How do we turn members in our communities of practice into action?

This was the question I was presented with today when I gave a presentation in Madrid. Getting people involved, or even excited about the issues and challenges presented in a community is a complicated theme. But my case was not just around communities in general, it was about how to prepare strategic leadership communities up for change. If these communities of practice wans to invoke necessary changes the core group needs to demonstrate the sustainability of the changes required. What ‘required’ means was out of the scope of the presentation (though tempting!) but the essence is that viable change needs to be invoked by the community’s core group for the rest to accept and support the change.

What can drive the community to change? First, there is the desire to acquire knowledge or capacity that previously was not possible or out of reach for the member of the community (“sense of future” mostly driven by the collective). Alternatively, there is the sense that without change, the community will be negatively affected (“sense of present”, mostly driven by the individual). With most people in the community, the “present” is stronger than the “future” – this is something to be reckoned with.

The core group can introduce a sense of urgency to turn members into action, by taking into account several aspects:

Change cannot be made without recognizing the present and the past; members of the community that have contributed to leadership and decision making will resist change when challenged. The core group can work behind the scenes without publicly challenging their contributions or decisions. On a different level, the core group members will understand the individual (and collective) convictions which may produce barriers for change. Both of these obstacles may be addressed by carefully proposing change in very practical terms, perhaps even gradually, in different ways (group discussions, mentoring sessions, individual assesments etc).

One final conclusion was that change is a promise, and when introduced should be treated as such by all in the community (and around) supporting that promise.