Community Playbook

"Like a Living Organism, Not a Complicated Machine": Weaving Healthy Communities ft. Fabian Pfortmüller

[PT-BR] Este é um episódio bônus da terceira temporada, gravado em inglês com Fabian Pfortmüller, cofundador do Together Institute e coautor do Community Canvas e do Community Weaving Framework. Fabian é uma das maiores referências globais em comunidades e já foi citado diversas vezes aqui no podcast. Nesta conversa, ele detalha a evolução do seu pensamento — de "construir" para "tecer" comunidades — e explora temas como ritmo, construção de comunidades saudáveis, comunidades corporativas e dois futuros possíveis para o trabalho com comunidades. [EN] Communities aren't complicated machines you build following a blueprint. They're living organisms — closer to a rainforest than an engineering project. This shift in perspective, from "community building" to "community weaving," is at the heart of our conversation with Fabian Pfortmüller, co-founder of Together Institute, co-author of the Community Canvas and the Community Weaving Framework. In this bonus episode of our third season, recorded in English, Fabian details why the Community Canvas — while useful for creating clarity — had a fundamental limitation: it treated community as something you build, when in reality it's something you weave. He explains the 5 elements of the Community Weaving Framework (fire, web, rhythm, circles, and spiral), but goes further: he talks about why rhythm is probably the most important element for healthy communities, why simple and cheap formats sustain better than elaborate experiences, and his take on corporate communities. The conversation also dives deep into the future of communities: Fabian believes we're on two tracks — one accelerating toward digital, AI, and isolation; another emerging, more offline, local, small, and focused on the fundamentals of human relationships. And it ends with an urgent provocation: community today is "nice to have," but soon it might become a matter of survival. When that happens, will we be ready? Episode Chapters 0:00:00 Opening 0:00:37 Guest Introduction and Background 0:06:41 Community Canvas vs. Community Weaving Framework 0:12:59 Why Rhythm is important for communities 0:23:37 How can brands create meaningful communities? 0:34:59 Future of Communities 0:40:49 How get people interested in community again? 0:48:30 Inspirations for Community Weaving 0:52:11 Biggest Lessons in Community 0:54:24 Closing Remarks 📚 REFERENCES CITED IN THE EPISODECommunity Canvas – https://community-canvas.org/ Community Weaving Framework – https://www.community-weaving.org/ Together Institute – https://www.together.institute/ Sandbox Network – https://www.sandbox.is/ Holstee – https://www.holstee.com/ Holstee Manifesto – https://www.holstee.com/collections/manifesto-inspired Wasan Network – https://www.wasan-network.org/ post-office Amsterdam – https://p-o.space/ Entangled - Fabian's Substack - https://entangledtogether.substack.com/ CreativeMornings – https://creativemornings.com/ 👤 Guest's Social Media Fabian Pfortmüller - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabianpfortmuller/ 👥 Meet our hosts Caio Matos - https://www.linkedin.com/in/caiovmatos https://www.instagram.com/caiovmatos Jen Medeiros - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeniffermedeiros/ https://www.instagram.com/jen_medeiros/ 🚀 Follow comuh on all networks Instagram - @comuh.co: https://www.instagram.com/comuh.co/ Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/company/comuh Blog: https://comuh.co/blog/ Discover how comuh can transform your community management with CaaS (Community as a Service) services. Visit our website at https://comuh.co/ and learn more!