Part 1
Last month I attended the Canadian online Knowledge Mobilization Forum and particularly enjoyed a discussion on the topic of Communities of Practice (if you’d like a little primer on what a CoP is, click here).
In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I decided to persuade the presenters to do some short interviews to share their experiences with us, which I hope you’ll find useful.
Firstly, then, I’m delighted to introduce you all to Travis Sztainert, Knowledge Mobilization specialist.
Hi Travis, welcome to Knowledge4Lawyers!
Tell me a bit about the Communities of Practice (CoPs) that you are involved in. What is your role in those communities and how does this fit with your “day job”.
I have been involved with a number of CoPs over the years. I started with simply attending a local CoP focused on Knowledge Mobilization (similar to Knowledge Management, but concerned more with sharing knowledge to external stakeholders). When I moved to a new city for work, I joined another local CoP focused on Knowledge Transfer (similar to Knowledge Mobilization) and was part of the leadership committee. As part of this committee, we were responsible for revitalizing the CoP (it was dormant at the time), planning meet-ups, determining the focus of the meetups and helping to host the meetings. I also attempted to lead and revitalize an international CoP called the Knowledge Into Practice Learning Network.
There are two main reasons that I’ve chosen to join and lead these CoPs:
- To help me improve my ‘day job’ and improve the day jobs of others. Given that the focus of the CoPs I’ve joined was Knowledge Mobilization/Transfer, I am eager to learn from others and I am happy to share my own knowledge about how to do our work better – a rising tide lifts all boats.
- To help contribute to, and gain experience with, the ins-and-outs of CoPs. CoPs can be a valuable tool in change-makers toolkits, but only if used effectively. I am interested in the factors that lead to a successful and prosperous CoP.
What is it about CoPs that that particularly interests you? What prompted you to want to share your experiences with the Canadian Knowledge Mobilisation Forum this year?
CoPs are one of the few methods that allow for deep, meaningful and ongoing engagement in specific and (often) complex topics. For this reason, they have always been appealing to me as a tool for change, and I’m fascinated by the (often) organic nature by which some CoPs develop.
It has also been extremely interesting to see the shift to virtual CoPs given the current context of a global pandemic. At a previous CoP, I gave a talk with colleagues about virtual communities, and I specifically questioned whether virtual CoPs allow for a safe space where members could discuss failures and lessons learned (as opposed to focusing on successes). This idea led me to share my experiences failing at revitalizing a CoP (the Knowledge Into Practice Learning Network) at the Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum – I want everyone to know that failure is common, and is often just a First Attempt In Learning (FAIL).
What top tips do you have for people who participate in a CoP so that they can get the most from their involvement?
The first thing I would encourage people to do is to try to make connections in your CoP (especially if it is big). Talk to different people at every meeting – resist the temptation to sit beside your colleagues or those you know well. Related to this idea of actively participating, is to try to overcome imposter syndrome. This is the feeling that everyone else in the CoP knows more then you, which results in an irrational fear that you have little to contribute (or will be found out as an imposter in the CoP). Know that most other people in the CoP are feeling the same thing, and work to overcome this fear so that you can step out of your comfort zone and more actively engage with other members. Often, the best ideas and knowledge shared in a CoP is done informally, through the connections you make and the people you talk to while grabbing a coffee. Given the current pandemic, this may be a little more difficult, but using the private messaging feature during Zooms and chatting offline (through LinkedIn or even Facebook messenger) are great methods to starting informal conversations.
What top tips do you have for those who are responsible for supporting and organising CoPs, rather than participants? Do you have any advice for those trying to manage the knowledge that gets shared within the group and trying to support improved accessibility and action on the knowledge that is shared there?
Based on my past failures and experience, I have 4 tips for those organizing CoPs:
- Use tools that allow members to communicate and share knowledge easily. This is especially important for virtual CoPs, you’ll want to think about how members may keep in touch outside of formalized meetings/activities. There is now a plethora of free tools to help you do this, and it may include Slack, Discord or even using Google Drive or Microsoft Teams – a platform by which people can chat and share files/information and that is easy to use.
