The CTO Organization is rolling out “Communities of Practice” at Avenu to create groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and share knowledge with each other that they may not get otherwise. How does a Community of Practice (CoP) work, what are the benefits, can it help you and can you join? We have answers to those questions and more right here.
What is a Community of Practice (CoP)?
A Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of people who “share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. It is often created with the goal of both sharing and gaining knowledge in a certain area or subject matter. This is especially beneficial as diverse and spread out as Avenu is for people to have a mechanism to connect and grow. Ultimately, a CoP will give employees the opportunity to develop personally and professionally.
Why are we implementing CoPs?
COPs will help Avenu accelerate professional development, break down silos, share knowledge and build better practices, build a better team, and motivate people.
Can anyone join the CoP groups starting in November or is that only for the engineering group?
We encourage everyone to join a community that aligns to their interest (regardless of their organization alignment within Avenu). COPs are specific to how we work, and we want an active ecosystem of professional communities within Avenu. Reach out to “Joe Atwell” if you have feedback associated with new Communities of Practice.
How does it work?
Each community is self-organized, and topics are determined by the community (see below on how to create a CoP). Anyone interested in learning or sharing or learning more about a specific topic can join. Topics will help the organization standardize on practices, innovate, and share knowledge.
Team Leads will be selected based on their demonstrated approaches for each CoP and will facilitate community conversations. They will also help communicate community needs with the organization.
Community meetings are once a month and anyone within Avenu can join (employees, contractors, etc). Anyone joined to the COP MS Team will receive meeting invites and communication related to the community. All meetings are recorded. Meeting recordings and content are available through Office 365 search in case you decide to not join a COP, but have interest in the content.
What subject areas are going to be covered now and in the future?
The initial communities are related to engineering, however, Avenu will add more communities that represent non-engineering domains (i.e. Finance, Contracts, Consulting, etc).
We’re starting with eight engineering-related COPs that are strategic to the organization’s growth and operating model and hope to grow the CoPs from there with a wide array of diverse subject areas
How do I find or create a Community of Practice?
It’s simple. You can find these new communities by following these few steps:
