The importance of a community builder: This is how Carles López lives it

Create connections between coworkers, listen to any need, discover new projects… Day by day of Carles in CREC turns around his great passion: the relationships with people.

If someone loves coworking and the meaning of CREC, that is Carles López, director of CREC Coworking. Always focused on taking care of the spaces and connect coworkers between them, Carles manages this project with passion since 2012, when we released it. Talking about his career, Carles explains: “I am graduate in Psychology because the relationships between people have always been my main interest, and my job as a community builder makes me enjoy of these ones in a working environment”.

 

Video and pictures of Vera García

 

“Our interviews with coworkers are essentials in my day to day to discover their projects and start to create connections”

 

Everyday from Monday to Friday, Carles makes sure that the space is in the best conditions and works to create connections between coworkers. As he says, a direct contact with them is basic for his job: “The interviews that we make when a new coworker come to CREC are essentials for us. It is the best way to discover their projects and their possible needs, and we can also speak about issues absolutely functionals of team and project. After the interview, we have an idea about how this coworker can fit in our community and we work on the first links which we monitor expecting to have great results”.

 

 

The only worries that Carles had before to start in coworking world was if coworkers would have a nice attitude to create relationships with other coworkers and if they would work comfortably in the open space: “After 5 years, the results are so positives and we have created a very nice atmosphere in CREC”. For this, it is absolutely key the role of community builders. “We have 6 community builders in our two spaces and they are also near of the coworkers, trying to help them with their needs and working to create new connections”.

 

“A good community builder should create connections at all times and encourage relationships between people”

 

And which should be the skills of a community builder? Carles always says the same quote: “We can have a bad day, but this can’t affect to our relationships with the coworkers”. For that reason, he thinks that kindness has to be our main law, the same that our attitude to solve every urgency or doubt and to create new connections. “A community builder has to be a person who is always ready to help each other and to promote the contact between other people”.

 

 

“Our challenge is to give answers to any need of every coworker. Even when you don’t have it”

 

Where appropriate, Carles stands out for his personality, his ability to make everybody feel comfortable with him and the disposition to help everybody anytime. For all that, our community builder tries to do his best in every situation. Even when he can’t give a right answer: “I always try to be a solution for our coworkers. Also, when a web designer, for example, ask me something that I ignore because it is not my specialty. But I promise that I will help him as much as possible”.

 

A matrimonial connection in CREC

 

From the connections between coworkers emerge a story that Carles always remember with a smile in his face: One coworker organised his wedding with the collaboration of a lot of coworkers. In CREC, she founds photography, the design of the invitations, presents for the guests, decoration… “CREC team thaught about create CREC Wedding or a similar new concept” – jokes Carles. “Seriously, this kind of anecdotes shows how important can be our connections and their professional and personal value”.

 

“An ex-coworker, despite working from outside of CREC, will always be one of our coworkers”

 

It is important to say that our connections still remain when a coworker work from outside of CREC. “I think that all our coworkers are always part of our community, so we also create connections with those who have to leave CREC. We know their jobs, their projects… So if this person can be interesting for our coworkers, we do what we can for putting them in contact”, explains Carles. In fact, one of the best moments for a community builder is when an ex-coworker returns to CREC or keep a friendship that goes further from Poble Sec or Eixample.

 

 

A remarkable connection?

 

Among the more than 300 connections produced by CREC Connect since 2018, Carles remarks the link between Sergi Sans (Partner Adventure) and Jordi Benaiges (080Webs). They have worked together in the positioning of a new website. Our community builder also remembers a nice work with Quality of Family Life, a new project dedicated to form and advise families, kids and companies. To give an impulse, Carles connected them with Isidre Turull (Quartz Barcelona), a great consultant who has a consolidated project. “I want to bring new links between coworkers for many time and create a wide network of enthusiastic professionals to keep growing as a coworking space”, conclude Carles.