Pioneering Leaders as Communities of Practice

This blog describes the first step in the NOBO Virtuous Circle by stressing the importance of human values and NOBO...

Placing human values at the centre of NOBO is fundamental for ensuring people not only make money but also realise other needs too. In our world today, especially in the advanced industrial regions, many people’s basic needs are fulfilled. They are searching for a deeper meaning to their lives and look towards NOBO as a way of committing to some purpose larger than themselves.

To support and sustain a values-driven NOBO, a new approach to business organisation and leadership is required. Communities of practice demonstrate that it is natural for people to seek out those who share values, knowledge and experience. As people discover each other and exchange ideas, relationships develop and a community forms. This community becomes a place where collective learning occurs and builds into an incubator where new knowledge, skills and competencies develop around core shared values.

As communities mature leaderships emerges to coordinate and cultivate activities. Supporting and sustaining these new leaders is an imperative in allowing communities to build healthy and robust working practices. How can leaders be helped? Margaret Wheatley describes a framework in “Supporting Pioneering Leaders as Communities of Practice: How to Rapidly Develop New Leaders in Great Numbers”.

In summary, there are four key areas of work that can support the development of new leadership-in-community.

Name the Community. Community forms among people acting from the same values and visions. Their practices are varied and unique, but each practice develops from a shared set of values. In this way, the community is very diverse in its expression, and very united in its purpose.

Connect the Community. A community becomes stronger and more competent as new connections are formed with those formerly excluded, as it brings in those who sit on the periphery, as communication reaches more parts of the system, and as better relationships are developed.

Resource the Community. Communities of practice need to be nourished with many different resources. They require ideas, methods, mentors, processes, information, technology, equipment, money. Each of these is important, but on great gap is that of knowledge – knowing what techniques and processes are available that work well.

Illuminate and Interpret the Community. There is a critical need to tell the stories of this community, to get public attention for their efforts. It takes times, attention, and a consistent media focus for people to see them for what they are, examples of what’s possible, of what our new world could look like. To develop this level of public awareness requires skilful working with the media.

Communities of practice develop from a need to do one’s work more effectively but also, more importantly, to align with shared human values.

“Whatever is important to you, you probably have more opportunity than you may realize to pursue those things in business, even in for-profit companies. You don’t have to be limited by the misconception that corporations always have to try to maximize their profits. Nor must you be limited by what other people think are the social responsibilities of business. You are really only limited by what you can imagine and by what you can find other people to support.”

(Extract from Thomas W. Malone’s “The Future of Work: How the New Order of Business Will Shape Your Organization, Your Management Style, and Your Life”)

The next blog explores step two in the NOBO Virtuous Circle by describing how NOBO leaders can initiate changing conversation in organisations.