Coworking Space & Community Engagement
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https://allwork.space/2018/04/bringing-coworking-to-idle-church-space-a-qa-with-daryn-dezengotita/
Daryn DeZengotita is breaking new ground in coworking. Or, more accurately, she’s repurposing old ground. A longtime community builder and shared workspace advocate, DeZengotita is bringing coworking to churches in Dallas, Texas, and helping churches around the world do the same. DeZengotita founded Table Coworking, she founded and was community manager of The Mix Coworking & Creative Space in the White Rock United Methodist Church in East Dallas, and she has now launched SyncLife Coworking in the Central Christian Church of Dallas. She’s on a mission to put idle church space to work as coworking and community space, to help church staff and clergy reimagine their buildings and resources, and to build community between coworking members and the churches themselves. Allwork.space spoke with DeZengotita about her work, the unique challenges she faces, and her vision for coworking in churches. Here are the highlights of our conversation. Allwork.Space: Let’s start with a big picture. What are you working on bridging coworking and churches? Daryn DeZengotita: It kind of comes from both directions. We’re helping folks who want to cowork understand that this is a space where they can be comfortable and get all the same amenities that you do in a traditional coworking space. We’re also helping the church understand that welcoming these people into their empty space is another way they can be the church in the world for the 21st century. Allwork.Space: I know many churches are sitting empty, not only during off-hours, but that there’s been a widespread waning of attendance. Is that correct? Definitely—especially mainline Protestant denominations. They’ve had a precipitous membership decline. They’re literally dying because their core membership congregants are in their late-70s, 80s and into their 90s. They still have these very large physical buildings with thousands and thousands of square feet of space that the denomination is loathe to sell or close because they still have the commitment to that neighborhood. In so many of these neighborhoods, if you let go of that real estate, you’re never getting back in there. There’s no foothold for it, at all. Changing the perspective to see your building as an asset rather than a liability is a long road, but they can get there. They can begin to see that these spaces can become community centers, if they want to use that word. We’ve seen dance classes and cooking classes and everything that would happen in a community center happen in these spaces. Allwork.Space: Who do you see coworking in churches? Is it freelancers, independent professionals and remote workers or do you think there’s an untapped segment of people here? I don’t see that it’s untapped. The folks that have been coming around are the same that come to any coworking space. But we have a lot more room. The first space I did, we had 14,000 square feet; this one we have 37,000 square feet. So you can really envision different types of spaces—you just assess the assets of each space. The space I’m working on now, we have a dog park, and perfect little rooms to take care of kids, and we have beautiful lawns, and there’s room for a meditation room. Churches are tucked into neighborhoods, which is different than most of the coworking landscape. These churches were founded, literally, around a neighborhood. Folks like to walk to these spaces because they live just a few blocks away. This gives them a way to connect with people who they only see at their homeowners association on another level. Allwork.Space: What’s your background? Were you interested in making this connection before you started working with The Mix? Five or six years ago I was a founding member of The Grove, which was one of the original coworking spaces in downtown Dallas. Like so many in the coworking movement, I can think back on times in my life where I created shared, collaborative workspace just out of need and because it gave me joy to work with other people. If we were all doing the same thing anyway, why weren’t we doing it together? In my mid-20s I was a freelance graphic designer and, back then, that was an expensive proposition. You needed a lot of very expensive tools. I had an idea to create small living spaces that radiated off of a common space. It would let creatives come together and share expenses. We needed a fax machine and a Xerox machine that would do sizing. Those were the kinds of things that an individual freelancer couldn’t afford. Allwork.Space: What would you most like to see with your work connecting coworking and churches? I would really like to create ecosystems of churches within a five mile radius of each other that would share even bigger resources. For example, I mentioned that the church where I am now has a dog park. Well, a church three miles up the road has an old scout house that they were about to tear down until I got there and said, ‘Oh my God, don’t tear this down, it’s a perfect makerspace.’ And it is perfect for a makerspace. I’d like to help create this ecosystem, where the staffs of those churches become peer collaborators and peer consultants. The clergy has some unique challenges in helping their elderly congregants wrap their head around the fact that their church can still be a force in the world; it can still do good; it can still be vibrant—that it’s not just here to have their funeral in a few years. They have challenges and I’d love to facilitate some peer consulting among them because you hear the same themes over and over. There’s also the shared economy aspect where one church can invite the other churches to their dog park, and another church invites everyone to their makerspace. You don’t have to create a whole new thing for each space because they’re so close together. They can also share promotion budgets and that sort of thing. Allwork.Space: How do you introduce the concept of coworking to church decision makers who may be locked into dated ways of thinking? So far, folks come to me because they’ve heard about my work or have visited The Mix. One of the things we did early-on was to invite every Methodist clergy in Dallas, which was a couple hundred people, to visit. From there, they all fell in love with it and we’d have teams of people coming from churches all over the country to tour and learn and find out what they can do. The challenge is that I know of maybe two who then went back and did it. There’s a disconnect between them seeing it and buying into the concept, then figuring out how they’re going to do it. I realized that the model for The Mix wasn’t scalable or replicable because it was a very well-funded nonprofit that went in and put all the money in. Now, we go in and see how we can repurpose existing stuff, slap on an inexpensive coat of paint, and still make this happen without necessarily turning it into a show palace. As we in coworking always say, it’s not the space, it’s the people. Allwork.Space: I love the lighter, quicker, cheaper approach to projects, where you just start. Then, when you find that you really need x, y or z, you figure out a way to make it work. As you know, simply getting people into a space is the key. Exactly. And I needed to be reminded of that. I am in recipient of Angel Kwiatkowski’s Ultimate Coworking Launch Sequence Workbook because we all need to be reminded of the basics. It’s a good plan and sticking to a good plan is a smart thing to do. Allwork.Space: You mentioned that it can be challenging to get the idea of what you’re doing across to people. What other challenges do you face with this work? I’m always working on two sides of an equation. Young folks who are interested in coworking are leery of churches. They think of church as a place where there’s judgement, and not everyone’s welcome, and they’re not really sure how they feel about the spiritual world anyway. I always say, ‘Coworking is afraid of church and church is afraid of everything.’ Churches are afraid of the risks, and insurance, and taxes, and on and on. We have good answers to these questions, but they tend to stop where the fear starts. They’re in such a fear-based, austerity mentality because they’re dying. Sometimes they’ve resigned themselves to the fact that the church is going to die but that it will outlive them, if only by a year. I’ve had clergy tell me that folks literally don’t want it to change one single bit, they just want to have their funeral there. Allwork.Space: Thanks, Daryn. Is there anything you’d like to add? In terms of environmentalism and thoughtful stewardship of spaces, these churches are a lot of real estate and they just sit there empty—and they’re air conditioned. Churches don’t pay taxes because they’re supposed to be contributing to the welfare of the neighborhood. To create an opportunity for these spaces to really be of use to the community seems obvious but it’s a big part of what I’m always talking about: putting spaces to work. https://www.chargespot.com/workspaces/coworking-spaces/
With all the buzz around coworking spaces, we decided to provide you with a primer. We cover the coworking basics as well as implications for the traditional office and facility managers. WHAT ARE COWORKING SPACES? Walk into a coworking space and you’ll immediately notice that it feels different from a regular office. The smell of fresh coffee in the air is second only to the electric atmosphere that the energetic and excited occupants bring to the space. You’ll see a mix of those in deep focus at private desks and others striking up engaging conversations at large shared tables. This is the culture of the coworking space. Coworking spaces are essentially shared workspaces. They offer affordable office space for those looking to escape the isolation of a home office or coffee shop. These shared workspaces offer a suite of office-like amenities such as hot-desks, private meeting rooms, kitchens, coffee and more. Often, they also offer a community. Occupants typically are freelancers, entrepreneurs, start-ups and small teams who want to take advantage of a flexible space. In addition to culture, cost is another big draw. One of the advantages of these spaces is the ability to rent out only what you need vs an entire private office space, which can be costly. Through various membership based models, costs vary and allow for flexibility. These include options for daily fees or monthly fees. Membership costs also differ based on whether you use a shared desk or want a dedicated one. If you want to learn more, and be extremely inspired at the same time, the video below from space provider, NomadWorks, is useful. It brilliantly sums up the essence of coworking spaces. WHO USES COWORKING SPACES? FREELANCERS Co-working spaces