Getting started - Preparation

Organisations can sponsor communities of practice by designing the community environment and planning activities to help grow and sustain the community, but ultimately it is the members who will define and sustain the community over time.

Think about:

Before setting up a new Community of Practice does one already exist within your network? 

• Audience: Who is this community for? Who are the community’s important stakeholders?
• Domain: What are the key issues and the learning, knowledge and tasks that the community will manage?
• Purpose, Goals and Outcomes: Given the audience and domain, what is this community’s primary purpose? What are the potential benefits to participants? What are the benefits to other stakeholders? What specific needs will the community be organised to meet?  

Sample supporting activities:

• Use informal discussions, interviews, surveys and/or focus groups to identify needs.
• Define the benefits of the community for all stakeholders, including the sponsors and individual community members.
• Identify the major topic areas for community content and exploration.
• Create an estimate of the cost for the technology, technology support, facilitation, resources and supports for participants (e.g., travel costs).

PURPOSE IS PARAMOUNT

Successful and sustainable communities of practice have a focused and well-defined purpose that is directly tied to the sponsors’ mission and the priorities of the participants. The purpose needs to be defined in terms of the benefits to the community’s stakeholders (e.g. students, Academic/ PS Staff, other education providers) and the specific goals that the community is organised to meet.

Purposes can usually be categorised into four overarching areas of activities and can cover more than one of these:

• Developing relationships
• Learning and developing practice
• Carrying out tasks and projects
• Creating new knowledge.

Which ones will your community focus on?