Design Your Own

Community of Practice:
How to Use the i5 Canvas
to Transform Higher Ed v. 1.0
September, 2022

by Bea Rodriguez-Fransen
University Design Institute

Are you passionate about transforming higher

education and joining a network of university
changemakers? In this design guide, learn how to
create your own community of practice using the i5
Canvas and dive into the i5 Framework.
Welcome,
University
Designers!
If you are passionate about the future of higher education and
joining a global network of university changemakers, this design
guide is for you. Wherever you are in the world, and whichever role
you currently serve, you have the capacity to profoundly transform
the lives of learners and leaders in your community. You may
already be transforming your institution in meaningful ways; but
what if you could further strengthen and scale your work at great
speed?

This is where a community of practice can amplify your work.

2
 4 What is a Community of Practice (CoP)?

Table of 6

7
Why start a CoP?

Design Your CoP

Contents 8

13
i5 Canvas
Applying the I5 Framework
Imagine
Inform
Inspire
Influence
Innovate
24 Community Rhythm
26 Tips from CoP Leaders
35 Life Cycle of a Community of Practice
36 Just Like Trees...
37 About the University Design Institute
39 Resources & References
But first...

WHAT is a Community of Practice?

Simply put, it is:

a group of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and
learn how to do it better as they interact regularly (Wenger-Trayner, 2015).

Although educational theorists Etienne Wenger and Jean Lave coined the term
Community of Practice (CoP) in 1991, the concept of CoPs has existed long before
then. In many sectors and cultures around the world, groups of people have
gathered together to learn from one another, develop and master new skills, and
co-create new knowledge. A few examples are artists forming a writing group that
meets weekly at a cafe, first-time managers in a company convening regularly to
share best practices with one another, or female entrepreneurs participating in
monthly roundtable sessions.

Regardless of their shared domain of human endeavor, they all engage in a

common process: creating an intellectual commons and harnessing the group’s
collective wisdom, which often leads to innovations in their practice that they would
not have been able to achieve alone.

4
Three Elements of Community of Practice
This refers to the community’s shared identity defined by a domain of interest: a concern, a set of
problems, or a passion about a topic. In the GUD Network, communities of practice are passionate about
Domain re-designing the future of higher education. Because there are many aspects to transforming
universities, some communities of practice may choose to focus on a specific topic, such as digital
transformation or curriculum and pedagogy.

Members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information (Wenger-
Trayner, 2015). Often, there are three types of members:
Core members who lead and facilitate meetings
Community Active members who regularly participate in the community
Occasional members who sporadically engage with the community
It is up to you to determine how to define each type of member and their particular roles.

Community of practice members are practitioners. As part of the GUD Network, they advance the field
of education by developing a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of
addressing recurring problems, and innovations that not only transform the way we teach and learn, but
Practice also the way we collaborate with others to address some of the world’s complex problems, including
socioeconomic inequality and our planet’s sustainability. Practitioners disseminate these innovations
widely, continuously expanding their knowledge and expertise throughout the world.
5
And...

WHY would you start a CoP?

We interviewed current Community of Practice leaders across our university, and here are some of their Whys
for wanting to start a CoP:

"We wanted the faculty to have a CoP so they can support one another, learn and connect with each other... We
help them with the learning design process and identifying which digital tools are the best ones to use in their
courses."
-Allison Hall, Learning Experience CoP

"I was looking around the university for like-minded individuals to learn from, share ideas, especially outside of
our own department. I didn’t have a lot of success finding them, but slowly started finding people who might not
have been in user experience (UX) roles, but were passionate about UX, or interested in moving into UX, doing
similar things (looking at data and surveys, designing wireframes or mockups). We started creating a group,
including my own team, that allowed us to share ideas and projects. The original purpose was to have a place
where we can talk about UX. As my team grew, people started wanting to learn more about tactics and
methodologies."
-Amanda Gulley, UX Collaborative CoP

"There are a few people around campus who have the title of culture in their role, or tend to be culture-
centric. Little by little, we found kindred spirits through social networking. We realized there was a deep
hunger on campus for culture-centric practices, tools, community sharing."
-Cary Lopez, Culture Ripples CoP

6
i5 Community of Practice Canvas

Design Your Community of

Practice Using the i5 Canvas
The i5 Canvas, as you will see on page 8, is a one-page community of practice (CoP)
planning template created by the University Design Institute. It’s designed to help you
brainstorm and plan various aspects of your own CoP. Check out a completed example of
a group brainstorm on page 9 and a synthesis on page 11.

