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Sidsel-Marie
Winter Prag from the Fabo Learning community shares insights on the topic of
cultivating communities of practice:
The
educational theorist Étienne Wenger has written extensively about communities
of practice and how to cultivate them. He has coined the 7 design principles of
cultivating communities of practice, i.e. how to successfully gather a group
of people who work on the same topic to build relationships, best practices,
and learning.
7 principles
for cultivating communities of practice:
- Design for
evolution
Communities must grow organically. Rather than creating or building a
community from scratch, you will often rely on existing personal
connections or networks and as a community grows, you will be
shepherding the evolution.
- Open a
dialogue between inside and outside perspectives
Good community design brings information from outside of the community
into the dialogue about what the community can achieve to inspire and
avoid group-think.
- Invite
different levels of participation
Acknowledge that people participate in your community for different
reasons, for some it could be to grow skills, and for others for
personal network, while others again need to be at the core of shared
practice building. These different motives call for different ways,
frequencies, and levels of engagement: from leadership, to active
participation, to peripheral interest.
- Develop both
public and private community spaces
The heart of the community is the relationships (professional or
private) between it's members. Some of this exchange will take place in
closed groups and your community design can support this.
- Focus on
value
A community will only be vibrant and "alive" as long as it is
relevant and brings value to its members or to the organisation(s). Be explicit about the value of the
community activities.
- Combine
familiarity and excitement
In time, the community of practice will feel like "home" for
your participants. Successful communities combine this familiarity with
new, fresh perspectives to keep new people and new ideas coming into the
community.
- Create a
rhythm for the community
How often does your community need to meet? Make sure you have enough
events/conversations so that the community does not feel sluggish, but
not so much that participants will be overwhelmed.
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