Category: Community of Practice

Stop Accepting the Unacceptable and Create a Community Committed to Change

Written by Louise Santiago on . Posted in Community of Practice, Embodied Leadership.

Community committed to changeNothing ruins my day more than an encounter with someone who says, “Well, it’s been like that for as long as I’ve been here and there’s nothing anyone can do to change it.” If you hear that enough times, you begin to doubt whether change is even possible. It makes me sad to see leaders and teams fall into this pattern of disempowering acceptance. 

It’s when you feel isolated and alone with a problem that you can find yourself accepting the unacceptable. This brings me back to Margaret Wheatley’s poem, “Turning to One Another.” (To read the entire poem take a look at a previous blog.) I’ve been reflecting on this poem over the last few weeks and this next stanza I find particularly motivating when confronted with the unacceptable.

Invite in everybody who cares to work on what’s possible. 

Acknowledge that everyone is an expert about something. 

Know that creative solutions come from new connections.

I love this part of the poem. I want to work with others who care to work on what’s possible. Margaret Wheatley reminds us that each person holds expertise and, collectively, we can come up with new solutions. That’s my vibe, I’m all about collaboration and the synergy of the group that spins one idea off of another until they land on a common direction. It’s powerful.

If you’re a leader, and you’ve observed an unacceptable situation, what should you do next? 

You invite in everybody who cares to work on what’s possible. How do you start a group of people interested in making a difference in a common purpose? I appreciated this article in the Harvard Business Review, Community-Powered Problem Solving, that shared the need for leaders to think of themselves as community organizers. Before you go out and start creating your community, here are five questions the article recommends you consider that I thought were worth sharing:

  1. What community of individuals from inside the company and across external stakeholders do we need to connect to solve this problem?
  2. What platform (physical or digital forum) does this community need to start connecting in new ways?
  3. What new interactions will community members want to engage in on the platform to design a solution?
  4. What valuable professional experiences will the members get out of these interactions?
  5. What value will this new set of experiences generate for our firm and for the other organizations involved, creating a win for all parties?

While these questions are tailored for businesses and corporations, they can be adapted to many types of organizations. Your goal should be to provide your stakeholders — whether they are employees, colleagues, students, neighbors —  with the means to connect and the freedom to invent new ways to address the problem. 

My favorite approach to working as a team to address a challenge is to create a Community of Practice. Starting your own Community of Practice might sound daunting, but it doesn’t need to be. When I think back over my career, it was when I was part of a Community of Practice that I felt like I made the biggest difference. (Read my post, 4 Reasons Why You Need to Join a Community of Practice, to learn more about the benefits.)

Starting a community is one thing, but how can you ensure that you create an open space where creative solutions have the space to bloom? I’m working on a new architecture for community collaboration that will promote the kind of creative problem-solving we so desperately need right now. If you want to join me for my upcoming webinar, please contact me and let me know to add you to my invite list. Or you can follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook where I’ll be sharing the details soon.

Appreciating the Power of a Collaborative Community — Now more than ever!

Written by Louise Santiago on . Posted in Community of Practice.

laptop computer with internet contacts projection“There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” 

That’s the first line of Margaret Wheatley’s poem entitled, “Turning to One Another.”  As I read this poem recently, I found it deeply resonated with me and inspired a bit of soul searching as I reconnected with the value of community in my own life.

The next lines are, 

Ask “What’s possible?,” not “What’s wrong?”

Keep asking.

Notice what you care about.

Assume that many others share your dreams.

2020 has had a way of bringing into the light what we care about, hasn’t it? Some of the things we previously viewed as necessary, we’ve probably discarded. Whereas, other things, we may have taken for granted before, now have much deeper value. 

For me, one big shift has been my schedule. After years of 9-5 programming, I’ve discarded these routine hours in favor of listening to my client’s needs and matching my availability to meet theirs. Truly a gift of time that allows me to delve more deeply into my focus on collaboration. Another unexpected blessing came about when I was needed to support my daughters with the distance learning needs of my grandchildren. What a fantastic opportunity to spend time with my “grands”, as I call them, and tune into their strengths and coach them through the obstacles of remote learning. 

