Are you part of a community of practice?
You may be asking, what is a community of practice? A community of practice, or sometimes known as a CoP, is an organized group of people who share the same interests or set of problems who come together to resolve those problems, improve their skills, share best practices, and learn from each other’s experiences. Sometimes the group is naturally created and other times you must seek out people who have the same interests as you and form one. A community of practice does not always have to be a strict meeting with an agenda, rather it can be an informal lunch or other informal activity.
I have been involved in communities of practice practically my whole career, but typically when I mention the term to others, they have never heard of it or been involved in one. One reason for this is that businesses do not allow their employees to have creative freedom to create them, nor are they easy to stand up or nurture. Many of my colleagues have told me that their organizations have struggled in the past to create a CoP or keep one going. I can relate to this struggle.
At my company, we created a community of practice a while back and it fizzled out, despite that so many of us found it so useful. We took a hard look at while it failed then took those learnings used them to create and launch a new one. We now have a CoP for Product Managers, Product Owners, and Analysts. It is a formal meeting where we come together and discuss topics that are prevalent to our craft! We have a Jira board where all members can add topics they want to discuss, and we move those topics through different stages depending on if they need an action taken or not. Most of them are related to knowledge that is being shared with the larger group. I learn so much from our CoP and encourage you all to start one at your company!
Summer Hogan
Staff Product Manager
CSAA Insurance Group
Gilbert, Arizona
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