人を巻き込む上で必要な３つのこと〜 3 things to consider when doing work that involves people 〜(English below.)

いつからか忘れましたが、共創するという言葉が流行り始め、今では多くの人が当たり前のように知っている言葉となりました。

僕らも共創という言葉は多用していますし、物事を行う上では常に意識しています。

共に創るということは、すなわち、人を巻き込みということです。

人を巻き込むことを書いていく上で、wayaは参考になると思うので、wayaのことを触れながら、話を進めていきます。

ゲストハウスwayaは総勢200名以上のボランティアと一緒に作った宿です。

そのうち、もともと知っている人もいましたが、半数近くは接点がない人たちでした。

なぜそんなにも多くの人たちが僕らの改築に関わってくれたのか？

今振り返るとわかる、人を巻き込むために必要な要素を書いていきます。

①完成度”０”の状態から発信を始める

「宿が完成しました！ぜひ遊びに来てください！」

完成したことを世に知らせるのは簡単です。ただ、完成したことを発表しただけでは、「おめでとう。」で終わってしまいます。

僕らは、「ゲストハウスをやる！」しか決まっていない、ほぼ０の状態から、ブログでの発信を始めました。

Sapporo Guest House Story (興味があればみてください。)

何も決まっていることがなかったので、毎日の活動を赤裸々に報告していました。

「ゲストハウスやると決めました！」

「すべての人がただいまと言える居場所をつくります！」

「バイトでお金貯めてます！」

「札幌でゲストハウスやることに決めました！」

「これからミーティングです！」

こんな具合に、その時の等身大の僕らを見てもらおうと思い、誰が見ているかもわからないまま、ただただ発信をしていました。

僕らが200人以上の人を改築に巻き込めた大きな理由の一つは、完成度”０”の状態から発信を始めたことにあります。

発信をし続けると、そこに物語が生まれます。

頻繁な発信のおかげで、少しずつですが、僕らの物語に興味を持つ人が増え始めました。

ブログでコメントをくれるようになったり、メッセージをくれたり、直接会った時に、「いつも見てるよ！」と声をかけてもらうようになりました。

そして、改築が始まる段階に入ったとき、面識が一度もない人が来てくれて、「ブログずっと見てて、改築が始まるの楽しみにしていたんだ！」という言葉をいただきました。

これには僕らもすごく驚いたのを覚えてます。

発信することにこんなにも影響力があると思っていなかったからです。

②不完全さによる凸凹を晒す

人間はプライドが高い生き物だから、完璧じゃないものを披露したり、公表したりするのは恥ずかしいと思うはずです。

「完璧になるまでは、誰にも見せない。」

このように考えている人もいるかもしれませんね。

僕らは大学を卒業してすぐ起業したので、完璧なものなんて一つもありませんでした。

僕らが持っていたのは、”燃えたぎる情熱”、”絶対できるという大いなる勘違い”、”プライドは邪魔だというマインド”です。笑

プライドがない(=世間体を気にしない)ということが、多くの人が僕らを手助けをしてくれた理由になったみたいです。

想像してみてください。

目の前に非の打ち所が無い人がいたとします。

仕事の能力が極めて高く、語学も堪能で、料理もスポーツもできて、博識な人。

何をしてあげたらいいかわからないですよね。

完璧な人にはどんな手を差し伸べればいいかわからないのです。

当時の僕らはというと、完璧という言葉とは程遠い人間でした。

給料も少なく、自分たちで改築をしているから見た目もボロボロで、住む場所を借りるお金も無いので、改築中の宿にみんなで寝泊まりするような日々を過ごすという若者3人集でした。

