How to lead
A Community Of Practice
Creating a Community of Practice with the 5 P Framework
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so good morning everybody my name is
Mike Collins I work for a company called
EPG developing people globally we
specialize in HR and L&D qualifications
so we develop capability in H R and L
and D my area of interest my area of
special ISM if you like is specifically
around developing learning communities
both offline and online and some of the
work that I've done at DPG over the last
three years has been around connecting
people and getting people to share
knowledge to develop to learn to then
apply and make themselves better at what
they do
so I'm hope you enjoying the two-day
conference was anybody here yesterday
show of hands anybody here yesterday
fantastic you've come back today first
day anybody today fantastic ok so you'll
have probably got your kind of to grips
with the layout so over there you've got
this huge area that's all specializing
in technology shiny gadgets amazing
technology and then as you walk over
here there's a tiny tiny tiny little bit
that's focused on skills quite an
interesting balance around tech tech
tech tech small area for skills when
actual fad really what we should be
doing is flipping it and concentrating
on skills because technology is just me
love the enabler so this talk isn't
going to be about technology although
there is a small part of technology this
is about hearts minds and behaviors this
is about others as people as humans and
how we can apply and use the tools
around us to help foster those
connections and relationships so just to
show our fans who's a member of a
community of practice at the moment
what's a community of practice that's a
very good question I will I will share
with that very soon who's thinking about
learning communities in their own
organization at the moment yeah so this
is something that's you know been out in
the towards maturity benchmark reports
in every sort of report that you look up
for LMD who talked about social they
talked about mobile they talked about
connectivity they talked about
harnessing the power of the organization
and one of the ways in which you can do
that is through learning communities so
if learning communities and social
networks aren't part of your L&D
strategy and how you're trying to help
people become better at learning and
getting access to knowledge within your
organization then it's something that I
really do hope that you leave today
thinking that this is what we need to go
this is what we
to do this one we need to approach so
five P's I'm going to talk through five
P's each one a little letter starting
with P but it's not just words okay what
I like to think of them I'll just turn
this on there you go
it's these are pillars these are the
basis e2 the foundations in which you
can apply your knowledge and work
through this framework to create a
successful and thriving learning
community this is a handout that you've
gone I'm going to kind of take you
around each of the five P's and
hopefully make some sort of sense so
let's look at the first one purpose when
you're looking at a community of
practice and you're starting to think
about what we're going to do and how
we're going to apply the community into
whatever context you've got to start
with purpose because without purpose you
can't go on there's no foundation to
start with the purpose is absolutely key
so when you're thinking about when
you're going to create and start a
community that's going to support
learning your purpose is key we're going
to spend a couple of minutes thinking
about what your purpose is and rather
than me talk about it I'm going to bring
in a guy that you probably heard of
simon Sinek who talks about how great
leaders inspire action and some of the
things that you probably battling with
your own organization is getting buy-in
and getting people to support the idea
that actually we want people to talk to
one another who actually want to connect
people we want people to share knowledge
we don't want people to hoard knowledge
so purpose is absolutely key so
hopefully this is gonna work and before
we do that I'm going to answer your
question which is what is a community of
practice so this is a community of
practice so according to lave and Wenger
a community of practice is groups of
people who share a concern or passion
for something they do and learn how to
do it better as they interact regularly
so I'll get I'll get on the way if you
wanna take a picture so this is about
people the sharing a concern of passion
and interest they need to know something
and it's about getting these people to
interact regularly of course now in the
21st century that doesn't just have to
be face-to-face there are so many tools
that you can do that connect people
offline as well as online
so the way that I like to think about
creating a purpose is starting with why
if you can help decide what the Y is
then it helps people understand the Y
for them and what they're going to get
from this community so there's more
chances than joining getting game
getting getting involved so I'm going to
hand over to Simon and Simon's going to
talk you through starting with why and
it's probably the world's simplest idea
I call it the Golden Circle
why how what this little idea explains
