Slides for talk on "Developing Communities of Practice"

1. Anna Radley
Organisation and People
Development, HR
Developing
Communities
of Practice

2. Horizontal Learning

3. Continual re-organisation
Artificial
intelligence
Platform
working
Generations X, Y and Z
Mental health challenges
Ageing
population
Perma-
austerity
Brexit
Extinction Rebellion
Augar review

4. In a VUCA world what type of learning do we
need?
Vertical Learning •Focus on problem-solving, resilience and
adaptability, systems and network thinking
•Greater choice and ownership improve
learning outcomes
•Learning from what works is more powerful
than imposed concepts and methods
•People who perform better in complex
environments tend to have higher levels of
development

5. Communities of Practice
“…groups of people who share a concern or a
passion for something they do and learn how
to do it better as they interact regularly”
Etienne Wenger-Trayner and Beverly Wenger-Trayner (2015)

6. Why have Communities of
Practice?• Professional development across and between
organisations
• Breaks down organisational silos
• Sharing of knowledge and building better practice
• Happier, more motivated staff
(Emily Webber, 2016)

7. Examples of Communities of
Practice• Cross Institutional Work Shadowing Scheme in London
• Launched in Autumn 2011 with 8 partner institutions
• Aim to share practice, processes and establish supportive networks
• Currently 15 partner institutions with 2 application cycles per year
• Structured approach – brief application form and programme outline setting
expectations and boundaries
• Approximately 250 visits per year across the partner institutions
• Evaluation – 100% would recommend it to others and all objectives met

8. Examples of Communities of
Practice• Cross Institutional Action Learning Sets for women in London and SE - pilot
• Launched in February 2019 with 6 partner institutions
• Aim to build a network of peers who can support each other to succeed
• 24 women participating
• Scheduled sessions throughout the year following specific format

9. Examples of Communities of Practice - How was
it created?
• One idea and one initial conversation
• Setting up first meeting and working to create processes & branding
• Funding?
• Leader
• Creating the communities of practice for participants and the co-ordinators in each
partner institution.
• Further communities of practice emerging

10. Examples of Communities of
Practice
CoachingNetwork
• Established July 2016 to meet the needs of staff
• Development programme to train coaches
• Regular CPD/Supervision sessions
• Connections across organisation
• Learning from each other
• Maturity – people asking to join

11. What can you do?
 Interest groups
 Similar needs
 Use conferences like this to establish initial connections
 Use existing connections
 Membership
 Leadership
 Ability to meet regularly

12. References
Webber, E. (2016) Building Successful Communities of Practice
Wenger-Trayner, E. and Wenger-Trayner, B. ‘Introduction to
Communities of Practice’; wenger-trainer.com/introduction-to-
communities-of-practice[accessed 17th June 2019]