If you are convening your community online, we recommend using a digital whiteboard
such as Miro, which allows your members to post their ideas in real-time. You can view the
i5 Canvas Template on Miro here.

If you are meeting with members face to face, feel free to print the canvas on larger-sized
paper. You can access the printable i5 Canvas PDF here. Individuals can write their ideas
on sticky notes and post them so that the entire group can see everyone's input.

7
 i5 Canvas
The i5 Canvas is a one-page template that helps you brainstorm and develop a community of practice (CoP). It should be regarded as a "living document" and is
not meant to be finalized in one session. You may choose to work on the canvas on an ongoing basis, working on one component each time your community
by Bea Rodriguez-Fransen meets. The Values, Vision, Mission and Community Rhythm blocks collectively serve as the foundation for everything that you do in your CoP.

Imagine Inform Inspire Influence Innovate

What do you want to learn from one How can you become thought How can you engage decision-makers What new knowledge will you co-
Imagine your community 1 year from
another? leaders? How can you celebrate your in the higher education sector to create?
now: what do you see, hear and feel?
With your community, brainstorm stories with one another and the change policies and practices?
your values, vision and mission. world? How can you prototype and test your
innovation before launching it?

How can you support one another as

you re-design your universities?

Who will be in this community? Who

will be your core leaders, and what
How will you share knowledge and
are their roles?
skills and practice them with one
another?

Values Vision Mission Community Rhythm

What are the principles that will guide your Share a short, inspiring, memorable statement Why does your CoP exist? What is the meeting cadence for your CoP
actions in this CoP? on what success means for this CoP. (schedule, space, modalities)?
Imagine Inform
What do you want to learn from
Imagine your community 1 year
one another?
from now: what do you see, hear
and feel? With your community, how to collaborate
across the
brainstorm your values, vision university - how do
how we can work with
other universities to
encourage
Inspire Influence Innovate
How can you become thought How can we engage decision- What new knowledge will you co-
leaders? How can you celebrate makers in the higher education create? How can you prototype
your stories with one another sector to change policies and and test your innovation before
ways to pool
resources together and the world? practices? launching it? How can you
to undertake joint

support one another as you re-

we incentivize interdisciplinary research projects
working together? research and teaching or teaching
and mission. Set meetings
Publish articles Attend
Create social media
Include
university
Invite them to
become
with decision-
makers to
design your universities?
and stories, conferences and
platforms and post provosts and panelists and understand
vision: an open- creating an best ways to share both scholarly share stories of
we are all learning regularly (LinkedIn, deans in guest speakers current policies
we feel connected source repository of intellectual our knowledge how to form and multimedia failures and
and teaching each Instagram, YouTube) meetings, events in annual and practices,
with one another; research data that commons - how across campus - interdisciplinary formats successes
other on how to and conferences convening and how we
we all feel like we others can access do we start one and between research and
conduct change them We will co-
belong and are who want to build and how can it be campuses teaching teams
interdisciplinary create an online
valued in this group on existing open source
research repository of
knowledge
open-source
Create website research data
Use LinkedIn to Use Medium to
best practices on that features publish and publish and Use GUD Review one policy Share different
how to create a team teaching - stories and share articles, share articles Dialogue Cards or practice at the universities' We will conduct
we value trust and we have figured out a culture of sharing syllabi, to spark beginning of each innovative
funders have online grow followers online interdisciplinary
integrity, and way to incentivize collaboration in how to identify conversations
enthusiastically repository of meeting and policies and research to address
openly share interdisciplinary research who to teach with
supported our joint research with decision- provide suggestions practices and social problems
resources with one research in
interdisciplinary
academia, and other
makers for improvement learn from them including income and
another during research and
universities are using wealth inequality, public
meetings & offline curricula
our model health, sustainability
Participate as a Write policy
Publish books
TED Talk recommendations
Create short authored by
speaker, or host to university
videos sharing members Invite academic
a TEDx Talk on decision-makers
leaders to We will work with
Who will be in this community? How will you share knowledge what we know campus
observe or
participate in a
university innovation
staff to help us ideate pilot new initiatives to
Who will be your core leaders, and skills and practice them with team-taught,
interdisciplinary
solutions to problems
we encounter or
advance
interdisciplinary field,
class
and what are their roles? one another?
research test and iterate them

