Community vs. Business - How About the Best of Both Worlds? by Mellissa Seaman

I was shocked, but a deep validating calm seeped into my bones as I found my face nodding in affirmation. “It’s pervasive,” I thought, “it’s not just us.” As I looked around the circle, I saw heads nodding with the same flush of recognition in the faces of leaders from some 15 other community-based holistic retreat centers, including Harbin, Esalen, Spirit Rock, Mount Madonna, Findhorn, Kalani Honua, and Breitenbush Hot Springs.

One of the managing directors of Breitenbush had just shared that, despite their fully democratic, accessible, and inclusive decision-making structure, one of the biggest cultural issues was an “Us vs. Them” mentality among some community members toward management. And those who complained the most about their feelings of powerlessness in the process were often those least likely to share specific ideas, to participate in the many open meetings, or to step up for a turn in a leadership position in this worker-owned cooperative. “They say it’s ‘Us vs. Them,” he explained, “when actually it’s ‘Us vs. Us!’”

This statement was followed by nervous laughter and then silence in the room.

The topic that afternoon at the Holistic Centers Gathering hosted by Harbin Hot Springs on that beautiful day in May was: Community vs. Business. In the discussions that followed, we learned that this dichotomy is played out in the exploration of decision-making processes in many community-based retreat centers. From Findhorn’s full-consensus model to Breitenbush Hot Springs’ representative democracy to Esalen’s conscious hierarchical model to others that have an explicit (often un-spoken) Guru/Founder-has-veto-power rule, it seems that all systems have this one thing in common. Fascinating. We learned that no matter how great your decision-making system is, this underlying friction will create tension, conflict, and occasionally painful splits even in the most “conscious” community. And the only “cure” is open conversation—not to solve the problem—but to release the charge, to engage awareness, and to empower collaborative wisdom.

I found myself wondering what is it that draws us to the “intentional community/retreat center” lifestyle? We come to live the dream. We come for community. We come to live connected, respected, and in harmony. And too, we long for the sense of purpose, of right relationship, of security and respect that often eludes us in the greater culture, and in the realm of business. We are looking for the balance of Community and Business, a balance that seems impossible in the “real world”. But we expect to find that perfect balance within retreat centers devoted to consciousness, service and human potential.

But should retreat centers and intentional communities be expected to solve this deep personal and cultural riddle? Or are we really just responsible for bringing it into consciousness—tracing it back into the personal and cultural belief structure that Community and Business are irreconcilable to one another?

Is there really such a dichotomy between Business and Community? I have been thinking a lot about it since helping to vision, found, and create structures for Avalon Springs (a developing community-based eco-resort down the road from Harbin). And as a Stanford educated lawyer-turned-shamanic healer (no I’m not kidding), I have a business foundation as a spiritual person that gives me a different perspective about value-based community.

From what I’ve seen visiting and living in intentional communities, we are a bit behind in holding plans, structures, and ways to “get-er done.” Show me a community that doesn’t have at least one unfinished eyesore project sitting around because no one is stepping up to make it happen. So why aren’t we in our communities utilizing the best that the business world has to offer? We hesitate to even speak in business terms for fear of being seen as “corporate.” Honestly, every time I say the word “Business” out loud, I feel many of my community-minded friends flinch! Is the flinch coming from wisdom or is it the relic of long-held wounds?

We’re missing out. Business models have roles and structures that help to get stuff done, and modern businesses support this with lots of collaborative processes and open input systems. This is the direction that mainstream businesses are moving in (though the movement is slower than some of us would like). For example, Open Space Technology and World Café are collaborative work-space models that are becoming more and more valued for their help in creating collaborative creative space that moves businesses forward both in the “get-er-done” sense and also in manifesting a positive creative culture that supports humans as the key resource of every business or any organization. The better part of the business world is realizing that community, collaboration, and honoring all workers as human beings is the only way to be successful. So, I’ll ask again: why do we “community” people poo-poo the tools the business world has to offer? Have we become our own version of the arrogant clique that we came here to avoid or transcend? Are we unconsciously in some sort of competition with the Business World to show them that we can change the world through existential means, and we’ll do it better than them without their discipline, their expertise, or their money that keeps the project moving? We don’t need that kind of competition.

I feel strongly that “Business” and “Community,” when done right, are the SAME—a collaborative group of individuals who share a common purpose (mission statement), offer something of value to the world (product/offering), and have structures that support right relationship, equal exchange and respect, and an underlying intentional culture that creates a beneficial lifestyle for participants and the greater community. But right now, it seems the folks who like the structure and money part tend toward “business,” and the folks who value the socio-cultural aspects tend toward “community,” and both sides are left incomplete and unwittingly lonely for the other. It is as if we had a painful divorce years ago, and we don’t even remember that we could be in love.

Let’s get this together people, the romance of right livelihood awaits our working it out!

Mellissa Seaman is a co-founder of Avalon Springs (avalonsprings.com), a developing hot springs eco-resort and learning center for eco-living. She also provides profound shamanic healings long-distance through YoniShaman.com, where you can read other writings on women’s empowerment, shamanic practice, and intuitive awakening.