Coaching leaders of Communities of Practice

As the idea of setting up a community of practice becomes commonplace in more organizations and the lives of more people, there seems to be a diminishing connection between the original theoretical insight of Lave and Wenger (1991) and projects that propose to implement a community of practice using a given technology platform by a given date (e.g., St. Onge and Wallace, 2002). The opportunities and challenges of Web 2.0 technologies both enrich the possibilities and complicate the lives of communities. When a full-fledged community for prospective community leaders isn’t available, direct coaching of community leaders can help the community leverage technology quickly and develop the self-organizing, independent interaction that characterized the original examples of a community of practice. Collaboration tools and technologies shape the coaching relationship, provide a safe haven for practicing together, and fall within the theoretical framework of the negotiation of meaning (Wenger, 1998).

This research project is based on a series of in-depth interviews with both those who provide the coaching and those who are being coached. We seek to describe the context and intentions that shape the relationship, the kinds of conversations or collaborations that make it happen, and the outcomes (at several levels, both personal and beyond).