A List of Community of Practice New Year’s Resolutions
This time last year I wrote about how to set goals within a community of practice, so this year I thought I would go a bit further with some suggestions that a budding community leader or member could bring in to their community. Yes I realise that any one of the many GenAI tools that exist could have produced a much longer list in a fraction of the time it took me to think of and write, however it would have been considerably less fun for me if I’d done that 😊
Create and launch a community certification: Something that codifies the social governance that exists within your community, a mark of learning and proficiency for you members, and a rapid onboarding pathway for new members
Get a guest speaker from the other side of the world: Someone you’ve never met before, and someone your never likely to meet in the usual course of the day to day. We’re all online now, so be brave and reach out to the furthest away expert you can find and invite them in
Hold a community session outside under a shady tree (probably best to do this one in the summer): Spend times around trees, I cannot stress this enough. Why sit around desks when you could be sitting on the sun-dappled grass surrounded by a nice cool breeze?
If you’re a work based community, get the CEO to come join one of your sessions just once: Go on, I dare you. Force feed leadership the things you care about
Collectively learn a new skill today that you collectively start using tomorrow: Choose to make you sessions make an impact. Choose – in your own little way - to change the world for the better
Start a book club based around whatever your community is practicing: Read books, be better.
Produce at least one resource – an article, podcast, or some other form of media – that you share in the real world beyond the walls of the community: A community of practice is where likeminded people come together to learn and grow together. Take the opportunity to share some of it with the world
Have a party. Just because you all need it: Life sucks, sometimes you just need to forget about it for a while
Find the oldest item on your backlog and do it next: At some point someone thought it was a good idea….let’s be honest, if you don’t, it’ll still be there next year
Collectively learn a skill that has nothing to do with the subject your community is based around: Peripheral wisdom comes from learning about something completely unrelated to the problem you’re trying to solve, and who knows what it might uncover for you
Thanks so much for reading, if you’ve enjoyed this post I’d really appreciate it if you could share it - alternatively you could always buy me a coffee :)