CommunityOfPractice

CommunityOfPractice is an abused term (like methodology, and core competence) that meant something useful before it became an end in itself. It means, approximately: "A professional peer group engaged in similar knowledge & skill based activities." There is a strong implication that the practitioners form a learning community, at least about the domain in which they act, and that the community holds the performance standards for the activities in the domain.

A related term is the GoldCollarWorker, describing what we would now call knowledge workers - people who make large contributions to an organization through their special expertise. The article and later book of the same title that popularized the term made the apparently radical point that people who do knowledge work work in ways not fully understood or understandable by their management. Sort of the antithesis of "Scientific Management." To which, those of us who work with expertise say - "Well, duh."

A CommunityOfPractice is one way to look at the loose associations of people from whom things like Wikis, webs of Blogs, periodicals and conferences precipitate. There seems to be one here (as wikis, blogs, conferences, and articles precipitate out of the mix). So what does this community practice? -- JimBullock, 2003.04.24

We practice creating communities. -DaleEmery 2003.04.24

Isn't it neat to have a sandbox like AYE to practice creating communities in? - BobLee 2003.04.24

Excellent question - What do we practice? I would think "centering" would be one thing we practice. There is a wide range of "technical" things we individually practice. Perhaps this is why the AYE community tends to have a short "collective" attention span. From the MBTI Prayes ... ENFP: God, help me to keep my mind on one th-Look a bird-ing at a time. Except we seem to not get back to the original thought. DonGray 2003.04.29

Is practicing building community the whole point, or are we looking for other kinds of skill or opportunity gains? -- JimBullock, 2003.04.29

From my perspective, this is a community-in-progress (as opposed to either a 'twinkle in someone's eye or a community-in-decline)...). For me, it has been, and continues to be, a learning community.... It has not been organized and documented in a way we could share it with others or learn clear lessons... but, then, I'm a J in a "nest of P's", and have learned NOT to expect that.

However, is there some benefit in those folks who have been involved since day1 starting to write up a history -- let us who came along later add as we can?

DianeGibson 2003.04.29

From my vantage point, I see the AYE community building a network of people to practice safely with both at the conference and also virtually via Wiki & e-mails. The value of a safe place to air ideas and gain constructive points of view in response is substantial.

One of the critical functions in relief of stress is someone you can trust for a sanity check, "Am I the only one that thinks this way?"

Many of the questions raised, debated and perhaps answered on the AYE Wiki or Jerry's SHAPE forum could be CareerLimitingMoves in the day-to-day setting.

--BobLee 2003.04.30

Updated: Wednesday, April 30, 2003