A time and a place – when should you be hosting your community sessions?
A community of practice is a funny thing, as we often engage with them on the premise that we are doing it exclusively for our own benefit and we are the only beneficiaries of any value created. That we as individuals are the only ones who are getting something out of our participation, and therefore it should be us who has to make allowances for this. We’ve all heard of brown bag lunchtime sessions – where a community comes together on their lunch break to meet and learn something together. Meetups have long existed as the preserve of the after-work event where benevolent businesses wheel out the pizza and free beer to domain relevant communities of people. And when times get tough and project deadlines loom large, we all know the first thing to drop from our diaries is the time we spend investing in ourselves and ‘sorry I’m really snowed under right now, I’ll catch you at the next one’.
Don’t get me wrong – I understand and appreciate all of these reasons. And I certainly appreciate those tech companies who readily put on food and drink and a venue for meetups – I know as much as anyone how hard and expensive it is to do so without a willing sponsor. But let us not pretend that this relationship is entirely one sided. If a business supports a workplace community, then it reaps the rewards of happier more motivated and resiliently skilled professionals. When that same company hosts a meetup, it demonstrates its values to local professionals who may now be more open to jumping ship and applying the next time a vacancy appears.
There is value created which benefits both sides of this relationship, which is why it seems so lopsided that when it comes to timing and scheduling it falls to the community members to make compromises.
Several years ago I fully embraced meetup culture. I would be out two or three nights a week at different teach meetups, and then I would run an internal community during the day when I was at work. And I LOVED it – it was the life I enjoyed living, and it made a difference to my career. And then Covid 19 occurred, and lockdowns occurred, and we all found ourselves at home and alone together in our new remote workplace. And from a community point of view, despite everything else that was terrible in the world at that time, it was a suddenly liberating experience. Suddenly we weren’t limited to only being able to include those who could make it to the room on time and be there in person, we were including colleagues from other offices both in the UK and abroad. We were able to reach external experts from around the world and invite them to connect and take part in our community sessions, getting the chance to learn from people who otherwise we would never being able to meet.
Then one day one of my community members who I hadn’t seen at any sessions for a while told me the reason they weren’t attending was that they were tired. They were tired from sitting on Zoom calls all day and didn’t want to spend their evenings to sit on more Zoom calls. And that was the moment I realised how much of my free time I was giving up in the pursuit of community. Not just evenings and weekends, but lunchbreaks too. All my free time that should have been spent on resting and re-energising I was spending not doing any of those things.
And worse – I was asking the same of my community’s members too.
I have since become a somewhat militant advocate for community sessions and meetups being held during the working day. I don’t want members to have to make a choice between being part of a community or taking a lunchbreak. To have to choose between spending time with their children and families, or spending time learning. The argument is surprisingly straightforward – in the workplace we expect our people to spend a certain portion of their time on learning and development activities….well, this is learning and development. Time you spend as part of a community of practice is time you spend learning, and we all know there are good times and bad times to enable good and effective learning.
I know its easier said than done, so here are a few hints and tips I would like to offer to try and help any community leader change hearts and minds on this subject. Some or all or none of these might work for you, but its something I feel very strongly about and want to help if you realise that a cultural change is necessary for you and your community too.
Try different times of day – to minimise disruption, try and find times when your community members are least likely to be busy or have reached the point where their day has already run away from them. You can then build the time of day into the theming of your session. For example you could try a breakfast-and-learn session first thing in the morning before meetings kick in, an eleven-o-clock check in, or a close out the day session. You know your people better than I do, so find something that works for them.
Be clearer about the purpose and expected value outcomes ahead of time – community members may be questioned as to why they are prioritising spending time with the community over work (sigh), and whilst you’re on your journey of cultural change that renders that question as unnecessary as it is frustrating, we need to help things along. I’ve never been one to insist on agendas, but when advertising a community session we need to make it clear what it is that’s going to get covered, and going the extra mile here can really make the difference. Try adding a ‘what you’ll learn’ section to your invite, or even a ‘how your team will benefit’ just to pre-emptively provide answers to the challenges community members may be faced with
Mix it up timing-wise – you will never find a time that works for everyone. It is unrealistic to expect a diverse group of humans to be free and available at the same convenient time. Some will have an easier morning, some on Thursdays, some in evenings, some only at weekends, some exclusively at lunchtime. Try to mix things up by finding out from your community when are its convenient times, and then try to rotate between them to give everyone a chance to attend/have their preferred scheduling.
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