The Next Era Isn’t Louder. It’s More Shared

For years, our behaviour is to put the person at the front. Post more. Be consistent. Be visible. Say something smart. Don’t get forgotten.

When the internet becomes a never-ending conveyor belt of content, the default response is individualism. The constant question becomes: “What’s in it for me?” and “How do I get picked?”

This has been the play. It’s why we spend so much time trying to understand what it takes to be seen on social media. Yes, I know it still matters. 

Attention isn’t the same thing as progress. Momentum doesn’t come from everyone trying to be the loudest person in the room. Momentum comes from building a room people actually want to feel a part of.

I still believe in personal visibility and the importance of showing up. I still believe in sharing what you know.

A shift is happening that effectively serves as a survival plan for modern work.

Individualism to Collectivism.

The attention economy rewards “me”. It acknowledges the strong personal brand, the polished story and the constant output.

It also encourages us to look at other people as competition as we fight for the crumbs of attention that platforms hand out. When everyone’s doing that, the cost of being noticed keeps rising. Mark Schaefer called this “Content Shock” back in 2014. Content supply grows, attention doesn’t, and cut-through becomes harder over time.

You can do everything “right” on paper and still feel like you’re pushing a boulder uphill.

Collectivism is the counter-move and it’s what I’ve been paying attention to over the last few years.

Collectivism isn’t “less ambitious,” it’s a different route to relevance because it changes the question from “How do I stand out?” to “How do we move forward (that I’m a part of)?”

Momentum looks like:

✊ People helping promote your work with zero ad spend

✊ Support and friendships strengthening over time

✊ More collaboration and doing more together

✊ Shared identity strengthening continuity

✊ The community becoming the marketplace (the power of the group) 

Last week we had the YATM Christmas Afternoon Party.

It wasn’t “forced fun,” it was part of how we deliver events, where the emphasis is to step into the room and be yourself. It just meant that as it was the format of the Christmas party, it meant we could amplify this sense of being together in the room. I felt guilty a few days before when I started to put an ‘agenda,’ it still needed a format to tie everything together.

YATM events have always been a response to exclusion, not having to fit in (being a proud misfit) and hierarchy. The point is to create a space where people can be themselves, without the performance.

Everyone had a part to play. Ashley Crocker kicked things off with an opener on gratitude and Matt King made the quiz. Even an After Eight World Cup turned the rituals we have of ‘challenges,’ to turn the whole occasion to feel like ours. 

That’s collectivism in practice. When people contribute, the thing becomes ours and people stop feeling like guests and start feeling like part of it.

When people come together, ideas flow, others get to see it, and they can join in. That’s the difference between consumption and participation.

I’d love our Christmas party to become the moment each year where we close the year the same way, together.

Community as a noun means that people gather around a label. Community as a verb is a group of people actively making things happen together..

A lot of what gets called “community” today is really just audience with hopeful branding. People show up, consume, maybe react, and leave. It’s still individualistic underneath, still centred on “what do I get?”

Collectivism is when people don’t just receive what you made, they can shape the original intention into something far more powerful and carry forward.

There’s another layer to why this matters now, people need a space where they feel like they belong.

The idea of “third places” (spaces beyond home and work where you belong) keeps resurfacing because it explains what’s missing in modern life. It’s the places you head to where you feel a part of the wider effort or it has an attachment to you. It means it stops being “marketing” and starts being infrastructure.

The alternative is people feeling isolated, competing, clambering to be seen and quietly burning out. I want to build social capital, not watch it decline. It feels good to have shared ties, to participate and encourage friendship. It’s not sentimental, it’s stability.

To delve more into this, listen to Floating Space. A podcast that asks, where do you feel like you belong?

If individualism is the ‘broadcast’ era, collectivism is the ‘build-with’ era.

Here are a few tangible moves.

1) Design roles, not just attendance

If everyone is only a spectator or an attendee, you’re running a show. If people have roles where people can step up, you’re building ownership.

2) Build rituals that are slightly ridiculous

The After Eight challenge at the Christmas Party worked because it’s playful, low stakes, and shared. Rituals create “we” faster than any icebreaker ever will (we prove that with the sea every Friday).

3) Rotate the spotlight

Don’t build fan clubs, have an identity people associate with. You can create a network of peers, where people have the opportunity to step up and be seen.

4) Optimise for contribution, not consumption

Figure out, what’s the smallest way someone can add to this? It could be asking for their opinion, it could be an intro, it could be be asking one thing they’ve learned the hard way.

5) Treat community as a people product

The shift isn’t “more content.” It’s building a space where people help each other make progress and your work becomes the way to galvanise people together.

I’m not anti-individualism. You still need your own voice and your own perspective. You still need to make work you’re proud of.

The longer I do this, the clearer it becomes, attention is fragile. Momentum is what happens when people don’t just follow you on LinkedIn, they feel part of the thing you’re building. When they contribute, share it, shape it, and bring others into it. 

The next era isn’t louder, it’s more shared.