why some organizations and some leaders
are able to inspire where others aren't
let me define the terms really quickly
every single person every single
organization on the planet knows what
they do 100 percent some know how they
do it when you call it you're
differentiating value proposition or
your proprietary process or your USP but
very very few people or organizations
know why they do what they do
and by why I don't need to make a profit
that's a result
it's always a result by why I mean
what's your purpose what's your cause
what's your belief why does your
organization exist well as a result the
way we think the way we act the way we
communicate is from the outside in it's
obvious we go from the clearest thing to
the fuzziest thing but the inspired
leaders and the inspire or inspired
organizations regardless of their size
regardless of their industry all think
act and communicate from the inside out
so there you go really simple premise
don't start with the watts or the how
you start with the why an assignments
just said they're the inspired people
the inspired organizations start with
wife they help people understand the
reason why they need to be involved in
something and I am assuming because you
here today that you are all inspired
people you're thinking about how you can
connect people and create learning
communities in your own organization so
one of the things I want to challenge
you with today is know your purpose I
want to think about why you want to
create a learning community why you want
to bring people together what's the
purpose okay so you don't need to kind
of come up with it right now but just
think about in your own organization or
in the work that you're doing what is
your purpose just 30 seconds thinking
about your purpose take your time shut
your eyes get up move around 30 seconds
just think about your purpose and be
really clear on how you would explain
that purpose to somebody else
write it down
take something away from this session
tangibly that you can take back into
your own organization have a
conversation with somebody talk about
purpose start with why if people buy
what you believe and people believe what
you believe then that's the most
powerful concept to start with so answer
the why okay so once you know your
purpose what you need to be able to do
is package that purpose and you'll be
able to work it up into something called
an elevator pitch because if you can't
explain your purpose when somebody says
right why should I invest in you know
learning community and you got well
everybody else is talking about it so it
must be great but if you can actually
talk and summarize in a paragraph or a
few sentences to why you shouldn't
invest in creating learning communities
and that's a really powerful thing to be
able to get buy-in and support and
obviously the people who are gonna be
using your community will start to
understand one of the key things and
that takes onto the second P as I say
this is a bit of a whistle-stop tour so
number two P it's people cuz of course
without a without people you have no
community you just diverse kind of you
no longer having conversations with
themselves so people is absolutely keen
if you understand your purpose and you
understand your why you've got that
motivation then the answers are what's
in it for me and you'll hear they saw
everywhere don't ya what's in it for me
answer than what's in it for me but W
wifm of course but truly think about why
people would want to invest their time
in a community what they're gonna get
from it how can you sell the benefit how
can you sell the value for them how can
you demonstrate value so that actually
people want to come and join in this
community and get something from it so
if you answer the what's in it for me
and then straightaway they can see a
benefit and then will give you the time
and effort that it deserves as opposed
to well I don't really see the point and
so many learning communities turning to
gold towns because they don't answer the
what's in it for me especially in an
online capacity if you aren't listening
to your people and they're not telling
you and you're not understanding what
that concern and what that shared
interest is that your community is not
going to get off the ground in any way
shape or form and it will become a ghost
town and then people will say oh well
it's not oh it's not the right way to go
so think about that what's in it for me
the other thing that you need to think
about
is what's in it for business what is in
it for your organization is it to
support knowledge management more
effectively is it to enable people to
get access to sales materials or sales
knowledge is it about creating a network
so that actually communication is
two-way as opposed to one-way just email
through internal communications think
about why this is better for business
it's a very brief way I want to talk
just through this this law of innovation
curve so think about your own
organization at the moment think about
your L&D team think about the people who
were in that team might just be yourself
or you might actually have a team so
think about where the people in your
team actually are are the innovators you
know they the ones over in the learning
technologies going oh my god I'm a
magpie where's a shiny gadget I want to
