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Sharing Wisdom and Learning Together

DawnDee WalravenBeth Dasher

2016 National Conference for America’s ChildrenCincinnati, Ohio

DawnDee Walraven—SupervisorHealthy Families Washington County LifeWorks NW

Beth Dasher—Program ManagerHealthy Families Washington CountyCommunity Action

D & B

Healthy Families of Washington County operates one program through a two agency collaboration

◦ Community Action provides program management,Community Action provides program management, and has 1 team of screeners and 1 team of home visitors

◦ Lifeworks NW has 2 teams of home visitors

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Stand up if you are:Home Visitor/Family Support WorkerFamily Assessment Worker/ScreenersSupervisorSupervisor Program ManagerAdministrative staffOther

B

What are you hoping to gain today?

What challenges or topics would g pyou like to get support on?

D

1. Learn techniques to build and encourage a Community of Practice (CoP) in your program or community

2 Learn strategies to navigate pitfalls challenges2. Learn strategies to navigate pitfalls, challenges and barriers when developing a CoP

3. Get hands on experience participating in a CoPduring the workshop

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A group of people who share knowledge, learn together, and create common practices.

Members of a community of practice are boundMembers of a community of practice are bound together by common interests and a desire to continually interact.

Wenger E., McDermott R., Snyder W., 2002, Cultivating Communities of Practice: Guide to ManagingKnowledge, Harvard Business School Press.

D

According to the Minnesota Department of Health web page document Communities of Practice (CoP)

"Family Home Visiting Communities of Practice y g(CoP) are groups of home visitors, supervisors and partners who come together with a shared challenge or passion for some component(s) of their work and learn from one another how to improve their practice/service delivery."

D

1. a domain of knowledge, which creates common ground, a sense of common identity, and inspires members to contribute and participate

2. a community of people who care about the domain, thus creating the social fabric for learning, sharing, inquiry, and trust; and

3. the shared practice made up of frameworks, tools, references, language, stories, documents, that community members share.

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Sharing best practices

Problem solve and support others with suggestions and/or solutions

Foster professional development

Helps organizations recruit and retain talentWenger E., & Snyder W., 2000, Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier , Harvard

Business School Press.

B

LifeWorks NW Team: “Grab-bag of questions” became regular practice 5+ years ago

E l d i l d ffi Evolved to include case staffing

Introduced to the Healthy Families Washington County collaboration 4 years ago and included shared leadership

D

Facilitating team:◦ Gathers possible supplemental topics in advance ◦ Breaks large team into small groups of mixed Home Visitor

experience and home visiting sites◦ Bring staff back to large group for reporting out 2 main learning

points

Small groups support case staffing needs first or Small groups support case staffing needs first or situational topics of importance

Supplemental topics are available should the group not have any challenges to focus on

For our program, we ensure that each small group has a supervisor in the mix to support policy questions as they arise

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Transitions: As membership in the group undergoes significant changes, it may become necessary to re-set or re-focus the group, reminding members of the purpose, goals or intent of the community of practicegoals, or intent of the community of practice.

Supervisor level support: As a program that believes in parallel process, we recognize that supervisors also need support from peers.

D

Curriculum focus◦ Growing Great Kids – Tier 2 Monthly gathering of training cohort facilitated in CoP

format

Review Tier 1 training OR assignments from previousReview Tier 1 training OR assignments from previous month

Discuss current month topics: Daily Do, GGF module, videos

Assignments for current month – Daily Do, GGF, other related tasks

D

Attendance: Getting participants there Mandated attendance - experience shows value

Coordination among multiple sitesR t ti f ilit tiRotating facilitation

Over sharing: Small groups would report out all details of discussionLimit sharing to two main points from each small group

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Backup questions before case staffing: Staff focusing on “what was written” rather than bringing cases to the group for consultation and feedback. Revisiting the original intention, educating facilitators to start meeting with case staffing.facilitators to start meeting with case staffing.

