News(Note: Many of items below are hyperlinked to pages on the CPsquare Members' Workspace; these are accessible only to registered members. Publicly accessible items are italicized in green . Feel free to share CPnews with colleagues.)
Membership growth: CPsquare has achieved an initial base of about 85 members and has attracted a highly active core of members making significant contributions. We are now building a solid base of productive practice groups as a platform for future growth. Our aspiration is to cultivate a world-class community that includes active members across sectors, disciplines, and geographies.
CPsquare community launch: At the whole-community level we are focused now on organizing for CPweek—our community launch event taking place in Santa Cruz during the week of May 19-22. We have published an updated schedule of activities on the CPsquare public website. We are organizing groups now to plan for various activities—including workshop modules, case clinics, and mini-projects. A number of practice groups are beginning discussions about what issues attendees might address—and how to link with virtual participants. Contact Etienne or Bill if you want to learn more about getting involved.
Decreased dues for increased access: Many experienced practitioners and interested academics have told us they would like to join but cannot afford the membership dues. A critical mass of member-leaders in the field is crucial to CPsquare’s value proposition. After a number of small- and large-group conversations with members and non-members, we have decided to cut the dues by one-third. Members strongly supported this change. We have agreed to work together to provide the requisite social and technical infrastructure we need to succeed.
(We are sending out an email to all members and posting notes on the dues decision in the Members’ Workspace. Meanwhile, we are working out the simplest way to handle the logistics of dealing with surplus amounts that current members have already paid.)
Foundations workshop on communities of practice: Etienne, John Smith, and Bronwyn Stuckey are convening the next introductory workshop on communities of practice—called the Foundations workshop on May 26 through July 7.
The workshop is held primarily on the Web as well as over the phone and email. The course simulates participation in an active community of practice but compresses the experience into a short period of time. Most participants spend between 30 and 50 hours over the course of the 7 weeks reading, writing, and collaborating with others in the class. The overview of the workshop schedule describes the range of workshop activities. About one-third of CPsquare members have previously participated in the workshop.
Building a community of communities: Practice groups are CPsquare’s sub-communities where we work and learn together, build professional relationships, and generate tools, frameworks, case studies, projects, articles, etc. Practice groups hold community events—such as teleconferences on hot topics—to promulgate what they are learning and to get feedback and ideas from the larger community.
Lesson learned highlight: Practice groups, as sub-communities of CPsquare, are the foundation of what we’re about. Practice groups define the cluster of key issues in our domain, provide the personal context for building strong professional relationships, and are the engines of practice development.
But it’s one thing to know this and another to act on it. A key hurdle for us—as for any community leader or core group—has been time! The core group of CPsquare organizers has been swamped with establishing an initial strategy; building the public site as well as the Members’ Workspace; recruiting and orienting members; and organizing for CPweek. (And Etienne and Bill are volunteers who have also had to keep up with research and client projects while leading these consuming start-up initiatives! Perhaps you know the feeling!)
This is actually a lesson-learned-in-progress. We have much more to learn about building momentum for a community that aspires to achieve a strategic, world-wide presence in a very short time—especially in a field that is just emerging (albeit at a rapid pace).
Some practical points about practice groups that have been reinforced from our experience:
How to join a practice group
Here’s how members can connect to a current practice group: Go to the public CPsquare site and then click on “Members” – or go directly to the CPsquare Members’ Workspace . (The CPsquare Members’ Workspace is accessible only for registered members. To join CPsquare go to How to Join .) On the CPsquare Members’ Workspace homepage, click on "Practice Groups" in the folder list (aka "CPsquare explorer") that appears in the top section of the left navigation bar.
You will then find yourself on the Practice Group overview homepage. The folders that appear above the introduction text are links to specific Practice Group homepages. Click on any about which you would like to learn more—each has an introduction and several have a number of resources published. (For example, click on Coordinators to see their resources, discussions, events, members, etc.) To keep up with the activities of the practice group (upcoming events or new discussions and resources) click on “subscribe to this page” on the right navigation bar. If you want to learn more about core-group activities and ways to contribute, email any one of the PG leaders whose photographs appear at the top-right of the Practice Group homepage.
If you would like to organize a new practice group, contact Etienne at etienne@ewenger.com, Bill at wsnyder@socialcapital.com or John at John.Smith@LearningAlliances.net (For background on PG leadership, see the Practice Group leadership guide.)
Practice Group News – Coordinator Practice Group
Here are some lessons learned from our Coordinator PG experience thus far:
Getting to Launch has been a learning experience for the core team leaders of the practice group, who have experienced the "start up pains" associated with many COPs:
Collaborative leadership. With no one "in charge," it takes time to be able to reach closure on decisions. The time is important, because dialogue is needed both to talk through possibilities and differing viewpoints and for the members to get to know each other. This leadership group has evolved to a leadership model where individual core team members are responsible for different aspects of the community life.
Matthew Simpson will design, lead, and facilitate the practice group concalls and learning program. Erik Bekkum will design, lead, and facilitate the core team concalls and practice agenda work. Noel Dickover will design and manage the Coordinators PG workspace on the CPsquare web to ensure that it meets member’s needs with respect to engaging in dialogues and creating and maintaining the knowledge store. Patti Anklam is charged with communications about Coordinators PG activities and welcoming new members. She'll also work with PG members Etienne, Bill Snyder, and John Smith to ensure that we aren't overlooking topics in other PGs that we need to connect with and contribute to.
Mission. Clarity on what we are about, our value, and what we can produce. We'll be creating a "knowledge store" (originally called a "toolkit”) in our CPsquare space, which will be open to all in CPsquare. This will enable members to post artifacts, experiences, and other knowledge types of value to people who are in the COP coordinator role, considering such a role, or who are finding themselves in the midst of a difficult coordination problem. Visit the Coordinators Practice Group home page to see the mission!
Rhythm and engagement. We've worked out how to engage prospective members and how we will keep members engaged on the practice calls -- beginning with the first call, in which we invite CPsquares to come forward and state what is currently challenging them most.
Boundaries. We have agreed that we need to be sure to extend invitations to the PG calls to experts and coordinators outside of CPsquare to ensure that we are constantly refreshed by new insights and the experiences of others in the "real world."
We're still working on how we'll be engaging the PG at CPweek, but meanwhile are open to comments, questions, and dialogues from all of CPsquare, now and in future.
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Well, that's the news for now! We’re enthusiastic about the number of leaders emerging in our community and the momentum building in several of the practice groups. We look forward to seeing many of you in Santa Cruz!
All best,
Bill and Etienne for the CPteam
wsnyder@socialcapital.com — etienne@ewenger.com