go and try this because it's cool it's
great and it'll look say it's gonna cost
me a lot of money or they sort of early
adopters so actually they get something
they can see the value they want to play
they want to experiment they want to be
quite brave and this is what we need in
L&D you know we need bravery we need
experimentation we need people that can
actually see technology and see a
purpose in a way and actually apply it
in a very real way that benefits people
supporting them learning that links of
course to improve performance and
increase knowledge so this chasm here is
a big gap between the innovators and
early adopters and it's that touching
point where actually it starts to become
the early majority so that's where
people start to start to get it and then
all of a sudden the late majority kind
of like what everyone else is doing it
so I'm feeling a bit weird now I'm
feeling a bit isolated so I'm gonna join
in now anyway
and the Lagarde's every team has a la
Garde every team has a Luddite somebody
who's pen and paper that's the way we
communicate none of that fancy dangled
technology stuff but every team has a la
garde and these are really important
because they're usually quite
influential people so think about the
approaches that you're going to take and
getting buy-in and support from people
I'm just very briefly cuz you can go
into this road but a communities has a
life cycle I don't think that your
community is gonna last forever nothing
lasts forever a community can be quite
short-lived
it can be supporting part of a formal
learning programme it can be something
that
you know your organization is looking at
changing the way means in which they
communicate and share information so it
could be quite large-scale could be
quite short small scale but you kind of
get this inception this inception phase
where the community is forming you ain't
got the establishment phase where people
are starting to understand how they're
using the community and how they get in
information from it then you get to sort
of a maturity phase where actually this
is just the way that it's done until
finally you come out of the end and your
community within the break-up because
there's actually no need for it or that
community will actually form other
communities because people have
connected and shared information about
what they actually need so that
community is not meeting their needs
anymore so they go on and form their own
community so community life cycles can
just very briefly this is one of the the
ways in which I kind of thought about
the slope of enlightenment so if you
think about changing your organization
change is pretty hard it's not easy
you've got you've got to kind of roll
your sleeves up you've got to dig deep
and you've got to stick to what you
believe otherwise you know change change
initiatives will start they'll start the
falter and then something else will
happen
so very quickly anyone familiar with the
Gartner hype cycle where you introduce a
bit of Technology and or something
different and all of a sudden you think
oh my god yes we're going to change the
world come on and then you introduce it
and better all of a sudden you go oh
actually this is not going to be easy
there's gonna be really hard work and
you end up in the trough of
disillusionment and the people that are
usually doing that if you think that's
the innovation curve are the early
adopters the innovators and people who
are being brave and as soon as that
happens they hit the trough of
disillusionment and that's where most
change programs that's where most
technology that's where most bravery
sort of disappears because to change a
culture in an organization or to change
the way a means that people actually
genuinely just believe because that's
the way we've always done it it's very
easy just to give up however what we
need to do is focus on these we need to
focus on hearts and minds we need to
focus on skills development around how
people communicate both offline and
online the benefits of people connecting
and sharing and actually sharing is a
skill you know being able to share
information to find and filter in
information to curate content to bring
people in to be a connector that is a
key skill for Learning and Development
professionals in my opinion and it is
about how you can apply that knowledge
and how you can create value for others
in the organization not just yourself
and then all of a sudden you keep going
up this slide slope of enlightenment
until you get the early majority the
late majority and all of a sudden it's
just the way that things are done and in
five years time you'll look back going
why why didn't we communicate in this
way why do not we connect and share with
people in this way and especially an
awful lot online communities one of the
biggest challenges is getting sort of
people who just lurk and consume
information how do you get them to be
active contributors and actively
involved in your community
and in large part that is down to one of
the other P's I'm going to talk about
but love your lurkers lurkers will tell
you a lot of information about what
content is valuable
what contents being used and ultimately
your lurkers form a huge part of your
your community if you look at the 99 the
ninety-nine one rule so one percent of
