Coaching leaders of Communities of Practice

This workshop is aimed at several related audiences who are concerned with the development of distributed communities of practice (communities that depend on technology to be and learn together). Community leaders will experience coaching as it applies to the specific issues (technology-related and beyond) of distributed communities. Community sponsors will understand how coaching can be an effective strategy for developing authentic community leaders and for leveraging the technologies that have been provided for a community. The discourse around the value to host organizations of coaching community leaders has many of the same characteristics as the conversation around the value of communities. Researchers aiming to understand the adoption and appropriation of technologies by communities of practice will observe how coaching resolves the tensions between an instrumental view that focuses on community creation and a community of practice view of social interaction.

This workshop will be led by community building practitioners who have themselves coached many community leaders in many different organizations. The presenters will report on an extended study of coaching that considers issues in many different communities using a variety of different technologies and draws from experience in many very different organizational settings. What we know about the interactions between coaches and coachees sets the stage for a demonstration of a live coaching session and collective reflection on the issues facing community leaders today. The workshop includes a phone conference three weeks before the workshop and another one three weeks later: the phone calls are an integral part of developing a sustained conversation that addresses the workshop’s issues in a substantive way. All participants will be invited to comment on their experience of this extended process we will share those reflections with the group and within CPsquare.

The extended study that will provide the springboard for discussion and exercises aims to develop:

1. The argument that coaching leaders is an important element of a community development strategy
2. A description of good practice for coaching community leaders, both in terms of content and form
3. Normative descriptions that help both coaches and coachees develop productive relationships

There will be a limit of 20 on registration for this workshop.