上に挙げた完璧な人物とは対照的で、「どんな手を差し伸べてもこいつら喜ぶな」という状態でした。笑

そんな状態からか、びっくりするくらい多くの人が自分の特技やできることを活かして、僕らの手助けしてくれました。

料理が得意な人は料理をしてくれたり、体を動かすのが得意な人は、一緒に改築をしてくれたり、実家が農家という人は、食料を送ってくれました。

「なんでこんなにも多くの人が手を差し伸べてくれるのだろう？」

改築中こんなことを思ったことがありました。

そんな時に、お世話になっている方から、「君たちといると３人目になれるんだよね。」と言われました。

物理的な人数の話ではなく、１人目(リーダー)でもなく、２人目(メンバー)でもなく、３人目(サポーター)になれると言ってくれたのです。

「３人目になれると、誰かの役に立っているという承認欲求が満たされて、気分が良くなるんだ。」

完璧である必要はないし、助けを求めることを恥ずかしがる必要はありません。

③提供できるものを真剣に考える

発信や脆弱さを晒すことによって、多くの人が関わってくれることを伝えましたが、続いてはその人たちに何度も来てもらうために何ができるかを考える必要があります。

僕らは、当時物質的な豊かさ(衣住の充実・金銭的な裕福さ)はありませんでした。

そのことから、手伝ってもらったお礼を、有形な物で返すことはできなかったのです。

「何か来てもらっている人たちのためにできることはないか？」

色々考えましたが、等身大のままの僕らができることをしようという結論にいたり、ただただ僕らができることをしました。

それは、その場を一緒に楽しむことです。笑

今となっては、もう少し頭を使えたと思うのですが、それはそれでよかったのかなと。

ただ、後々気づいたことですが、その場を楽しむことによって、生み出された提供できた価値はたくさんありました。

1, 新しいコミュニティー形成の手伝い

改築では、「wayaを改築する」という大きなプロジェクトの元に人が集まるので、普段出会わない人との出会いが生まれました。

その新しい出会いを繋がりに移行させるために、無意識にファシリテーションをしていました。

それが多くの人の、非日常的な体験になったのです。

日常をなんとなく過ごしていると、出会う人たちは毎日同じ人です。

そして、そこに変化を起こさない限りは、そのまま何年も時が流れてしまいます。

そんな日々を送っている人が大多数の社会の中で、僕らが提供できた価値の一つは、新しい繋がりを生み出すということでした。

2, 非日常的な体験の提供

「壁を壊す」

「床を貼る」

「ペンキで壁に色を塗る」

改築には、普段はなかなかしない体験が多く含まれています。

非日常的な体験をすると、人生の中で人に話したい”ネタ”になります。

友人や恋人、家族に対して、

「昨日改築の手伝いに行って、壁を壊してきたよ！」

なんて話をしたら、周りの人たちも興味を持つと思います。

「来てくれる人が面白いと思ってくれるような改築イベントを考える」

このことは意識していました。

以上、人を巻き込む上で僕が思う大切な要素を書いてみました。

①完成度”０”の状態から発信を始める

②不完全さによる凸凹を晒す

③提供できるものを真剣に考える

今後人を巻き込んで何かをしたいと思っている人がいたら、この3つのことを意識してみてください。

みなさんが何かをする上で、この方法がよりを多くの人を巻き込むのに、役に立つことを願っています。

I forgot when it was, but the concept of joint development — of growing together, had been slowly turning into a trend in Japan. Nowadays many people consider it common sense.

We use the phrase quite often, and carry it with us in our collective consciousness.

Joint development means involving people. When I think of this concept, Waya immediately springs to mind as a clear example, so I will refer mainly to Waya while proceeding.

Waya was built with the help of over 200 volunteers.

Some of them were friends, but we were not acquainted with over half of them before they’d decided to help out.

Why did many people we didn’t know come and help us create our place?

I will list 3 elements of what I feel inspired these people to join us in our journey.

① Begin sharing your story before you’ve accomplished anything.

“We opened a hostel! Please visit us!”

It is easy to inform everyone that you’ve managed to open a hostel, but if you only share this portion, you will simply be met with a “Congratulations!” As the saying goes, it is not about the destination, but about the journey. People take a great interest in the step by step process that it takes to accomplish seemingly amazing feats.

We started sharing information in our blog as soon as we decided we would open a hostel.

(The blog is called Sapporo Guest House Story. If you are interested in this, feel free to check it out, although the writing is only in Japanese for now).

Even before having made many crucial decisions, we frankly shared everything that we did.

We shared our goal: “We will a make place where you can come back anytime you want!”

We shared our current course of action: “We are saving money by doing part time jobs.”

We shared even the more mundane aspects of the journey: “We are going to have a meeting soon!”

In this way, we were showing the world who we were, on top of telling them what we did (although we had no idea who, if anyone, was reading along).

One of the reasons we managed to attract 200 volunteers was our willingness to share our imperfect story. Even — or especially — the smaller details, were crucial to offering an insight into the human aspect of our journey.

If you keep offering information about what you do, it eventually becomes your story.

Thanks to our willingness to share information, there was a gradual increase in the amount of people interested in our story. Little by little, we received comments on our blog and even direct messages, of both interest and encouragement. People we would meet in person would tell us “I enjoy watching what you are doing!”