As we find our new footing in 2021, this is what I know, I care about collaboration. That has always been a key ingredient in my professional life, and social distancing heightened rather than diminished that awareness. 

Looking back, I was fortunate to have the wonderful opportunity to work on a fully collaborative team right out of college. With collaboration as our base, we quickly became known on the national scene as a high performing team. We created space for each other, we were able to give critical feedback to each other, and we were able to flow and ideate in a powerful way. 

Once you’ve fully experienced that kind of collaboration, you never want to go without it.

This isn’t just a warm, fuzzy feeling. As a long time student of social learning theory, I know that we learn from and with each other. Social learning is both reciprocal and exponential. When we observe others, we learn, when we try things out in front of others, we learn. And when we engage in that together, our learning is multiplied by the number of people in the group. That’s a powerful learning model! 

A collaborative community doesn’t happen magically, or simply with the passage of time. We need to set the conditions for collaboration, set up reciprocal expectations, and maintain our team and our work in a shared, transparent environment. In order to collaborate successfully, you need a blueprint.

I’m working on that blueprint right now. In an upcoming webinar, I’ll reveal a new architecture for collaboration that can be enjoyed virtually — as that is a trend that won’t be going away any time soon! 

If you want to join me for the webinar, please contact me and let me know to add you to my invite list. Or you can follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook where I’ll be sharing the details soon.

I’ll be sharing more from Margaret Wheatley’s poem in upcoming blog posts. In the meantime, here’s the entire poem for you to enjoy. I hope it offers some inspiration for you as we all look towards a New Year with new opportunities to grow and learn!

“Turning to One Another” 

by Margaret Wheatley

There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about. 

Ask “What’s possible?,” not “What’s wrong?”

Keep asking.

Notice what you care about.

Assume that many others share your dreams.

Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters. 

Talk to people you know.

Talk to people you don’t know.

Talk to people you never talk to.

Be intrigued by the differences you hear. 

Expect to be surprised.

Treasure curiosity more than certainty.

Invite in everybody who cares to work on what’s possible. 

Acknowledge that everyone is an expert about something. 

Know that creative solutions come from new connections.

Remember, you don’t fear people whose story you know. 

Real listening always brings people closer together.

Trust that meaningful conversations can change your world. 

Rely on human goodness. Stay together.

Community Collaboration is Our Greatest Problem-Solving Tool

Written by Louise Santiago on . Posted in Community of Practice.

Community collaboration “Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” – Vince Lombardi

Are you committed to any group efforts? We all are, as members of families, as coworkers, or in our involvement with various organizations. At times, we find ourselves in need of another community or group, one that gives us new opportunities to learn, grow, and explore. Recently, I found that I needed to create a safe harbor for meaningful, heartfelt conversations between women. So my colleague, Maria Connolly, and I set out to create a collaborative community for women leaders—more on that later.

As a society, we’ve been challenged like no other time in recent history. If you’re feeling frustrated, isolated, or helpless to affect real change, I challenge you to either join or create a community! You can find a wealth of information on one of my favorite structures for a collaborative community, a Community of Practice, on this website. And don’t forget, with today’s technology you can meet virtually, so your community doesn’t need to be limited geographically. 

First, let’s discuss the need we have for community collaboration, especially now. I wholeheartedly believe it’s the best strategy that humans have for solving problems and finding new solutions. 

Here are three reasons why we need community collaboration right now:

  • Communities appeal to social learners

We learn better when we interact within a community—asking questions and testing solutions on actual problems—all in real-time. Personally, I do much better when I operate as part of a community, as do many of my friends and colleagues. Psychologists have a name for this phenomenon: they call it social learning. 

Social learning is learner-centric, which means that it shifts the focus of instruction from the teacher to the learner. More collaboration and interaction between learners leads to a higher impact, which is partly due to social influence and can serve to reinforce memory.

