Networking . . . time to hit the gym

By Bob Chartier, NMC Secretariat

If what you are doing is not difficult, then you are probably doing it wrong.

— Jimmy Webb, songwriter

I grew up in a public service that paid a lot of attention to the idea of networking. We had lots of workshops on networking and we were always careful to have a networking component to any event. For me, though the wine and cheese was nice, I found there was no imaginative structure. It seemed people never got beyond talking to their friends from work and if you got caught with a talkative stranger, you could never gently get away.

In the workplace, we try to form networks of people who do the same work or are in the same field, but they often morph into tedious committee meetings or disintegrate entirely.

At the National Managers’ Community, our modest experience with the Community of Practice model has been somewhat different. Our practitioners would spend a fair bit of time together learning new theory and practising fresh tools. Unlike conventional training, there was usually support to go back into the workplace and, with the backing and assistance of your community, put these new practices into place.

So instead of trying to become a network of practitioners, they became a community of practitioners. More than just new nomenclature, this Community of Practice model had some rigor and discipline. They developed charters and used tools like the Facilitated Conference Call to have distance learning sessions together. They exchanged ideas, war stories, and opportunities for practice together. The model is starting to be recognized and many are talking about communities of practice around coaching, conflict resolution, project management, diversity, health and safety, and so on.

Communities of practice are a form of network, but I would argue that they are networks that “work out”. They have some good muscle tone and they stay in shape.

Wine and cheese, we discovered, is best left as a reward rather than a recruiting strategy in the innovative Community of Practice model.

NMC and CSPS sign a partnership agreement

The agreement will set the stage for a more effective working relationship with the Canada School of Public Service and will ensure that the NMC as the “voice of managers” has influence on the learning needs of managers.