create the best of both worlds for freelancers: The flexibility of choosing your own hours and schedule without the isolation. These shared spaces are thus great for freelancers. A feeling of community is created for those that would otherwise be forced to work alone at home, or a coffee shop. START-UPS Start-ups appreciate the flexibility of coworking spaces. Coworking spaces don’t come with the high costs and commitments of a traditional office leases. They also provide the chance for small teams to interact with others in the space. These spaces also may even help entrepreneurs find a co-founder for their start-up by connecting the right people at the right time. THE CONCEPT IS WORKING WELL Coworking spaces provide a great fit for these type of small organizations. There’s an inherent alignment between what the spaces offer and the goals of freelancers and start-ups. A team of researchers have been studying the effects of coworking on productivity and recently recounted some of their findings in the The Harvard Business Review. Their research showed a strong connection between employees thriving in these shared workspaces vs regular offices. So much so that they decided to take a deeper look at coworking spaces. The team of researchers found that people who use coworking spaces have different attitudes as a result of their space. Correlated with coworking spaces were feelings of: more meaningful work, more job control, and having a sense of community. LARGER ORGANIZATIONS HOP ON BOARD With coworking spaces working so well for the usual suspects, there has been a recent adoption of coworking spaces by larger organizations. Forward thinking companies are already starting to utilize coworking spaces where possible. Firms like WeWork (which recently received a $16 billion valuation) are looking to attract larger organizations to their coworking spaces. As Bloomberg reports, General Electric, KPMG and Merck all use the space. For some like KPMG, the 75 desks they rent out provide a strategic advantage. KPMG employees at WeWork are involved with business advice to start-ups or tech innovation research. For others, the flexibility provided by the spaces are a plus in terms of managing real estate and costs. Longer leases, which require forecasting real estate needs and business needs, aren’t required. REPLICATION IN AN TRADITIONAL OFFICE Once large organizations buy-into a new trend, their logical progression is to internalize the practice. Are we going to see Facility Managers and workplace strategists creating co-working spaces within their own workspaces? The most important success factor will be the ability to replicate the culture of coworking spaces. What shared spaces allow for is true freedom and mobility. The culture is conducive to the truly organic collaboration and conversations that are struck up. In one way this is the value of coworking spaces. They allow for innovation by allowing different people with unique skills and talents to connect and collaborate. But the other advantage is the fact that the culture is shaped out of the concept of freedom and flexibility. The genesis of coworking spaces was based around serving the needs of small organizations and freelancers to connect. Design is only one aspect though. What makes coworking spaces different is culture. Some organizations may have similar spaces in their office but not have a culture that encourages flexibility to get up and move or collaborate with different departments. One effective strategy to combat this barrier is to bring the culture to you. A Michigan based organization, Menlo Innovations did exactly this when they added 7,000 sq.ft. of coworking space to their office and invited start-ups and entrepreneurs to work alongside their team. This is a win-win if logistics can be worked out. Start-ups are able to get affordable and flexible space, while larger organizations are able to foster innovation in their workplaces. COWORKING CONTINUES TO GROW The freelance economy is growing. Younger members of the workforce, such as Millennials or Gen Z are increasingly finding themselves in freelance work. Currently there are 53 million freelancers in the US. By the time we reach 2020, 50% of the American workforce will consist of freelancers (both full and part-time).This in turn will give rise to more coworking spaces. Additionally coworking spaces are effective for small organizations that range from a one to several employees and also serve a purpose for larger organizations looking to innovate. The design and culture serves as an example for any organization looking to come up with fresh ideas and grow. It’s no wonder we have heard a lot of buzz about these spaces in the last couple of years. You can definitely expect to hear more and see more of these types of spaces popping up near you. Our advice? Get Involved! Interesting in learning more about coworking spaces? Here are the top coworking spaces in the world, as selected by Symmetry50.. Invited is a series of short films that seek to explore what it means to engage in genuine, Christian invitation.
We begin with the conviction that invitation is at the very heart of the Gospel – that Jesus invites each one of us to come and follow him, and being an invitational people is at the very core of our identity as Christians. From there, we offer thoughts, images and dreams – and we hope that you’ll join the conversation. https://spiritofinvitation.com/invited/ |