Hacking Communities

Discover the foundational principles and frameworks to further develop yourself as a strong community leader.

This guide makes the case that anyone can develop the leadership and communication skills required to sustain high-growth communities. It includes:

• 3 Core Leadership Values: How to sustain long-lasting communities through values-based leadership.
• Community Lifecycle Framework: Discover the 5 development stages of high-growth communities.
• Communities vs. Crowds: How connectedness, identity, and growth differentiate communities from crowds.
• 3 Steps to Build Collective Relationships: Attraction, Engagement, and Commitment
• Engineer Serendipity Framework: How to enhance the rate of effective collisions between people.

The world needs a new approach to building communities and leadership -one based on relationships, trust, and belonging. Community building must be "hacked." In Hacking Communities, Laís de Oliveira examines how we can develop renew our shared sense of belonging by developing community leadership skills. Drawing on her own personal struggle with loneliness, as well as academic research and her professional experience in leading communities with nonprofits, startups, and public organizations, she provides leadership and communication frameworks to build stronger and more diverse communities.

While the title "Hacking Communities" alludes to tips and tricks for community building, its content means to equip emerging leaders with the social skills and foundations to build self-sustaining communities: values, principles, and mindset. It features personal stories, research studies, and creative metaphors collected during my journey to becoming a community leader.

"Laís is one of those rare people who lead their life by how they think the world should be, and in ways that can help the most people possible around them. This is what makes her the best type of community builder. She is someone who can find common ground with anyone in the world and strive to help bring meaning to them. That's why in almost every continent in the world, she has managed to build community and why her insights on community building are as important as anyone you can learn from on this topic."
- Excerpt from Foreword by Derek Andersen, Co-founder, and CEO at Startup Grind and Bevy

Most people who talk about community building want to romanticize it, or worse, they want to make it into a series of actionable "steps" without heart. Laís de Oliveira explains the required actions in amazing detail, but she does it with a sensitivity and a wisdom that can only come from experience (...) Every page gets better and better. If you care about people, read this book.
- Roy H. Williams, Author of the bestselling trilogy: Wizard of Ads

"While Lais has proven herself as an impactful community builder, what makes her unique is she is both a skilled practitioner and a teacher. As a result she understands the theory and the practice of community building, and her insights are rooted in what works.
- Erik Torenberg, Founder and Chairman at On Deck