A workshop facilitated by Jitse van Ameijde around the use of Community of Practice concepts and principles to facilitate organisational change

2. Warm up activity
Warm up

3. Networks vs Communities

4. Networks vs Communities

5. Domain
Community
Practice
What the community cares about
What gives it its identity
Example: Change Management
The actual membership
The quality of relationships between members
The shared values & beliefs
The practical knowledge and capabilities
The collection of tools, frameworks, methods, etc.
The activities engaged in by members
Three dimensions of a CoP

6. Purpose of the session:
Finding out what we can learn from co-
designing an “ideal” community of change
practice
Purpose of the session

7. Key concepts

8. What are some common boundary objects that you are
familiar with?
Boundary Objects

9. What are some common boundary objects that you are
familiar with?
• Prospectus?
• REP03?
• Project Plans / PIDs?
• Specific Reports?
Boundary Objects

10. Social Learning

11. Activity 1

12. 1. Each table should nominate one “Roamer”
2. During the first activity, roamers will move between tables (every 10
minutes) and provide some “cross-fertilisation” of ideas
3. Roamers can join table conversations, take notes (and/or photos) and ask
questions about the boundary artefact being produced
4. During the second activity, roamers will stay with their tables and help
their groups develop their boundary artefact based on their acquired
knowledge
Activity 1

13. 1. Your first group task is to create a “boundary artefact” which represents
your design of either the “Community” or “Practice” aspect of a
Community of Change Practice
2. You have 40 minutes to use any combination of resources on your table
to create your design. You can use any combination of diagrams and text
3. There are handouts with different types of diagrams which you can use
to represent some or all of the aspects of your design
4. At the end of 40 minutes you should have one flipchart “boundary
artefact” – which you will present to your matched table
Activity 1

14. Change Community Design
• What should be the purpose
and identity of the
community?
• What should be the
membership of the
community?
• What should be the values
and beliefs of the
community?
Change Practice Design
• What activities should the
community engage in?
• What tools, frameworks,
methods and principles
should it use?
• What knowledge would it
need?
• What challenges would it
face?
Activity 1

15. 1. Each table now has 10 minutes to share their boundary
artefact with their paired table
2. The 10 minutes should be an opportunity to talk through the
boundary artefact and for the other group to ask questions
3. Take this as an opportunity to learn from what the other
group has done, as both groups will next be designing the
other dimension of the Community of Practice
Boundary Encounter

16. 1. Each table will now co-design the opposite aspect of the
“Community of Change Practice” – based on what they have
learned from their own experience and the boundary
encounter with the other group
2. Roamers will return to their original table and stay there for
the remainder of the session
3. You will have 30 minutes to create your boundary artefact for
the second aspect – and again are free to use any
combination of text and diagrams to produce an A1 artefact
Activity 2

17. Change Community Design
• What should be the purpose
and identity of the
community?
• What should be the
membership of the
community?
• What should be the values
and beliefs of the
community?
Change Practice Design
• What activities should the
community engage in?
• What tools, frameworks,
methods and principles
should it use?
• What knowledge would it
need?
• What challenges would it
face?
Activity 1

18. 1. What have you learned from the session?
2. What have you found challenging?
3. What makes a good boundary object?
4. How has the role of roamers been experienced?
5. If you were to co-redesign your “Community of Change
Practice” from scratch, what would you do differently?
Reflective questions

19. Communities of practice function well when they are based
on the voluntary engagement of members. They flourish
when they build on the passions of their members and
allow this passion to guide the community’s development.
In this sense, communities of practice are fundamentally
self-governed (Snyder & Wenger, 2004)