people will contribute a lot of content
nine percent of people will get involved
on an irregular basis and that 90
percent will just sit back and consume
and that's very much how the internet
works okay so people are absolutely
fundamental you need to explain your
purpose and people need to buy into that
purpose so what are people actually
looking for in a community then any
ideas it's on your handout they are
looking for run-ups
say third P absolutely essential because
you've got to get your product right
okay I'm going to show another video and
I have to I have to say it's a bit of a
naughty video there are two swear words
in it and so if you are easily offended
just put your hands over your ears and
I'll wave to you when it when the swear
words have gone away but I just think
this sums up perfectly for me
supply and demand Brad so Marge done Ben
sell me that pen watch pen that's my boy
right there it is pretty sell
anything do me a favor why'd you named
out a napkin for
I don't have a pen exactly supply and
demand like creating urgently getting to
want to buy this no okay so supply and
demand creating urgency creating in need
if your product is not meeting the needs
of your audience your people and that
doesn't tie in with the purpose of what
the community is there for then you're
not you don't have a product you've got
no reason for people to get involved you
all know people know no reason for
people to connect and to come and to
share so you need to understand your
product your product is absolutely
essential think like a marketeer don't
think like an Ellen D professional think
like a marketeer how do we sell what we
do to the people that we work with you
know people outside of work are awash
with sexy commercials great-looking
video great-looking content that content
is out there so we just have to find it
we need to harness it we need to curate
create and we need to use the tools
around us to be able to create a
compelling reason why people need and
want this product so in a community in a
learning community what do you think are
our product is no change yes or change
could be an outcome of a community
getting together either change an
individual behavior or organizational
culture or think done anybody else
anybody think of any other experience it
yeah fantastic product company things
around through stories for example so
your product could be stories how do we
how do we capture and combine stories
within our organization to help people
understand what change is happening one
of the things from a learning community
the people are going to come from is
knowledge a thirst for knowledge why are
they going to come to your community
because actually people in the community
are sharing and actually quite
knowledgeable on the subject on the
product right I actually understand the
what's in it for me because that applies
to my job role talking about sales
techniques or operational processes or
risk you know that community on webinars
actually I'm interested in in in that so
there's a reason for me to go there some
knowledge and one of the biggest
barriers that you will find creating
communities is this concept that
knowledge is power
and this is this is this is sometimes I
true oh that the knowledge is power
and one of our roles is learning
professionals as community managers as
connectors is to change that mindset
from knowledge is power to this one this
is absolutely essential this is key so
power is gained by sharing knowledge and
not hoarding it however in so many
organizations so many individuals hold
on to that concept though what I know
makes me unique makes me a power points
in the organization why would I want to
share what I know with other people why
do I want to give them an advantage in
the 21st century in a workplace where we
want to work and we want to feel
meaningful work why isn't it that you
can't go and help other people and
develop other people's knowledge from
what you know that is where true power
comes from in sharing knowledge with
other people in abling other peoples
have become better at what they do and
Ellen do you have a key part to play in
that sonali sharing how did you go about
doing that
okay so there's a couple of things
around your needs to create content so
where's this content is it going to come
from minutes is it going to come from
webinar is it going to come from
meetings is it going to come from
clustering content is it going to come
from Fletcher is it going to improve
resources photographs video logs
discussions video interviews where's you
where's your content you know get
creative you know where is the content
coming from in your organization where
can you create content from people to
contribute content that is on the vein
to your product you know go and talk to
people about what the things that their
work if you want to check out work for
John stepper which is working out loud
so John stepper has created this service
this working out loud approach which is
five steps to working out loud it's a
really powerful compelling way to
encourage people to what they're working
with
was it swapping over cuz this happened
yesterday and it's just it hurts your
ears if I'm cutting out on probably
hurting you anyway but so what he does
that talk about think about your product
think about where you're going to create
