On community. On, Community!

One comma can make a difference, can't it?

It's been 48 hours since my digital enterprise social networking community was delivered a blow. The very people who inspired many of us in our community to be the kind of community managers we are today, were let go. Just...they're just -- gone. I can't begin to criticize the decision to do so, I don't know what happened, I have no idea why - nor will I ever. They were without question some of the most highly trained, creative, and experienced people in the art and computer science of cloud technology - where it's 80% about culture change and 20% technology. What I know for sure, is that I now have proof of the value that community has for all of us. All of us lonely souls who have been pouring our ideas and energy into a network - we got to see it really work this week.

Our customer success managers were the kind of people you wanted to grow up to be. They were inspiring. They were funny. They were a shoulder to cry on. They were task-masters. They were productivity ninjas. They were insightful. They made you think about your company in another way. They made you want to be a better community manager. And I am really going to miss them.

And so, I write on community.

I have seen physical or geographic communities come together before to support each other in times of need, but this time, our digital community is the one who came together. This week, I think I finally understand that we have done what we set out to do when we banded together across the internet to create the workforce of the future. We're not bound by time, by geography, race, creed, culture or company. Our band of brothers and sisters, powered by the crazy thought that we could build a better way of working, did.  

We reached out in our network and told them how much they meant to us. I'm sure LinkedIn has seen a cluster of all of us start following each other and connecting. Many of us reached out to the people we knew to see if we could help find them a soft place to land. So much so that I am sure they'll be fighting off the offers with a stick. 

But what about that comma in the title of this post? That comma gives me hope. 

And so I write, "On, Community!"

Guess what folks? We've now got to do this on our own. I'm not giving up. We've got to keep going. Look at what happened this week and try to see what an amazing thing it was. In my humble opinion, it's ok to be angry. I am. But I am going to use that energy to urge us to move forward, knowing those inspiring customer success managers - that's what they'd want us to do. Let's honor their service and do right by them. 

For more on this topic - see posts by Jonathan Anthony, Benjamin Elias, Rhiannan Howell, Tom Kretzmer, Simon Terry, Carrie Basham Young and I am sure many more to come.

Edited January 27: Wanted to add two new blog posts out there:

https://redmondmag.com/articles/2016/01/26/yammer-death-greatly-exaggerated.aspx ~ by Christian Buckley https://twitter.com/buckleyplanet 

http://thecloudmouth.com/2016/01/25/microsoft-axes-its-yammer-office-365-csms-a-change-in-strategy-or-simple-cost-cutting/ ~ by Loryan Strant https://twitter.com/TheCloudMouth