Meetups at a cafe Create a LinkedIn

Group for our Create our own
or another unit on
campus community Google Site or wiki

Faculty - various
disciplines, ranks,
status etc
Funders - Create a listserv
Create a Google Meetings at each
Student researchers government, Drive or Dropbox other's college
(undergrad and philanthropic and for shared files campuses
grad students) corporations

Technologists & IT Annual convening

professionals (in-person)
Post
announcements Practice new
Social Media and resources on models or tools in
University leaders - Slack
Specialists small groups
provost, deans,
research Explore free online
professionals repository for
research data
Presentations on
Zoom or face-to-
face meetings

Values Joy
Collaboration
Teamwork Vision Mission Community Rhythm
we are excited co-create address social address complex develop best
there's a sense of Meet once a month Quarterly breaks Visit a campus each
about the future of knowledge problems through problems i.e. practices in
Interdisciplinary belonging and online or hybrid (for rest and quarter to learn
Diversity, Equity, Trust, Honesty, collaborative research climate change, interdisciplinary
approach connectedness in our open-source we have figured out wellness) about
Inclusion, Justice Integrity Respect research socioeconomic research
this community repository of how to conduct interdisciplinary
inequality, etc
research data is multi-university research and
growing both in interdisciplinary teaching
content and users research develop best
disseminate Informal meetings
research practices in (offline or online) Continuous
Generosity - sharing Learning from each all of us have we freely share
Open-mindedness Creativity interdisciplinary with other members engagement online
resources other participated in joint resources with one
curriculum as desired (Slack, LinkedIn, Annual Convening
interdisciplinary another and the
Wiki/Google Site) (in-person)
research world
9
i5 Community of Practice Canvas

Synthesize Your Ideas

The i5 Canvas should be regarded as a "living document" and is not meant to be finalized in one session.
You may choose to work on the canvas on an ongoing basis, working on one component each time your
community meets. Another way is to organize a day-long retreat to complete the brainstorm and begin
discussing various aspects of your community of practice.

Whichever method you choose to fill out the i5 Canvas, it's important that you capture a diversity of
perspectives, and that everyone in the community feels heard. For example, after collecting everyone's
input under "Imagine," lead a discussion by asking your group which sticky notes could be grouped
together, and ask them to name the different categories. This often prompts people to ask clarifying
questions, and individuals may be asked to elaborate on their idea. They may also disagree with the way
ideas are categorized, which becomes a good opportunity to discuss ideas and crystallize what the
community of practice wants to focus on. Some may want to add their new ideas during the course of the
discussion.

After brainstorming and engaging in dialogue about the group's ideas, take some time to synthesize your
collective work. See the example on page 9.

You may choose to take your time with finalizing your values, vision, and mission statements. For ideas on
how to create them as a group, see our Community of Practice Leaders' Toolkit.

10
Imagine
Imagine your community 1 year
from now: what do you see, hear
and feel? With your community,
brainstorm your values, vision
and mission.
A community of learners and teachers
collaborating to help shape the future
of interdisciplinary knowledge
generation and research. There's a
sense of belonging and a feeling of
connectedness among members.
Who will be in this community?
Faculty, Student Researchers, Funders,
Technologists, Social Media Specialists,
IT professionals, university leaders
(provosts, deans, research
professionals)
Values
Diversity, equity, inclusion, justice
Trust
Interdisciplinarity
Collaboration
Joy
Inform Inspire Influence Innovate
What do you want to learn from How can you become thought How can we engage decision- What new knowledge will you co-
one another? leaders? How can you celebrate makers in the higher education create? How can you prototype
your stories with one another sector to change policies and and test your innovation before
How to collaborate across the
and the world? practices? launching it? How can you
university
support one another as you re-
How to collaborate with other
Publish articles and stories, both Include university provosts and design your universities?
universities
scholarly and multimedia formats deans in meetings, events and
How to pool resources to
Attend conferences and share conferences We will co-create an online
undertake joint research
stories of failures and successes Invite them to become panelists repository of open-source
How to create an intellectual
Create social media platforms and and guest speakers in annual research data
commons that is open-source and
post regularly (LinkedIn, convening We will test our platform before
accessible to all
Instagram, YouTube) Set meetings with decision-makers launching it to the public
Create website that features to understand current policies and We will conduct interdisciplinary
stories and online repository of practices, and how we change research to address social
How will you share knowledge research them problems including income and
and skills and practice them with wealth inequality, public health,
one another? sustainability
Explore free online repository for
research data
Prototyping and testing new
models and practices in groups
Presentations (online & offline)
Informal discussions (online &
offline)
Annual convening (face-to-face)
Vision Mission Community Rhythm
Universities in our region are contributing to a To co-create and disseminate interdisciplinary Meet virtually for 1 hour, once a month
shared, interdisciplinary intellectual commons knowledges that address social problems, in our Members meet offline as often as they want
via open-source software that can be accessed by communities and the world Convene members annually, face to face
all
11
 i5 Canvas
The i5 Canvas is a one-page template that helps you brainstorm and develop a community of practice (CoP). It should be regarded as a "living document" and is
not meant to be finalized in one session. You may choose to work on the canvas on an ongoing basis, working on one component each time your community
by Bea Rodriguez-Fransen meets. The Values, Vision, Mission and Community Rhythm blocks collectively serve as the foundation for everything that you do in your CoP.