this content from and the second way and
probably easier in some respects okay so
which I again it's to curate so this
creation and this curation so one of the
one of the guys that I encouraged it to
look at our followers a guy called
Martin Martin cousins so if you think
about curation in a museum context what
do what do curators do they they find
artifacts they put them in order they
filter and find and explain what it is
so for an Ellen D professional this is
absolutely essential because if we can
curate and find different articles and
posts and content from externally as
well as internally then we've got the
ability to create compelling content
we've got a product so a couple of
things that you can look at when you
curate think about curation as finding
filtering and sharing so this is
different
aggregation so aggregation is like an
RSS feed where you're just pulling in
lots and lots of different contents and
there's lots of different RSS feeds out
there that you can tools that you can
use curation there is a human element
there is finding content and there is
filtering content so that means that
you're filtering what actually what
content you want people to see in your
community and then you can add your own
insight you can add your own context you
can encourage people to comment on that
you know what does that mean for example
if I'm sharing a you know issue on
difficult conversations you know how
does that apply to the work that you're
doing tell me a story from when you when
you've had that and then that might get
twenty thirty readers so again that's
that can create change and once you've
done that you can share it and a couple
of things that we're doing DPG is using
these three tools so Flipboard create
wonderful looking magazines you can
embed them in in a web page
scoop it so scoop it's a great tool for
finding content adding a little bit of
context of yourself and then again
adding it to an online format you can
share it in links you can embed it and
then Storify so if you're not checked
out still
if I before again Storify is a great way
of telling stories you can drag content
in from YouTube from Twitter from
WordPress you've got all these kind of
online tools that integrate into it and
you just create nice little stories of
what people have been talking about and
share in so just three tools that you
can have a look at okay so soon as
somebody starts talking about
communities and this is there was my set
to begin with I always thought about
online so online communities were I've
had the majority of my experience
however a lot of those communities also
had offline presences so one of the
great examples is lndeed Connect which
is a network of L&D professionals who
get together on on a sort of quarterly
basis they run events but there's a
really strong online presence as well
and when you think about communities
it's not about online versus
face-to-face it's about a balance so
like going back to your purpose is there
a need for people to get together face
to face how can we use the online
environments to support either pre
during or after those face-to-face
events how can you keep the
conversations going so if you're working
on a formal program at the moment
whether it's for managers leaders
whether it's for sales staff whether
it's for claims people whether it's for
a complaints department how can you use
online tools to get messages and get
interaction and creates that sort of
connectivity before the event how can
you then harness that event during the
workshop or during that face-to-face
time and then how can you encourage
those conversations to continue
afterwards and then how can you amplify
the great conversations that people have
been having and the outputs of those and
sharing those stories with others
because all it takes is one good story
one little spark to be able to create my
movement and momentum and this is where
DPG ourselves have had great success
over the last three years is blending
the sort of online community of practice
with face-to-face activities workshops
programs so that we can help people
connect and get access to content before
they even come near the faceshop
before they're building relationships
with one another before they're even
before they've even met and what it does
it really strikes that strong
relationship to enable people to you
know foster better relationships and
Trust and Trust is essential when you
talking about sharing information and
sharing knowledge how do you build trust
just just very quickly on that as well
the DPG community is completely free so
you can access it I'll send out the link
or you can chat to us on the stand in a
little bit but feel free to kind of have
a look at how its structured how the
sorts of things are laid out the sorts
of content that we share you know still
with pride is a great motto feel free to
come and just replicate it somewhere
take the contents and pass it on to your
colleagues and one of the good things
about it is it's accessible mobile
tablet and desktop and that's another
thing that we need to think about when
you're talking about access how do we
provide people with access and then
finally the last P and I'm think I've
got about four minutes left so this is
the the key the key P the Pied Piper and
guess what you are all Pied Pipers what