- Create opportunities to socialize. This may include using fun/interesting ice-breakers, implementing Randomized Coffee Trials (see this example), using a fireside chats method of engaging, or even using informal locations for in-person meetups. You want to create and allow for a space for serendipity to emerge.
- Ensure consistent interaction, regular meetings, and engagement. Leading a CoP is very time-intensive work, and requires real commitment (it is not something to be done off the side of your desk). Running a CoP is like a dance – it takes a while to find your rhythm, and once you have it you need to work to keep it.
- Encourage participation in meetings/activities. This is best done though example. Be a champion and identify/grow champions that you see naturally emerge in the CoPs.
Some argue that CoPs need to be allowed to develop organically by the members/participants and too much organisation and control can kill them off. What are your views on this? How much support and/or control do you advise organisations to offer, to get the most benefit from CoPs?
In my experience, you can’t rely exclusively on the organic nature of CoPs. The need for a CoP can (and often does) develop organically, and same for the content/focus of the CoP as it evolves. However, without purposeful leadership (e.g., a few champions willing to take on the administrative tasks of running the CoP) they can easily lose momentum and fizzle out. To get the most out of a CoP, I would encourage organizations to offer hosting support, and where possible administrative-type responsibilities (e.g., send out e-mails, doodle polls, booking rooms, acquiring catering, etc). With solid back-end support, CoPs can flourish.
Do you have any other practical tips for those working in knowledge and learning, to improve the flow of knowledge around their organisations through communities and conversation?
My main tip would be to walk-the-walk. If you’re looking for people to share knowledge openly, you must lead by example. Make yourself vulnerable – humans have a need for reciprocity, so you’ll see that same vulnerability mimicked and passed back to the group. Also, it helps to be a network leader or matchmaker. Knowing the members in the CoP, their issues, and who they might be able to work with (or learn from) is a valuable task that is often overlooked (i.e., be a connector).
What’s next for you and where can we find out more about your other interests?
I’ve been very interested in un-learning and de-implementation as of late. It seems that it’s relatively easy to teach an old dog new tricks, but virtually impossible to un-teach it a trick it already knows. So I may start learning more about this emerging field.
If you want to keep up with me, add me on LinkedIn and/or Twitter (@DrSzt), or visit my infrequently updated website www.drszt.ca. I’m also continually teaching the Certificate in Knowledge Mobilization, and would love to see more diverse audiences learn about Knowledge Mobilization!
Thanks very much for sharing your experiences, Travis, much appreciated!
Part 2
Following on from their workshop at the Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum and my interview a couple of weeks ago with Travis Sztainert, I am delighted to introduce you to Kate Wetherow, Organisational Learning Specialist, and bring you her experiences with Communities of Practice.
Kate has over 15 years not-for-profit experience in education and operations at the community, national and international levels, and has a unique blend of skills in organizational learning, knowledge management, project management, and business process improvement. Kate is the Organizational Learning Specialist at the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA), a part time instructor at the University of Ottawa Professional Development Institute in the Knowledge Management certificate program and co-coordinates the Ottawa Knowledge Mobilization Community of Practice.
Hi Kate, welcome to Knowledge4Lawyers!
Tell me a bit about the Communities of Practice (CoPs) that you are involved in, in particular, your role in those communities and how this fits with your “day job”.
I volunteer to co-coordinate the Ottawa Knowledge Mobilization Community of Practice. It’s the gathering place of knowledge workers in the National Capital Region in Canada. Usually, we meet up at a pub and talk about our work or have a peer-lead discussion (tools, trends, or hot topics). We welcome everyone in the broadest spectrum of knowledge work, including students, from every sector. The benefit for me is being able to connect with others in my community with a shared practice and bring back valuable insight to my day job.
At my full time job, I also help nurture “internal” CoPs with our 450 employees. Currently, we have CoPs for project management, evaluation, planning and performance, as well as a “Lean Coffee” for our process improvement and agile work. As the Organizational Learning Specialist, I don’t coordinate all of the CoPs, but I participate and connect them with new participants. Our CoPs are very much an internal gathering of subject matter experts or specialists, but also employees who want to learn more about the field of practice. It has encouraged more cross-departmental collaboration and learning in the past two years. This certainly falls into the “supporting a learning culture” part of my job description.