Imagine Inform Inspire Influence Innovate

What do you want to learn from one How can you become thought How can you engage decision-makers What new knowledge will you co-
Imagine your community 1 year from
another? leaders? How can you celebrate your in the higher education sector to create?
now: what do you see, hear and feel?
With your community, brainstorm stories with one another and the change policies and practices?
your values, vision and mission. world? How can you prototype and test your
innovation before launching it?

How can you support one another as

you re-design your universities?

Who will be in this community? Who

will be your core leaders, and what
How will you share knowledge and
are their roles?
skills and practice them with one
another?

Values Vision Mission Community Rhythm

What are the principles that will guide your Share a short, inspiring, memorable statement Why does your CoP exist? What is the meeting cadence for your CoP
actions in this CoP? on what success means for this CoP. (schedule, space, modalities)?
i5 Community of Practice Canvas

The i5
Framework
Learn more about each i5 component on the
following pages.

13
Imagine
Activate your community’s imagination by conducting visioning exercises and
brainstorming sessions. For ideas on how to facilitate these sessions, see our
Community of Practice Leaders' Toolkit.

Questions to consider asking your members include:

What values does our community choose to uphold?

What is this community's vision for the higher education sector?
What impact will this community make on higher education in the future--1
year, 3 years, 5 years from now?
What specific activities will this community do?
Who will be in this community? How do we identify members?
How do we create a sense of belongingness and emotional connection?

Be patient and give your community as much time as it needs to agree on the
answers to these questions.

When you have finished revising your values, vision and mission statements,
fill out the corresponding boxes in the i5 Canvas.

15
Inform
A primary purpose of a community of practice is to share knowledge and skills with one
another. Sharing knowledge--rather than hoarding it--increases the collective intelligence and
wisdom of the group, and creates opportunities to co-create new knowledge and innovative
solutions that they would have not been able to create alone. Key questions to ask your
community are:

What knowledge and skills would you like to share with others?
What would you like to learn from and with others?
How would you like to share and practice your knowledge and skills?

Answers would depend on the composition of your membership. Depending on your group,
you may want to recruit more members to ensure that there is diversity of knowledge and skill
sets that the group can benefit from. Finally, gauge the comfort level of your members when it
comes to sharing information: do they prefer sharing in-person or certain software or online
platforms over others?

To encourage information sharing with one another, leaders must be intentional about
creating a sense of psychological safety among members. One way to foster feelings of trust
and safety is through teambuilding exercises; we provide some examples in the Team
Connections section in our Community of Practice Leaders' Toolkit. You will also find a
resource on how to provide feedback, some popular online platforms that communities of
practice use, plus a video tutorial on how to use Miro, a digital tool for creative collaboration in
real-time.

17
Inspire
At the heart of inspiring others is sharing your knowledge and wisdom with others in
compelling ways. Traditionally, those in the higher education sector share their
expertise through books and scholarly articles, published in journals and presented
in annual conferences. This method is one way to become thought leaders in a
particular field, as it has been effective in sharing knowledge and innovative ideas
with other scholars in the field. However, it may take months or even years to get
published in journals or have the opportunity to present at an annual conference.

Because our world is changing so rapidly, the new knowledge and initiatives we co-
create must be quickly shared and amplified. Key questions to ask your community
are:

How can you become thought leaders in higher education, beyond the
traditional publications in journals and participation in academic conferences?
How will you share your stories of successes and failures, within and outside of
your community of practice?

