Communities of Practice

“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.”

The Your Voice initiative of DiversityRx is happy to sponsor Communities of Practice for health care professionals, policymakers, advocates, researchers and others who work in the field of cultural and linguistically competent health care.

 

A Your Voice Community of Practice is a small group (12-15 participants) of professional colleagues who ‘meet’ monthly on a specific topic through teleconference or virtual learning platforms to discuss common practice challenges and share information about strategies and resources. The group is supported by a listserv for ongoing dialogue between meetings and a wiki where the information base developed over the course of the project is documented for use by others. The initial meeting period is 8-12 months—groups may continue to meet as interest and funding permit. There is no fee to participate in a Community of Practice if you are selected.

The rationale for Communities of Practice is that people are the best sources of useful, actionable information. Studies show that workers spend a third of their time looking for information and are five times more likely to turn to a coworker rather than a book, manual, or database. People have experiential knowledge that is not often found in a book. For example, one person can share the best way to handle a situation based on his experiences, which may enable the other person to avoid mistakes and shorten the learning curve. In a Community of Practice, members can openly discuss and brainstorm about a project which can lead to new capabilities. The kinds of information shared and learned in this kind of setting are boundless. 

• Reduce your professional isolation by connecting with people like you across the nation
• Learn from the real-life experiences of professionals doing the same kind of work
• Find out about resources, tools and strategies that can help your organization
• Make new connections between ideas and generate innovative approaches to common challenges
• Have a safe space to discuss issues that arise in your work and get the perspectives of others
• Engage in collaborative problem-solving
• Get some morale-boosting encouragement and support from colleagues facing similar challenges
• Help others move forward– and not recreate the wheel – by sharing the approaches that work for you
• Get recognition for your organization’s efforts by sharing your successes through blogs, websites and wikis
• Build a knowledge base that can benefit others outside the community 

According to their interest and experience, individuals apply to participate in a Community. A group of participants is selected by the group moderator and the Your Voice team.

Working from the general theme and the issues raised by participants in their applications, a list of potential discussion topics will be presented to the group. With the moderator, the group will decide on a working agenda of topics to address for each monthly meeting and a mutually agreeable monthly meeting time.

Before the first meeting, participants will receive background information about the group, guidance about how to use the virtual meeting and communication tools, and the agenda for the year.

The first session will be devoted to introduction and a discussion of hopes and concerns for the group. A brief technical session will take place before the first session to ensure that everyone understands how to use the technology involved.

Subsequent sessions will start with a brief presentation by a designated community member, followed by discussion on that topic, and discussion of related topics, as time allows.

Between monthly meetings, community participants continue to interact with each other through an email discussion listserv. During the course of the project, community members will make small contributions to public blogs and help staff develop an online resource where the information gathered and lessons learned from the community can be shared with others.

Working with the moderator and Your Voice staff, participants in a Community of Practice may agree to adapt this model, the discussion topics, or the interaction options to suit the needs and the interests of the group.

Community of Practice participants will be selected according to the following criteria:
• Your current professional involvement in the specified topic
• The quality of your responses to questions about your current work interests, contributions, and challenges related to the topic
• The complementarity of those responses with those of other potential members
• Overall geographic diversity (with some preference given to CA participants)
• Mix of newcomer and old-hand experience levels
• Willingness to abide by the Conditions of Participation