÖLYE's dynamic initiatives.
Our partnerships, such as the Unfold Event Series and the collaboration with the EKA Creative Community, illustrate how intentional efforts can spark innovation, foster collaboration, and create lasting impact. These examples are more than success stories - they are testaments to the transformative power of community driven by shared values and common goals.
Bonus Tip: When building workflows or guidelines for community partnerships, consider developing frameworks that are adaptable across various scopes, geographies, and partnership types. A flexible system that allows for local customization while scaling effectively can strengthen partnerships on multiple fronts, ensuring cohesive management and ease of replication across different contexts.
We invite you to take these principles and make them your own.
Curate with care, engage with purpose, and activate with trust.
Let your community be the spark that ignites change, nurtures growth, and inspires new possibilities.
If you'd like to find out more about community building or partnership building - then please reach out to Büşra at busra.serdar@atolye.io to start a conversation. In the meantime, dive into our open-source materials such as our "Community Playbook" or our "Community Design Toolkit", and join us in building a future where communities are empowered to make a difference together.