It is through open and intentioned collaboration that human beings realize the potential – the best version – of their communities. After all, we’re social creatures hardwired to work together.
I got to thinking about super-collaboration because of my pre-class reading for Sustainability Leadership: from Strategy to Transformation, starring Katie Pease and Dave Waldron. I’m learning about Open Space Technology, which “enables all kinds of people, in any kind of organization, to create inspired meetings and events.” This creating can involve anywhere from 5 to 2,000 people who work in parallel collaboration (simultaneously managing their own agenda based around a central theme of strategic importance) as part of a corporation, non-profit, school, or neighbourhood.
Now. Imagine this concept applied with Communities of Practice. Are you imagining it? Pretty cool, eh?
When it comes to Communities of Practice (COP), I like Etienne Wenger’s definition: “Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.”
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Communities of Practice with Open Space Technology (COPOST). It’s a working title. I’m trying to fit “ninja” and “superawesometastic” in there somewhere.
What is this “COPOST” thing?
Courtesy of Sonson - Flickr
Last week I wrote Kurt’s new resume for him – it was based on a model from Don Tapscott and inspired by the concept of Hacking Work. Basically, if your tools at work (outdated or restrictive technology within a stifling bureaucracy) are slowing you down, just hack through them and be more efficient. Well, perhaps Communities of Practice with Open Space Technology (COPOST) present a bit more benevolent way to more efficiently reach more people with better ideas.
Communities of Practice are good pedagogy because, says Wenger, “they develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems—in short a shared practice. This takes time and sustained interaction.” Also, these learning groups are great for transforming education into a much, much, much more learner-centred experience – especially if, you know, you involve your student/client in the conversation. COP are also good application, as working together on the same question is bound to generate great ideas faster, more organically and with better buy-in. Check out this supercool spreadsheet from Wenger and imagine it as you approach such issues in your workplace or community:
| Problem solving | “Can we work on this design and brainstorm some ideas; I’m stuck.” |
| Requests for information | “Where can I find the code to connect to the server?” |
| Seeking experience | “Has anyone dealt with a customer in this situation?” |
| Reusing assets | “I have a proposal for a local area network I wrote for a client last year. I can send it to you and you can easily tweak it for this new client.” |
| Coordination and synergy | “Can we combine our purchases of solvent to achieve bulk discounts?” |
| Discussing developments | “What do you think of the new CAD system? Does it really help?” |
| Documentation projects | “We have faced this problem five times now. Let us write it down once and for all.” |
| Visits | “Can we come and see your after-school program? We need to establish one in our city.” |
| Mapping knowledge and identifying gaps | “Who knows what, and what are we missing? What other groups should we connect with?” |
It would probably be nice to have some collaborators to answer these questions, eh?
Who Needs COPOST the Most?
1a. Businesses who believe in the Triple Bottom Line. You have an uphill battle ahead of you and time is running out, my friends. The only way you (and we) will win is if you create open spaces and communities to share best practices (ie. how can Wal-Mart’s amazing re-design of their supply chain or this guy’s talk about carpet be applied to my business?). Bringing as many of the triple-bottom-line players up to the same level as soon as possible is as good for the Earth as it is for business. Besides, once a critical mass of triple-bottom-line collaborators is achieved the other guys are going to be left behind anyway.
1b. Non-profits. Truth is, as with many educational institutions (like UBC), you’re already doing this pretty well. Keep it up and then sell your services to corporations who have no idea to apply COP, Open Space Technology or how to properly use social media. Charge a fortune, too.
2. Medical Research. Competing for grants from pharmaceutical companies probably isn’t going to cure cancer and/or HIV any faster, folks. Imagine open source collaborative research between the world’s leading universities on all sorts of complicated diseases and ailments. Competition drives performance, I guess. But in some cases there’s more at stake than publishing a paper before your upstart colleague from another university hospital does.
3. Pirates. If the fellahs in the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Guinea, the Strait of Malacca, and my friend Leigh in Toronto got together and shared best practices, well, these already high-performing communities would reach incredible new levels of plunder, pillage or “coastal defense from invaders and polluters” – the story changes depending on who you’re talking to.
So there it is. Some cases made for Open Space Technology and Communities of Practice. And an even stronger case made for pulling them all together for superpowered productivity, learning and, most importantly, world-changing results!