Full Circle Associates

Mark shares a great metaphor over at Anecdote: Communities of practice Archives

"It doesn’t take much imagination to see most organisations as having a predominantly left-brain focus, with hierarchical structures, emphasis on quantitative assessments and decision making based on numbers such as head count and return on investment, libraries full of strategies, doctrine, policy and procedure and formal lines of reporting and communication (to name but a few relevant characteristics). Computers can also be described as an electronic extension of our left brains.

Communities of practice traverse most of the formal structures, processes and reporting hierarchies in organisations. They connect people and expertise irrespective of rank, location, specialisation or division. Perhaps they allow us to access the ‘right-brain capabilities‘ of our organisations. If this is the case, and if LeBoeuf is right, then communities of practice are not simply desirable in organisations, they are essential…"

The next question is, what is the metaphor for the crossover connections between the right and left sides of the brain?

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