Workshops
Coaching community leaders on community cultivation and technology integration
John D. Smith, Lauren B. Klein, and Theodora Fitzsimmons
Abstract:
This workshop examines how coaching helps develop community leadership capable of leveraging the distributed communities that depend on technology to be and learn together. It includes a report on an extended study of coaches and coachees, experiential exercises, and discussion. Please visit our workshop blog for additional and updated information.
Workshop description: As the idea of setting up a community of practice becomes commonplace in more organizations and the lives of more people, there seems to be a diminishing connection between the original theoretical insight of Lave and Wenger (1991) and projects that propose to implement a community of practice using a given technology platform by a given date (e.g., St. Onge and Wallace, 2002). The opportunities and challenges of Web 2.0 technologies both enrich the possibilities and complicate the lives of communities. When a full-fledged community for community leaders isn't available, direct coaching of community leaders can help the community leverage technology quickly and develop the self-organizing, independent interaction that characterized the original examples of a community of practice. Collaboration tools and technologies shape the coaching relationship, provide a safe haven for practicing together, and fall within the theoretical framework of the negotiation of meaning (Wenger, 1998).
This workshop is aimed at several related audiences who are concerned with the development of distributed communities of practice (communities that depend on technology to be and learn together). Community leaders will experience coaching as it applies to the specific issues (technology-related and beyond) of distributed communities. Community sponsors will understand how coaching can be an effective strategy for developing authentic community leaders and for leveraging the technologies that have been provided for a community. The discourse around the value to host organizations of coaching community leaders has many of the same characteristics as the conversation around the value of communities. Researchers aiming to understand the adoption and appropriation of technologies by communities of practice will observe how coaching resolves the tensions between an instrumental view that focuses on community creation and a community of practice view of social interaction.
This workshop will be led by community building practitioners who have themselves coached many community leaders in many different organizations. The presenters will report on an extended study of coaching that considers issues in many different communities using a variety of different technologies and draws from experience in many very different organizational settings. What we know about the interactions between coaches and coachees sets the stage for a demonstration of a live coaching session and collective reflection on the issues facing community leaders today. The workshop includes a phone conference three weeks before the workshop and another one three weeks later: the phone calls are an integral part of developing a sustained conversation that addresses the workshop's issues in a substantive way. All participants will be invited to comment on their experience of this extended process we will share those reflections with the group and within CPsquare.
The extended study that will provide the springboard for discussion and exercises aims to develop:
- The argument that coaching leaders is an important element of a community development strategy
- A description of good practice for coaching community leaders, both in terms of content and form
- Normative descriptions that help both coaches and coachees develop productive relationships
Workshop Schedule:
- Organizing phone call 3 weeks prior to the workshop
- Workshop structure - June 28, 2007 (morning or afternoon)
- Intro presentation and context-setting (CoP and leadership and coaching) -- report on our study
- Demo coaching session: all observe one dyad & debrief
- In groups of 3, take turns being coach, coachee, and an observer on a common question
- Collective debrief, reflection on the practice & the complete conversation
- Follow-up conference call 3 weeks after the workshop
Registration limit: 16.
Workshop Presenters
John D. Smith, Learning Alliances, 503.963.8229
John.Smith AT LearningAlliances.net
http://www.learningalliances.net/
http://www.technologiesforcommunities.com/
John is a technologist, developer and coach for communities of practice. He helps communities, their leaders and their sponsors with the design and configuration of technologies for communities, community development, community self-assessment, community events and leadership. He is the community steward of CPsquare, an international community of practice on communities of practice. He’s collaborating on a book-length report on technologies for communities of practice with Etienne Wenger and Nancy White. In collaboration with Etienne Wenger and Bronwyn Stuckey, he has offered the “Foundations of Communities of Practice” workshop over the last eight years. He worked in higher education as a planner, institutional researcher, administrator and technologist. He received a Bachelor’s degree from St. John’s College and a master’s degree in planning and architecture from the University of New Mexico.
Lauren B. Klein, Kings & Klein, 775-336-8204
kleinlauren AT hotmail.com
http://www.laurenklein.net/
Lauren Klein is an independent consultant who holds a Bachelors of Arts from Michigan State University in Social Science. Most recently, she was a Director for the Communities Program in the Learning Organization at Novell Inc. Lauren has experience in building both hands-on Communities and KM solutions. She has published several papers in top knowledge management trade journals and magazines, and have spoken at, or been a panel-moderator, several knowledge management conferences or given lectures including topics relating to KM or Communities.
Lauren has over 16 years of management, consulting and IT experience with International and Fortune 500 corporations in creating business solutions and has conducted business in the United States, Europe, Asia, Mexico and South America.
Theodora Fitzsimmons, Metrodesigners CoP
theofitz AT coplearning.com
Theodora Fitzsimmons is a Human Performance Technologist and independent consultant living and working in Washington D.C. area. Her progressive experience in the analysis, design, development, and delivery of distance, Web-based, blended, and instructor-led training solutions began in administration and teaching in higher education. She transferred her skills to the corporate world of training and development in 1998. Her experience includes the management of small and large-scale multimedia Web-based training development projects, job task analyses for both government and commercial clients, and the development and coordination of two communities of practice. Ms. Fitzsimmons is currently working on dissertation for the doctoral degree in Training and Performance Improvement. Her study focuses on the use of a CoP for professional development of workplace learning and performance (WLP) professionals who are not connected by a specific organization.