Establishing a Community of Practice to Enhance Training & Technical Assistance

Communities of practice are an excellent way to augment your TTA program. Along with the expertise that you provide, the collective knowledge and experience of COP members can lead to contributions to the field, including the development of lessons learned, promising practices, and innovations.

Communities of practice can also deepen the skill and expertise of individual COP members and the organizations they work for. Adequately tracking COPs’ learning and outcomes will enhance the TTA provider’s body of expertise and knowledge as well.

Learning Communities / Communities of Practice / Learning Circles: What are they? How do they work? Why would we want one?  Communitiy Driven Institute, Hildy Gottlieb, 2009 http://www.help4nonprofits.com/NP_EDU-Cm_Learning_Communities.htm

How to Boost Community of Practice Activities with the Creation of a Critical Mass, Luis Suarez, 2006 http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/elsua/how-to-boost-community-of-practice-activities-with-the-creation-of-a-critical-mass-7467

“Communities of Practice Learning as a Social System,” Systems Thinker, Etienne Wenger, June 1998 http://www.co-i-l.com/coil/knowledge-garden/cop/lss.shtml

Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity, Etienne Wenger, Cambridge University Press, 1998

Cultivating  Communities of Practice, Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, William M. Snyder, Harvard Business School Press, 2002