Is 2023 the year of Communities of Practice at work
Communities of Practice (CoPs) are groups of people who share a concern or passion for things that they do. For example, they may be teachers, or parents, or paediatricians interested in helping young people. As they interact with one another on a regular basis, they learn to better do the things in which they are interested, which leads to improved outcomes for all.
CoPs can be seen as somewhat ‘messy’ from the outside, but they nevertheless integrate rituals and recognition as part of their practice. This post argues that now is the time to shift to a more holistic understanding of recognition in the workplace, one that is established by intentionally building CoPs across a landscape of practice in each sector.
Credentials aren’t everything
Workplace recognition happens in various ways. For example, recognition in some guise is often a prerequisite for employment. This often takes the form of a list of credentials and experience that a worker is expected to be able to prove. This is for good reason, as employers have to ensure that a worker can perform the functions required of them.
However, we live in a world where not everyone has the same access to the types of credentials or experience that workplaces may require (or think they require!). For example, too many white collar employment opportunities require, at a minimum, ‘a degree’ of any kind, using this as a proxy for a bundle of knowledge, skills, and behaviours.
In addition, some of the reasons for the Great Resignation include lack of career advancement, work-related stress, and the desire for a better work-life balance. Workplaces that recognise employees and contractors in meaningful ways are likely to better retain staff and have a happier, more productive workforce.
Greater workplace recognition practices can also increase resilience: interpersonal relationships at work allow for greater and more fluid knowledge transfer, which leads to greater innovation and the ability to route around problems which may emerge.
What would recognition in the workplace look like if we started to think of our working world as made up of Communities of Practice?
Recognising diversity
Let’s start at the beginning of the worker journey. The talent pool for a particular job is often limited by the lack of inclusive recognition. Potential workers don’t always have the opportunity to improve their standing due to socio-economic factors, geographic exclusion, and discriminatory practices. Our existing credentialing systems can unwittingly exacerbate this.
While employers are good at recognising formal credentials, they often don’t attempt to understand the wider picture of recognition.
We’re seeing innovative systems, like Open Recognition and badge pathways, begin to push at the inequity of the current system of employment. These approaches make skills more visible. Instead of hiring someone who simply has ‘a degree’, companies such as IBM are beginning to be more specific about the kinds of knowledge, skills, and behaviours they’re looking for.
These attempts, while valuable, are in the realm of ‘microcredentialing’ — breaking down ‘chunky’ credentials into smaller, more granular parts. Open Recognition goes beyond credentialing to consider relational factors and the wider, more holistic story. After all, people need us to help tell their story, and we need them to help us tell ours. Every credential involves recognition, but recognition does not have to be in the form of a ‘credential’.
Connecting networks
No-one works in isolation. We all have current and former colleagues who have seen us in action and who can attest to our abilities. A ‘closed’ (i.e. non-portable) example of this kind of recognition is the LinkedIn recommendation, which can lead to surprising insights for the recipient into the knowledge, skills, and behaviours that are valued by those with whom they work.
Not only can a recommendation or testimonial serve as a form of ‘credential’ but in addition to this, it also establishes a relationship between the recommender and the person being recommended. This is powerful when instantiated in a badge, which provides the additional benefits of being tamper-proof and portable between online systems.
Demonstrating the connections between our story and someone else’s helps show underlying networks and relationships. It can make visible the Communities of Practice that may be invisible to corporate hierarchies. Social graphs allow us to see, over time, how communities develop and how expertise is established.
Conceptualising workplaces as sites for Communities of Practice to flourish leads to meaningful recognition between colleagues. Instead of performative Slack messages which may serve as extrinsic motivators for a limited period of time, true Open Workplace Recognition can help peers encourage one another towards ever-more learning and growing. HR departments can help colleagues co-create interest-based career pathways that make sense across sectors.
Open Recognition needs to be pervasive
In order to put the power of a story clearly in the hands of the person who owns that story, we have to allow that person to tell it. We need ways to ensure that recognition belongs to individuals and can be used regardless of the type of workplace in which they currently find themselves. Just because you have a good, bad, or indifferent boss should not determine the wider recognition you receive when performing well.
Giving people the ability to describe their career path and employment history in a non-linear, non-time bound way will help employers too. Allowing a person to say what they look for in a workplace, what they believe they are good at, and how they are looking to grow helps reduce turnover and to get people in the correct roles more quickly.
Individuals can help potential employers or collaborators understand how they:
- keep showing up and learn new things
- exhibit pro-social behaviours
- support their community
These things will help hiring managers get to know someone more holistically than a single, potentially irrelevant credential ever could. Turning workplaces into communities of practice changes the way an organisation functions. It requires recognition systems where everyone can be “seen” and can “see” others — and makes all learning and knowledge creation visible.
Conclusion
Communities of Practice provide ways for forward-thinking organisations to engage staff in a virtuous circle of improvement, to ensure positive recognition practices, and to bundle up experiences in credentials that can be used to help both the individual and organisation.
To establish a CoP within organisations involves both a top-down and bottom-up approach. From the top, it requires time, funding, and recognition, and from below it requires will, engagement, and encouragement.
We firmly believe that both CoPs and Landscapes of Practice have become one of the most important tools for organisations looking to make a sustained impact in the world.
2023 is going to be a big year for communities, and we’re here for it. To discuss this further with us, get in touch!
This post was co-authored by Julie Keane and Doug Belshaw. Images CC BY-ND Bryan Mathers