Category: communities of practice

Communities of Practice Toolkit – slightly updated

It has been a while since I updated my little communities of practice (CoP) toolkit, which is essentially everything I have cribbed from all the smart CoP out there. It is part conceptual (what IS a CoP), and part operational (how to start/support a CoP). At one point someone wanted worksheets, so there are worksheets, but frankly, I think that is overkill 99% of the time!

Screen capture of first slide of the CoP Toolkit deck with title and figurative dancers.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTMcO_CwuDhGxdBM4USf15LHTeFLlPo_vNV2ktmDrNHefdocYzlV03mpSOfZTN6SaM4JVyXVgPt44Ud/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

What is new are the references to Bev and Etienne Wenger-Trayner’s use of social learning and social learning spaces as a container for things like CoPs. (See slides 12-14)

Have a peek, offer feedback!

From the Archives: Reflections on the FbD Learning Series

Screen shot of four videos from Floodplains by Design's "Collaboration Campfires"

Along time ago and in a place far far away, I supported an awesome network of folks at Floodplains by Design. When the pandemic hit we did a lot of the proverbial pivoting. Network work often entails a lot of meetings and we moved everything online. We ran a series of online facilitation workshops in 2020 and in 2021 and lo and behold today I resurfaced the videos of the sessions. The 2020 series was positioned as “Virtual Coffees” and the 2021 series was called the “Collaboration Campfire!” If you are so inclined, take a stroll through the videos here: https://vimeo.com/user142408470

Here are a few of the things that stand out for me from those two years of constant pivoting.

  • A small but consistent core of community leaders are the glue that enables intermittent and even one time participation to have value.  Our co-chairs and core members provided consistency, stability and network weaving through their wonderful relationships.
  • The community core (plus guests) designs as a TEAM, not the external facilitator designing and delivering. Team design yields experiences that meet a range of needs rather than one championed by a single designer.
  • Find that balance between process and content. Content is essential for the technical floodplains work, but the social bonds between members is nurtured through process. 
  • Vary the process, but not everything, all the time. We used a lot of Liberating Structures and we would try and use a structure more than once, but not the same set or string of structures every time. This gave both comfort (familiarity) and variety. More importantly, it built capacity for folks to go back and use the process on their home turf. Or river, as it were.
  • Don’t over-pack the agenda. Oi, some day we will all integrate this learning into our practices!
  • Reflect and learn after every round. There is always room for new insights and ways of doing things. 
  • Celebrate!

 

From the Archives: Alice, Estuaries and the Edge-Effect ™

Alice MacGillivray has always had both a robust sense of that mysterious practice, knowledge management, and an exquisite use of metaphors. I tagged an interview with her back in 2014 in a conversation about boundaries – and her use of the metaphor of an estuary. Estuaries are one of my favorite places in the world, so of course it resonate. It still does. Take a read. Then look at the link to the lovely resources from the Global Oneness Project about river stories1

Knowledge Management Spotlight: A Conversation About Boundaries.

And for more.. . 

https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/articles/rivers-and-stories

Picture of dew dripping off a branch with the blurred landscape of the Skagit estuary in the distance.

From the Archives: Knowledge Translation and Knowledge Implementation

hand drawn notes about the Theory U model of change

This old draft from 2014 on knowledge translation rings a bell after a couple of weeks helping out a colleague working with a large international development consulting group grappling with the funder demands of scaling and “localization.” All which sound good in theory, and very messy and complicated in practice. I love Melanie’s focus on practice too. Right up my lane! 

Melanie Barwick, in a guest post on the CRFR blog, speaks sooth:

In a nutshell, this is what I now know.

Knowledge translation and implementation are complimentary but different constructs. Knowledge translation involves helping others to understand the evidence; implementation involves supporting them to make the changes needed to apply the evidence. Impact means capturing that people knew what to do with the knowledge you shared.

Practice change is not one-off. It’s a complex process that has many moving parts, some of which are likely universal but some that are unique to the particular context, and we are still learning what those are. There is alchemy in the practice change recipe. Every context calls for different amounts of the more universal ingredients, and a dash or two or other key elements that are necessary for that particular context. The practice change recipe for child and youth mental health, for health, or education will (I hypothesize) look different from one another.

Practice change calls for structure and an approach that is both adaptive and incremental. There is a method to the madness, and the application of good project management combined with the application of implementation teams, stages, drivers, and cycles will lead to more effective implementation, whatever the context.

The road to practice change – the implementation journey – has far better signage and lighting than it did 14 years ago. As implementation frameworks and theories become more refined, we are digging below the surface of categorical frameworks to identify the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of changing practice. It is no longer sufficient to direct implementers to identify barriers and facilitators, tailor interventions to populations, facilitate the change endeavor, and measure outcomes without specifying how they are to accomplish these things. We are beginning to identify key factors that are implicated in effective implementation of evidence in practice across different sectors, and we are focusing on how to measure these key elements in a standardized way so that a common story can be told across case studies and contexts. Lastly, there is a growing library of openly accessible resources to help practitioners map their own implementation journey. Researchers are endeavoring to produce both scientific outputs whilst also developing resources and tools that can be of real and practical use in the field. It has never been a more fascinating and illuminating time, and the journey continues.

via CRFR Blog: Getting the Word Out: A Journey in the Science and Practice of Bringing Evidence to Application and Impact.

From the Blog Archives: Dave Pollard’s Model of Identity and Community

Dave’s thinking and writing is pretty damned evergreen. I’ll leave this here for your consideration!

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A Model of Identity and Community « how to save the world.

So as Aaron explains, where there are strong ‘overlaps’ between these aspects of self among members of a group, that group will emerge to be a community (note the names applied to these four types of community below are mine, not Aaron’s):

  • If the overlap is mainly common interests, it will emerge as a Community of Interest. Learning and recreational communities are often of this type.

  • If the overlap is mainly common capacities, it will emerge as a Community of Practice. Co-workers, collaborators and alumni are often of this type.

  • If the overlap is mainly common intent, it will emerge as a Movement. Project teams, ecovillages and activist groups are often of this type.

  • If the overlap is mainly common identity, it will emerge as a Tribe. Partnerships, love/family relationships, gangs and cohabitants are often of this type.