I don’t know about you folks, but I LOVE research, and that’s a good thing because I had a chance to do a lot of it over the past several months as we designed our Community Accelerator program.

At Cultivate, we talk a lot about turning ideas into action—but first, you need that essential spark. And then you need to give that spark the space to turn into a fire. But amid the repetition of day to day life, it can be hard to make space to nourish creative thought.

What sets a true changemaker apart? Action. The trailblazers who create real cultural change don't wait to be asked for their opinions. Instead, they take decisive action based on their convictions.

Recently, I was inspired by a fellow Cultivator, Clemens Wan, who writes Lists of 30s for breakfast. When he told me he was going to write a list of 30 ways to grow a virtual community, I made a calendar reminder to follow up with him about it in two weeks. He had it published in less than 24 hours.

I don't know how to play chess, but that hasn't stopped me from watching The Queen's Gambit twice. When Benny gets salty with Beth for not coming to New York City, he says something profound: Maybe is a loser’s word, Beth.

Internal communities, in their simplest form, are organizational support systems. There can be multiple types of internal communities within one organization, and they can have varying degrees of formality or structure.

When I learned how to design for a better over-all human-centered experience, I became more aware of the barriers and challenges people face when interacting with various products. Over time, I noticed my visual impairments and began focusing on creating more accessible products across the board. It proved that designing with everyone in mind coincidentally makes an attractive product for all to use.

While growing up, my family moved a lot. That meant attending new schools, making new friends, and establishing new routines. At age six, my parents moved our family from Mexico to the United States.

Ah, LinkedIn. It’s a noisy place: the one-line hooks like “he walked into a meeting and wrecked the culture” prompting you to see more, the low production smartphone videos about how to do sales better, and the posts that are “better” fit for Facebook.