  • Communities encourage creativity and innovation

A collaborative approach combines the knowledge, experience, and creativity of the entire group. While this isn’t always easy, there are some significant benefits that come from collaboration, even when it’s hard or seemingly inefficient. For example, people will often discover new insights, increase their capacity for innovation, and become more committed and passionate about community decisions.

  • Communities create leaders

Collaborative communities are a safe environment where everyone feels comfortable speaking up and allowing the best ideas to surface and shine. Every group has people that are more experienced than others in various areas. By giving them channels to share their knowledge and expertise, even members who are usually reserved will begin to step up and grow as leaders.

Newave leaders great circleAs I mentioned earlier, my colleague, Maria Connolly, and I were impelled by recent events to create a collaborative space specifically for women leaders. Whether you are an emerging leader, an established leader, self-employed, or finding your leadership footing, we feel our Great Circle Community is a place where we can grow together. 

In the meetings we’ve had so far, we’ve already begun to learn much about each other and we are looking forward to a few more faces to join us! We’re inviting women from around the globe to join our circle to explore big ideas and out-of-the-box creative solutions. Let’s get inspired and nourished as we feed our leader within!

 

How Leaders Can Facilitate Engagement During Virtual Team Meetings

Written by Louise Santiago on . Posted in Community of Practice, Leadership Coaching, Running Productive Meetings.

Woman in a virtual meeting When was the last time you were part of a virtual meeting? If you asked me that five years ago I would have had to stop and think. Today, the answer is easy, I’m either leading or participating in a virtual meeting almost every day of the week. The recent pandemic has definitely had an impact on the number of virtual meetings being held and we all may be experiencing a bit of “zoom fatigue.” 

This trend towards virtual meetings isn’t like to change anytime soon, even when social distancing becomes a thing of the past. In fact, researchers at GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com estimate that we will see 25-30% of the workforce working at home multiple days a week by the end of 2021. The advantages of virtual meetings are that they allow you to develop broader connections, especially within Communities of Practice. Yet, we’ve all experienced some of the disadvantages. For many of us, it feels far easier and more natural to engage with others when you’re at an in-person meeting.

There are practices that leaders can use to promote deeper engagement during virtual meetings. In fact, you might be surprised that some of the results end up exceeding your expectations!

Here are three key practices that will make a difference in the level of engagement your participants will experience:

  1. Focus on outcomes. This is important for every meeting, but when it’s virtual it’s even more important because it can be all too easy to disengage. As a leader, you want every participant in the meeting to feel connected to the outcome. It’s best if they understand the big picture, beyond their area of personal responsibility, so they’re fully engaged in finding the solution.

Make sure to communicate, in advance, the anticipated outcomes, or focus, of the meeting. This can be done by preparing and sharing an agenda for the meeting in advance. You can also co-create outcomes at the beginning of the meeting. The first ten minutes or so of a meeting will often be about the question: Why does this matter? If this hasn’t been clarified by the agenda at the beginning of the meeting, things can quickly break down.

  1. Facilitate dynamic personal engagement. As the facilitator of the meeting you need to avoid the pitfall of hogging the spotlight! This means encouraging communication between team members. If every question or comment is always addressed to you as the leader, you’re not really functioning as a team. Instead, allow for, and intentionally include, opportunities for people to speak with one another.

How can you do this when you’re meeting virtually? I’ve seen it done in various ways effectively. In some team meetings, we go into smaller breakout rooms within the virtual meeting for 15-20 minutes to brainstorm and discuss strategies. Then we come back and report our findings to the entire group. I’ve also had meetings where the facilitator will take a short break and set it up for participants to text each other in dyads or triads to help seed the conversation and maintain engagement.

  1. Keep fine-tuning your efforts. Here’s the most important key to encouraging deeper engagement. Leave a few minutes (I recommend ten) at the end of the meeting to discuss what’s working and what’s not. We are shifting into this new norm together. 

