Community of practice start-up

Seeding CoPs

While theory says that communities of practice ought to be self-sown the reality is that this isn't given in a university context where staff feel time poor. In CEDAM's experience there are ways to seed and nurture communities of practice. Some of the following factors as catalysers:

• finding people who have a specific need or a focus (event, passion, energy, threat)  that might assist a community to form;
• providing resourcing that encourages people to get together in an enjoyable manner—think about space, catering and administrative support;
• locating the get-togethers in a space/place where people feel relaxed and comfortable (so they can engage at a deeper level);
• cultivating key anchor people with passion, ideas, and visions to the community;
• providing skilled process facilitation (intention, purpose, and process dynamic) to assist with the set-up and development of the community of practice ; and
• tapping the authentic commitment and energy of the group itself.

It is also useful if the members of the communities share:

• a drive or desire to make a change in their work or within the university;
• issues, goals and imperatives that cross discipline boundaries; and
• a commitment to meeting regularly.

This last point is critical to building meaningful engagement and to establishing the necessary trust that needs to underpin collaborative endeavour and learning. Communities who meet more often generate the commitment. energy and  ability to achieve their goals.

Working together

How people work together in communities of practice is as important as what they are working towards achieving. Communities of practice are learning together to evolve their practice. Here are some processes that can build and sustain the dynamic of a community of practice.

Dialogue: a way of sharing and exploring issues together to build greater understanding, connection, or possibility. Dialogue revolves around questions, inquiry, listening, uncovering personal assumptions and those of others, and suspending judgement.

Shared facilitation: sharing the responsibility for managing and upholding process; the person facilitating encourages and supports active listening, elicits a range of perspectives from members, and models appreciative inquiry. These skills can be developed by:
•    encouraging people to take responsibility for group facilitation;
•    developing awareness of process facilitation and the practice of designing such processes; and
•    mentoring and modeling good facilitation practices.

Sitting with uncertainty: a discipline to develop that resists quick solutions or easy answers to issues. It involves an ongoing commitment to openness and learning, to encouraging people to take both time and risks in pursuing their goals.

Reflection:  surfacing, criticizing, restructuring, and testing our understandings and practice of personal and group experience. This is an invitation to think deeply about what and how the community does things so it can act with more insight and effectiveness in the future. Reflection develops a tolerance of ambiguity and uncertainty, and guards against reductive thinking.

Being present: in community this is more than turning up, it is about being in the moment in non-judgemental awareness. Participation in a community invites, and in some ways requires a willingness to be open and to share with others.

How do you know if it is working?

The following factors are good indicators of a functioning community of practice:

• Effective trust:  members have forged the necessary trust to enable sharing, disclosure and learning to occur.
• Shared purposes: members form or are working towards a shared purpose, and goals, and are initiating processes and activities to achieve them.
• Practice: there is an explicit focus in the community on improving their practice.
• Identity: people identify with the group,  and feel they belong here.
• Learning: members engage in mutual learning from and about practice.
• Building social capital: members develop and leverage each others skills, abilities and knowledge.

In this list trust is the pre-requisite for any further progression in the community of practice's development.

Remember the lifespan of any community of practice depends on the nature of its purpose and progress members make towards realising it.