What is it about CoPs that that particularly interests you? What prompted you to want to share your experiences with the Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum this year?
I know what it’s like to be the only knowledge worker at the office. It’s lonely! Initially, I started attending the Ottawa KMb CoP out of a need to connect with others with a shared purpose and practice. To this day, that’s still what I get out it.
Finding your community is an important way to connect to “New Talent, Skills, and Perspectives,” which was the theme of this year’s Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum. I thought it would be a neat idea to reach out to our sister CoPs in Guelph and Toronto to talk about the power of connection, what works and how you can continuously evolve to meet the needs of the group. We wanted to share the broad experiences of working with CoPs as people networks for leveraging professional development in knowledge mobilization.
What top tips do you have for people who participate in a CoP so that they can get the most from their involvement?
Like anything else, you get out of a CoP what you put into it. Be an active participant. Connect with others. Ask questions. Share your perspectives. And volunteer to host, present or take part in the activities being offered. For example, if you want to hear about tools, then volunteer to facilitate an upcoming discussion on highly recommended tools.
Remember, CoPs are organic. You can’t control what happens with them, but you can be open to the experience! Just because you have low attendance at an event, you may end up having deeper, more meaningful, conversations and get more out of it.
What top tips do you have for those who are responsible for supporting and organising CoPs, rather than participants? Do you have any advice for those trying to manage the knowledge that gets shared within the group and trying to support improved accessibility and action on the knowledge that is shared there?
Basically, coordinating a CoP means three things: managing a distribution list, scheduling an event/newsletter, and curating content. While all three take effort (especially as a volunteer), the latter is the hardest. To curate good content, ask your members. Check in when you see them. Send out surveys once a year. See what matters to them and how you can serve the common interest. For example, it wasn’t until we sent out a survey that asked about venue preference, that we found out that several of our members felt that our current venue was a barrier to their participation – both in terms of mobility (multiple floors and poor seating) and hearing impairment (it was a noisy pub).
Co-ordinating by yourself is hard. Currently, I ‘co-coordinate’ the Ottawa KMb CoP and it’s wonderful to share that experience and the volunteer effort. We can balance workload and bounce ideas off of one another. It also means continuity on a practical level.
Some argue that CoPs need to be allowed to develop organically by the members/participants and too much organisation and control can kill them off. What are your views on this? How much support and/or control do you advise organisations to offer, to get the most benefit from CoPs?
I agree that CoPs are organic. Here’s a Canadian hockey analogy: your role as a coordinator of a CoP is to put some boards up around the rink to make a space. You invite the participants and schedule the time, but ultimately, the participants bring the game. Whether you hit the goal or not is less important than getting something out of participating.
We shared the CoP life cycle in our presentation about CoPs at the Forum. It was important to remind people that organic entities have a life of their own and follow various stages of life.
Do you have any other practical tips for those working in knowledge and learning, to improve the flow of knowledge around their organisations through communities and conversation?
Yes, I also presented at the Forum on my work in change and learning. My recommendations included the following:
- Build a strong team to deliver the learning and knowledge sharing work.
- Conduct impact and learning assessments to gather information from the people who are doing the work and what’s important to them.
- Engage in a peer-to-peer model of knowledge sharing and learning. It’s the most powerful!
- Leverage people networks, like CoPs, to share knowledge and mobilize efforts.
- Use people platforms to stay connected, i.e. digital dashboards, shared online spaces, etc. In this virtual work world, shared spaces are more important than ever!
- Never underestimate the power of people updates – whether it’s in-person or a good old fashioned email or staff bulletin. If you put care into the connection, it will resonate!
What’s next for you and where can we find out more about your other interests?
I also teach at the University of Ottawa Professional Development Institute. Last year I developed three new courses: Sharing Knowledge inside Your Organization, Visual Management for Working Teams and Creative Workplaces. Teaching is another great way to connect with your community and find out what is happening in the field of practice. I encourage others to share their knowledge and expertise at schools, volunteering, but most especially at your own workplace through lunch and learns and other gatherings. Everyone has knowledge to share!