As time went by, we started renovating the hostel by ourselves, and along the way, many people we did not know came to help us build Waya together. They would sometimes just show up and say “I have been looking forward to joining you for renovations!” I recall being surprised and overwhelmed when hearing such things.

We hadn’t been aware that offering information had so much potential.

② Be willing to show your imperfections and vulnerability.

Humans are creatures who have a great amount of pride, so many of them hesitate to show any details of their lives without first being satisfied with them. It is especially prevalent now, where people only show the highlights of their lives on social media. I suppose many think in this manner.

As for us, we started our own business as soon as we graduated from university, so if we waited until things were going well to share our story, we would’ve been waiting a long time (perhaps still waiting now.)

We had 3 things that could be interpreted as negatives, but for us were a boon in our journey: Way too much passion, a naivety that allowed us to think we could accomplish anything, and a state of mind in which pride was considered completely useless.

The lack of pride became a major reason that many people came to help us out.

Please try and picture this: There is a “perfect” person in front of you. Their ability of business skill is quite high, they speak multiple languages fluently, they are successful in all their endeavors, they cook well and do sports well and know many things.

What can you do to help this person? Do you even feel that this person could use your help? It is not peoples perfections that inspire us to action.

We were far from perfection while we were building Waya.

Our salary was extremely low. We were constantly filthy because we were renovating the building all the time, and living in the unfinished building because we did not have enough money to rent an apartment.

In contrast to the imaginary person described above, we were quite easy to lend a helping hand to. Just about anyone could have come up with something to do to help us out because we were so far from perfection that we would’ve been happy with even the smallest gesture.

Due to our circumstances, many came to us and helped in any way that was within their means.

People who were good at cooking would cook for us, and those who liked exercising helped to build things and break things. Those whose parents were farmers would send us food.

We couldn’t help but think, “Why do many people help us like this?”

One guy who helped us out immensely said to us “I can be the third person when I’m with you”.

He was not talking about the physical number of people. He meant that, in a figurative sense, if persona 1 was that of the leader, and persona 2 was that of the members, he could comfortably enjoy being a 3rd persona, that of the supporter.

He told us, “If I can be that third person, I feel both recognized and fulfilled. It makes me happy to know I can do something that provides such value to others.”

There is no need to be perfect, and there is no need to shy away from asking others for help.

③ Think about what you have to offer.

We were quite far from rich at the time, so we didn’t have anything tangible to offer in return to thank those who helped us.

We asked ourselves, what can we do for them? We thought of many things, but we eventually realized that they were happy just being part of the project. All we could offer in return was the spending of time with them. In retrospect, I have a ton of ideas in terms of what we could have offered them, but I feel that the time we spent together was just so pure and great that it wasn’t so bad the way it was.

Even in saying so, I can think of 2 things that the volunteers gained from that experience.

1. They became part of a new community.

While we were building Waya, many came and helped us with the simple intention of meeting new people. Everyone connected so well and bonded over the shared experience of contributing to Waya. Though it hadn’t been our original intention, we played the role of facilitator and connected people. It was an unordinary experience for them in which they could meet people they otherwise would probably have never come across.

If you go about your day to day routine, the chances of new and exciting encounters are slim. In modern society this is considered a normal way of life. I don’t necessarily see it as wrong — it depends on what kind of lifestyle one wishes to live, but in terms of meeting new people, we were able to offer the opportunity to do so everyday, for both the volunteers and for ourselves. These daily experiences gradually came together to form a new community for all those involved.

2. They had unordinary experiences.

Breaking walls.

Installing floors.

Painting and plastering walls.

DIY-style construction offers seemingly endless unordinary experiences (unless you work in some type of construction, lol.)

An unordinary experience provides people with a new topic of discussion, along with a new way of looking at things. In conversations with friends, family, and lovers, these seemingly mundane experiences become something people are excited to talk about. It is fun to be able to say “I helped to build a hostel, which is now a gathering space for the local community.” It is even more fun to be able to say “Part of my role was breaking through walls.” You’d be surprised how many people are interested in such experiences.

We constantly thought, and still think, of ways in which the people who decide to help us can have enjoyable and unforgettable experiences.

There are of course others, but this time around I decided to focus on these 3 important elements of involving people:

① Begin sharing your story before you’ve accomplished anything.

② Be willing to show your imperfections and vulnerability.

③ Think about what you have to offer.

These are the things I learned in my experiences involving working with others. I hope you can find them useful in your own.