Communities of Practice in the Workplace

My personal check-in connects to the vlog!
Remember that breakdown I had in 2014 that sent me into my good work at Soil and Shadow? The incredible coaching, mentor, and friend who brought me through that is sharing the screen with me today.

In today's vlog, I'm joined by Vonda Vaden Bates of 10th Dot Transformations.

She's a Senior Consultant at Soil and Shadow, and we're discussing the ways communities of practice can be a helpful frame for the way teams view one another as they do purpose-driven work.

1. According to Wikipedia, a community of practice 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.

2. On social impact teams, the mission is your "common passion", and organizational culture, professional development skills, and leadership skills are "learning how to do it better as you interact regularly".

3. Viewing your team as a community of practice - in the relational "how" you do your work in addition to the strategic "what" you do in your work - can support you to give better feedback, receive feedback more gracefully, navigate conflict more effectively, and listen better when cultural differences arise.

In the vlog, Vonda and I share these and other insights about how our community of practice at Soil and Shadow impacts our clients and ways you can use those lessons to improve work on your teams as well.