Peter Block – Community: The Structure of Belonging (Part 2)

Title: 16: Peter Block – Community: The Structure of Belonging (Part 2)

This is Part 2 of my conversation with Peter Block, author of Community: The Structure of Belonging. Where Part 1 laid out the framework, Part 2 took a turn I didn't expect. It got personal. We go deeper into leadership, dissent, curiosity, and eventually into the riskiest of the six conversations: gifts. Somewhere in the middle, I named my own gift out loud for the first time, and I can honestly say I'm not the same person I was when we started. If you haven't heard Part 1 yet, I'd start there, but if you want to jump in here, I'll catch you up.

Peter Block is an author, a citizen of Cincinnati, Ohio, and co-founder of Designed Learning. Full bio and headshot at peterblock.com/media-kit.

His books include Flawless Consulting, Stewardship, The Answer to How Is Yes, The Abundant Community, Activating the Common Good, and the book that brought him to this podcast: Community: The Structure of Belonging, now in its third edition.

• Bosses, yes. Worship, no. A leader sets the rails; peers create the world
• The Leadership Industrial Complex: when we wait for a leader to save us, it lets us off the hook
• Curiosity is the breath of relationships, and the delivery system of well-being
• "If you can't say no, your yes means nothing" - dissent is what makes belonging real
• Naming your gifts is the riskiest conversation: once you name them, you have to do something with them
• "When you say it out loud, it changes your relationship to it"
• Break a group into threes and people realize "I'm not alone"
• In the absence of connection and belonging, we get violence, now normalized

00:05 Cold open - Peter on violence and the absence of connection

00:27 Welcome back; a recap of Part 1

02:10 Why Part 2 goes deeper; a note on the book

03:40 Interview resumes - the trouble with leadership

05:36 Peter on bosses, hierarchy, and "it lets me off the hook"

06:45 Mateo's breakdown: The Leadership Industrial Complex

08:59 Peers create the world; why Peter wants to stop the worship

13:52 Curiosity as the breath of relationships

14:33 Mateo's breakdown: Unpacking curiosity

16:55 Dissent, a camp story, and "if you can't say no, your yes means nothing"

18:01 Mateo's breakdown: The six conversations of community

19:30 Why gifts is the riskiest conversation of all

20:10 Peter on why naming your gifts is terrifying

22:34 Mateo names his gift out loud

24:44 Mateo's breakdown: What is your gift?

27:28 Saying it out loud changes your relationship to it

28:38 Why Mateo spent years brushing his gift aside

30:03 Groups of three, and the relief of "I'm not alone"

31:46 Gifts from the margin to the center

33:43 Mateo thanks Peter; why being a bystander isn't an option

34:29 In the absence of belonging, we have violence

36:26 Closing reflections - community as the structure of belonging

Community: The Structure of Belonging (3rd Ed): penguinrandomhouse.com/books/815995/community-third-edition-by-peter-block/ Peter Block's Substack: substack.com/@peterblock Designed Learning: designedlearning.com Peter Block on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/peter-block-238848a/ Designed Learning on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/designed-learning/

Instagram: instagram.com/createbelonging

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/create-belonging

Email: createbelonging@gmail.com

This is the second of a two-part conversation. If it moved you, share it with someone thinking about how to build something real in their corner of the world. And as always - go create belonging for yourself and for others.

Acknowledgments: Music "Playing with Color" by Nullhertz via Pixabay. Thank you to the lovely people at Purple Space for your support.

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