building a (delivery) community
DESCRIPTION
A slide deck for agile cambridge on building a community of practice and why it's important for personal and organisational learningTRANSCRIPT
Emily WebberHead of Agile DeliveryGovernment Digital Service @ewebber
GDSEmily Webber
Government Digital Service (GDS)
Building a (delivery) community
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What do I know about communities?
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And who are you?
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What is a community?"
Why is it important?"
How we built (and grow) ours
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What is a community?
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“A community is a social unit of any size that shares common values”""
- wikipedia
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Interest!Action!Place!Circumstance !Practice
photo by North Charleston"
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools "Working software over comprehensive documentation "Customer collaboration over contract negotiation "Responding to change over following a plan "(while we value things on the left ..etc etc)
agilemanifesto.org
A community of practice:"Share common values "Share a craft or profession
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Why is it important?
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It’s lonely being a delivery manager :(
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Communities of practice can increase personal, professional and organisational learning
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“There are three kinds of knowledge: knowledge as object, knowledge embedded within individuals, and knowledge embedded in a community""
- Wasko and Faraj (2000)
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bit.ly/agiletrainingblog
how did/do we learn to be agile practitioners?
Common themes
People learn through experience & exploration
photo by echiner1
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Shadowing (learning from others)
Formal training (courses, qualifications)
Self initiated learning (networking, reading blogs)"
Sharing ideas (forums, blogging, public speaking)
Small experiments (short projects, trying things out)
Questioning & retrospecting (inspect and adapt)
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Shadowing (learning from others)
Formal training (courses, qualifications)
Self initiated learning (networking, reading blogs)"
Sharing ideas (forums, blogging, public speaking)
Small experiments (short projects, trying things out)
Questioning & retrospecting (inspect and adapt)
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David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model
Concrete Experience
Abstract Conceptualisation
Reflective Observation
Active Experimentation
How we built "(and grow) ours
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Function
Team
s
Communities of practice
Government Digital Service
Function
The GDS Agile Delivery Community
Create a safe environment
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GDSEmily Webber photo by sanfrancisotinkeringschool
Ener
gy le
vel a
nd v
isib
ility
time
stewardship
coalescing
potential
transformation
maturing
discover/ imagine
incubate/deliver immediate value
focus/ expand
ownership/ openness
let go/ live on
Cultivating Communities of Practice – A Guide to Managing Knowledge
Ener
gy le
vel a
nd v
isib
ility
time
stewardship
coalescing
potential
transformation
maturing
discover/ imagine
incubate/deliver immediate value
focus/ expand
ownership/ openness
let go/ live on
We found out who belonged in the community
GDSEmily Webber
Ener
gy le
vel a
nd v
isib
ility
time
stewardship
coalescing
potential
transformation
maturing
discover/ imagine
incubate/deliver immediate value
focus/ expand
ownership/ openness
let go/ live on
Set up the forums to start to talk and learn from each other
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Sharing is caringphoto by laurie cinotto
email groups"face to face meetings
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email groups"face to face meetings
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Let the community behaviour emerge
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Ener
gy le
vel a
nd v
isib
ility
time
stewardship
coalescing
potential
transformation
maturing
discover/ imagine
incubate/deliver immediate value
focus/ expand
ownership/ openness
let go/ live on
We found out what they needed from the community !"
(and what the community needed from them)
photo by Garrett Coakley
Kept the conversation going and kept it relevant
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Encourage people to pair on ideas and problems
photo by Peter Nijenhuis
Ener
gy le
vel a
nd v
isib
ility
time
stewardship
coalescing
potential
transformation
maturing
discover/ imagine
incubate/deliver immediate value
focus/ expand
ownership/ openness
let go/ live on
Identified people in the community that could take an active role
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Let the communities identify it’s values
photo by Jason Schlachet
• We care about creating the best services for citizens"
"• We are open and honest in our approach and
actions""• We create and foster a safe and supportive
environment through trust and respect""• We learn continuously through questioning,
collaboration and sharing""• We welcome people with different skills and
experience and recognise their importance to successful teams
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GDS
Hire people who believe in the same values
A community of practice can exist as long as the members believe they have something to contribute to it, or gain from it
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Summing up!communities are important for learning"create a safe environment"support any online with face to face"let the community emerge"support it through community management"make it meaningful
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Be agile
Emily WebberHead of Agile DeliveryGovernment Digital Service @ewebber