Thanks very much for sharing your experiences with us, Kate!
If you’d like to connect with Kate or keep up with her research, you can find her on LinkedIn and twitter (@KateWetherow).
Part 3
Today I’m delighted to share with you the last of my interviews on the practical topic of making Communities of Practice work. For this last interview, we hear from Anne Bergen, PhD; Director, Knowledge to Action Consulting Inc.
Anne is an evaluation and knowledge mobilization consultant. She completed a PhD in applied social psychology at the University of Guelph in 2011, and founded Knowledge to Action Consulting in 2014. Anne helped develop and co-instructs the Knowledge Mobilization Certificate at the University of Guelph.
Hi Anne! Welcome to Knowledge
4 Lawyers.
Tell me a bit about the Communities of Practice (CoPs) that you are involved in. What is your role in those communities and how does this fit with your “day job”.
I’m involved in the Guelph/Kitchener/Waterloo Knowledge Translation and Transfer (KTT) Community of Practice. We are “an informal group of knowledge mobilization professionals, faculty and students seeking to share best practices, develop new skills, and connect with peers”.
Our CoP has participants from local universities (staff, students, faculty) as well as local KTT practitioners.
My role is one of the co-organizers – I help plan the schedule, update the website, and get the news out about events.
This fits with my day job because I’m a knowledge mobilization and evaluation consultant. At the community of practice, I get to talk shop with peers, and get to be part of a group doing similar work.
What is it about CoPs that that particularly interests you? What prompted you to want to share your experiences with the Canadian Knowledge Mobilisation Forum this year?
CoPs interest me because they’re such a helpful tool for learning – both by knowledge sharing and through seeing models of how people are working. I wanted to share my experiences at the Forum because I’ve been involved in CoPs as an organizer and participant, and it’s been really beneficial.
What top tips do you have for people who participate in a CoP so that they can get the most from their involvement?
My top tip for participants is to make time for both socializing and knowledge sharing. Think about what you bring to the group, and what you’re hoping to get out of it. Then show up regularly!
What top tips do you have for those who are responsible for supporting and organising CoPs, rather than participants? Do you have any advice for those trying to manage the knowledge that gets shared within the group and trying to support improved accessibility and action on the knowledge that is shared there?
My top tip for planner and organizers is to share the work with others. This means that others can then pick up the slack when you’re busy, and vice versa. It’s helpful to have someone organizing who is there as part of their job, or can lend institutional support to the CoP (room booking, speaker fees, etc).
Trying to manage the knowledge that gets shared and support accessibility and action can be a full time job, so if that’s a focus of your CoP, it’s a good idea to resource that position rather than relying on volunteers.
Some argue that CoPs need to be allowed to develop organically by the members/participants and too much organisation and control can kill them off. What are your views on this? How much support and/or control do you advise organisations to offer, to get the most benefit from CoPs?
I think a middle ground is helpful. CoPs need a topic of shared practice or interest, and that can change over time. Checking in with members regularly, and adapting to meet their needs and interests, means your CoP will be more sustainable. I think ideally organizations can offer space and convening support and a broad topic area, then let the community organically progress.
Do you have any other practical tips for those working in knowledge and learning, to improve the flow of knowledge around their organisations through communities and conversation?
Figure out how people like to converse in your group and how often people want to be in touch. Then pick your communication platforms accordingly.
Our CoP makes use of a listserv and a really basic website, as well as social media outreach. If we were more closely connected or met more often, it would be great to have a chat forum or other means of communicating within the group
What’s next for you and where can we find out more about your other interests?
We need to figure out our winter/spring schedule for the CoP! You can find out more about our upcoming events at http://guelphkttcommunity.ca/about.html
For more about my other knowledge mobilization work and interests, see https://knowledgetoaction.ca/our-projects/
Thank you Anne. We really appreciate your taking the time to share your experience with us.
If you would like to get in touch with Anne, you can link with her on LinkedIn, follow her on twitter at @anne_bergen, or take a look at her website https://knowledgetoaction.ca