do I mean by Pied Piper so these people
are the ones that lead talk about that
innovation curve you're the innovators
you're the people that take an idea and
actually do something with it you gain
momentum you build a following you help
people see the Y you help people connect
you nurture you support you coach you
discuss you have conversations with
people and the Pied Piper is essential
to that because L&D is that are really
interested in time at the moments and I
don't know whether you ever saw though
that the post by Jane ha armed
traditionalists versus the modernists of
L&D
and whether you disagree or not L&D is a
fantastic opportunity to harness the
tools that enable better skills
development they give us so many more
opportunities to build our skills and to
offer more benefit to organizations and
I think we should be doing the exact
opposite we shouldn't be putting them
asleep we should be waking them up to
what they have inside of themselves
but the model we have is this it's I
believe we have a system education that
is modeled on the interests of
industrialism and in the image of it
I'll give you a couple of examples
schools are still pretty much organized
on factory lines ringing bells separate
facilities specialized in two separate
subjects we still educate children by
batches
you know we put them through the system
by age group why do we do that you know
why is there this assumption that the
most important thing kids have in common
is how old they are you know it's like
the most important about them is their
date of manufacture I mean well I know
kids who are much better than other kids
are the same age in different
disciplines you know or at different
times of the day or better in smaller
groups and in large groups or sometimes
they want to be on their own if you're
interested in model of learning you
don't start from this production line
mentality these are it's essentially
about conformity in increasing it's
about that as you look at the growth of
standardized testing and standardized
curricula and it's about standardization
I believe we've got to go in the exact
opposite direction that's what I mean
about changing the paradigm so that's
the Ken Robinson talking about changing
the paradigms in educational system I
firmly believe that we've got it exactly
the same in the corporate world we've
got to change that mindset that actually
training happens in a conformed way so
how do we disrupt the corporate model of
Education one of the ways in which we do
that is give people the opportunity to
connect with one another through
communities so there's a lot of
different options and a lot of different
roles in L&D at the moment whether this
is happening in your organization or not
so again this work is by by jane harp
and you can see you know whether you
talk about being a performance
consultant a learning advisor course and
resource developers trainees course
facilitators LMS facility - traitors
you've got training performance support
and then this key one here collaboration
advisors so I attended the learning
technologies conference in 2007 and
heard a talk and the day after I went
back into my organization created a
community there was a free platform at
the time and only through experimenting
and trying something different
have I been able to kind of learn as
I've been going and it's still you know
we're finding everything as you go
through but it's about being that
catalyst it's about creating that
movement and having the sheer guts and
determination to say actually I'm gonna
do something else and I want to take you
on that journey I want to show you how
to do that you know and you can help me
do that as well so I'm pretty much out
of time there's a couple of things left
I'm not going to show you the video but
if you want to learn how to create a
movement and you
I'm just going to turn that off because
it's quite loud but if you if you ever
feeling down in the dumps and you think
you know I'm not getting a lot of love
here go and watch leadership lessons by
dancing guy because that is the guy who
will give you the inspiration and
motivation to stick with change and to
find that first follower and that's
really key and trying to change the way
a means in which we do things in L and D
okay so I talked about elevator pictures
before I thought about sort of
compelling reasons to want to get
involved and do things so this is my
elevator pitch so DPG we sell L&D and HR
qualifications what a buy one that's not
good enough okay so let's try again
so we believe DPG believe in a space for
people to connect share and learn a
space to be the best they can be
we help people grow and transform
creating the future workforce today want
to learn with us so the same thing just
to play into a different what's in it
for me
and what's in it for me is developing at
L&D capabilities about understanding L&D
learning methodology and how we can
apply it in new in different ways so
that's our time today hopefully you
found that useful you made some notes
just scribble down I'm gonna be honest
and are to throughout the day there's
some bags with some DPG goodies in here
first-come first-served
well please feel free to come and come
and grab a bag thank you very much for
your time and if you've got any
questions but happy to kind of filled
them afterwards thank you for time