Small Group Structuring: Lack of supervisors in groups, leading to questionable guidance regarding policy, practice or procedure. Supervisors provide oversight in small groups, presence required for clarification of P&P.

B

Unclear intention/organization: No intentional mixing, little direction. Provide clear understandings and expectations in advance, intentional planning should include simple structure, have next meetings scheduled, identify core vs. fringe participants.

Gossip vs. debriefing & supportKeep it solution focused. Not a gripe session.

Primary Talkers/Conversation DominatorsIncrease facilitation skills among team with training and supervisor support

B

Evidenced based practice

Shared Resources

R l i hi b ildi Relationship building

Validation

Professional Development

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"As an intake specialist, Wisdom Sharing  helps me to better understand the transformative work our home visitors do with their families.  When I onboard families, I am able to speak with confidence about the outstanding skill and character of our home visitorsoutstanding skill and character of our home visitors and the content of our program.”

“During Wisdom Sharing I was able to empathize with other workers that are struggling with similar issues.”

D or B

“Making time to listen {to} different approaches and brainstorming solutions is helpful.”

“During Wisdom Sharing, my concerns about l f t t l lid t d Thmy personal safety were strongly validated. Then, 

together my team and I explored practices to use to ensure a safe visit in my case and also other situations.”

1. Design for evolution2. Open a dialogue between inside and

outside perspectives3 Invite different levels of participation3. Invite different levels of participation 4. Develop both public and private

community spaces 5. Focus on value6. Combine familiarity and excitement 7. Create a rhythm for the community

D

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#1 Design for evolution: Loose grip of control and expectation Members eventually need to be the drivers Baby steps

“As the community grows, new members bring new interests and may pull the focus of the community in different directions. The purpose of a design is not to impose a structure but to help a community develop.”

D

#3 Invite different levels of participation: Good for multi-agency CoP

#5 Focus on value: CoP thrive because they deliver value to the

members and the organization which leads to greater value to the families being served.

As relationships are built, members find greater value in attendance and participation.

Long term benefits are derived through small changes.

D

#6 Combine familiarity and excitement: Familiarity creates comfort which promotes

safety to ask candid questions, solicit advice and share out-of-the-box solutions to be toyed with.

Frequently considered “neutral” places –listening and offering ideas without becoming entangled or enmeshed in the problem.

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#7 Create a rhythm for the community: Dance baby Dance! Regularly occurring, not

too long, specific to the needs of the members “My Space”members, My Space

D

Each CoP will be different. It’s important in your planning to cater the development of your CoP to reflect the needs and personalities you intend to host as well as the core concepts you hope tohost, as well as the core concepts you hope to influence.

D

We will spend the next 20 minutes engaging in a Wisdom Sharing Community of Practice

H th t i di d Here are the topics we discussed earlier

Please get into small groups now

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What would you like to share about your experience in this small CoP?

What questions do you have?

What value do you think this would bring to your community or team?

B

Let us know: Do you already have a CoP? What is working for you?

Are thinking about building a CoP? Now that you've had time to practice what thoughts doyou ve had time to practice, what thoughts do you have about creating your CoP and what will your “next steps” be?

B

Li, L. C., Grimshaw, J. M., Nielsen, C., Judd, M., Coyte, P. C., & Graham, I. D. (2009). Evolution of Wenger’s concept of community of practice. Implementation Science : IS, 4, 11. http://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-4-11

McDermott R., 1999a, Learning Across Teams: The role of Communities of Practice in Team Organizations, Knowledge Management Review, May-June. (from www.co-il.com/coil/knowledge-garden/cop)

Wenger E., McDermott R., Snyder W., 2002, Cultivating Communities of Practice: Guide to Managing Knowledge, Harvard Business School Press.

Wenger E., & Snyder W., 2000, Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier, Harvard Business School Press.

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Thank you for coming

Please complete your evaluation

B