While some groups have more experience than others, let’s not take the old model and wedge it into this new experience. Take this as an opportunity to explore, invent, and discover new ways of engaging that can sustain us whether we work in separate locations or have the opportunity to work in co-locations.

This level of engagement is going to require more effort from you as the team leader. However, the reason for meeting together is to build and tap into the collective wisdom of the group. This cannot be accomplished if your participants are distracted and disengaged. You’ll find that as they engage more fully, you’ll be making better joint decisions that your entire team is excited to implement.

I would appreciate hearing from you about the quality of your virtual team meetings. What’s working well and where are you still struggling?  Please contact me or connect with me via LinkedIn.

How to Establish Guidelines for Virtual Community of Practice Meetings

Written by Louise Santiago on . Posted in Community of Practice, Running Productive Meetings.

A woman interacting with a virtual community of practiceMore than ever, the world needs to explore new solutions. Practices that worked well before in business, health care, education, government, may not be working so well now. Which is why we need functioning Communities of Practice (CoPs). A Community of Practice is a space for ideas, the generation of possibilities, and permission to explore out-of-the-box solutions. 

Technology has opened up the possibility of “long-distance” Communities of Practice. There are new CoPs starting virtually, while others are adapting their communities for virtual meetings. It’s exciting to see, all over the world, new Communities of Practice are being created to meet the changing needs of our society. 

In my last post, I discussed how CoPs can continue to have productive meetings during the quarantine. However, I’m finding there are new challenges that need to be addressed. The key to successful meetings is the same as it’s always been: appropriate guidelines or norms. Why is there most likely a need for revised guidelines now? 

I’ll give you an example. In the past months, I’ve been a part of multiple calls during which there were distracting background noises. In some cases, it was hard to hear or concentrate on what the person was saying, and as a result, I became fatigued, distracted, and frustrated. I’m not saying this to make anyone feel guilty about a similar situation, there was simply no guideline in place to deal with this situation. 

With this in mind, let’s go over how to revise your guidelines with a specific focus on virtual meetings. 

1. Technology

Video conference technology is new to many of us, and that’s why it so vital to establish some ground rules. For example, will you be allowing and/or supporting the use of webcams, screen sharing, and breakout rooms? 

With all the added distractions of online meetings, the meeting facilitator has to make sure to keep everyone focused on the job at hand. As the facilitator, the more familiar and comfortable you are with the technology, the easier it will be for you to facilitate a community online. If you’re new to the program you’re using, it may be a good idea to have a trial run with an assistant or colleague before you host your next meeting.

2. Establish a Structure

It’s vital to clarify how to interact in this virtual environment, otherwise, meetings can feel aimless. At the very beginning of the meeting, establish or reiterate your guidelines. You could post a slide with instructions and expectations or spend some time at the first meeting to come up with them as a group. I find that the expectations of a CoP meeting often center around what, how, and when participants should communicate during the CoP meeting, as well as how they should contact each other afterward. 

At the beginning of each meeting, it’s also a good idea to review the overall goals for the virtual CoP meeting and share a short agenda with the group. Many times it can be as simple as proposing a problem or opportunity to help focus your discussion. 

3. Encourage Positive Interaction

Make sure to encourage positive interactions in your CoP (and include them in your guidelines). People are under a lot of stress right now and might be showing signs of fatigue and a shorter fuse! Be specific in your guidelines in encouraging questions, ideas, feedback, and constructive criticism, while discouraging personal attacks, tangents, as well as violations of community trust and privacy. 

In a safe environment, where there are clear norms guiding the interaction, community members will be much more likely to open up about personal struggles or accomplishments. In a healthy virtual CoP, members share strategies, reinforce the bonds they established in person, and connect with others who share similar challenges and can provide creative solutions.

A thriving virtual CoP is exactly what we need in these difficult times. I would love to hear about how your involvement in a virtual Community of Practice is making a difference for you and your communities. Please contact me or connect with me via LinkedIn.

Center for Learning Leaders

Louise J Santiago, PhD
Executive Coach and Organizational Consultant

Where Leadership is Intentional Work

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