Sharing your stories digitally can quickly share your wisdom. Whether it is a 2-min
video, a blog article, or a short e-book, you can publish them on your preferred
medium, such as your social media or website. To learn how to tell compelling stories
using UDI's STORI Framework, see our Community of Practice Leaders' Toolkit.

19
Influence
How might your community of practice influence decision-makers in the higher
education sector? Decision-makers could be your colleagues, university leaders,
policymakers, funders and philanthropic leaders, or corporations in your region.

At the University Design Institute, we believe in collaborating with diverse actors in the
higher education sector--including university leaders and students, policymakers,
business and industry professionals, philanthropic institutions, civil society members--to
create large-scale change in our educational systems. Large-scale change can only
happen if you are able to influence decision-makers to recognize your innovation efforts
within your institution.

A key theme that emerged in our interviews of current CoP leaders across the
university is the need to influence senior leaders to support the existence and growth of
communities of practice. In many cases, CoP leaders have convinced their
administration to embed their CoP activities as part of their job roles and
responsibilities. They have used data, both quantitative and qualitative, to show
university leaders the value of their respective communities of practice.

For ideas on how to engage policymakers and decision-makers using the University
Design Institute's GUD Dialogue Cards as well as other tools, see our Community
of Practice Leaders' Toolkit.

21
Innovate
In the process of sharing knowledge, tools, and processes with one another, your CoP
may co-create innovations that transform the ways we teach and learn, operate our
universities, or collaborate with others to address the world's complex problems. Key
questions to consider are:

What is one change you'd like to see in your university? In the higher education
sector in general?
How can you prototype and test your innovation before launching it?
How can you support one another in your quest to transform higher education?

CoP members may choose to disseminate innovations widely, throughout their

community or the world. For example, at ASU's User Experience (UX) Collaborative
CoP, one student member helped the university create a new competency that didn't
exist before: immersive design. Through the CoP, staff were able to nurture students'
thinking, encouraging them to develop ideas that advance education. The student is now
a professional staff member, leading two full-time employees and growing his team.
They are now building out proofs of concept on how to use virtual reality, augmented
reality, and game design to enhance educational outcomes, and scaling them across the
university.

There may be times when you want an external facilitator to co-design innovative
solutions with you. If you would like the University Design Institute to co-design
solutions with you, contact us at udi@asu.edu

23
Community
Rhythm
To generate momentum and build team camaraderie, it's
important to establish a cadence for your community of
practice, and agree on a regular schedule and space to meet
up, whether online or offline.

Community rhythm also refers to the flow of each meeting. This

would depend on the style and culture of your team, or how
your facilitators choose to structure each meeting.

For ideas on how to establish your own community rhythm, see

our Community of Practice Leaders' Toolkit.
Community
Rhythm

When you have determined the cadence of your

meetings, fill out the corresponding box in the i5
Canvas. The needs and schedules of your members
may change over time, so be prepared to be flexible
and revise it as appropriate.

25
Tips from
CoP Leaders
Tips from CoP Leaders
Best practices and lessons learned from leaders of Communities of Practice

Recruiting and engaging 4,000+ members

When we first started in 2018, we tapped into our unit's networks and database. Currently, our biggest avenue for
recruiting new people is LinkedIn. We set up a LinkedIn page as an affiliate page of the main ASU page; so what we
post there can be potentially seen by the 700,000 people that follow ASU's page. I also do podcast interviews to recruit
new members. Today, we have more than 4,000 community members from all over the world.

Engagement among your members is critical. You can gather numbers and attendee data to demonstrate your reach,
but the most difficult and time-consuming part is engagement. It has to be a two-way communication: don't just push
"We take our work information out there; ask people, "What's going on in your community? What are the hot button issues for you at this
seriously but we don't time?" We distill their responses and create workshops and events around them.
take ourselves too
seriously; this really Conducting post-event surveys is helpful. Through them, we've found that people leave our events feeling inspired.
resonates with people."
We take our work seriously but we don't take ourselves too seriously; this really resonates with people. They also feel
-Stephanie Pierotti, like their voices are heard here; that may not necessarily be the case in their school or company. They feel like they
ShapingEDU CoP can come here and have a conversation about things that are important to them.

27
Tips from CoP Leaders
Being centered and connected with one another

I start meetings with a minute of silence and a reflective question. We then share our answers in a check-in format,
one by one. Over time, this practice raises people's awareness of themselves and of one another. As I share, I feel
connected with other people. This is especially effective in Zoom calls, when they could be easily distracted by email
or work to do on their computer. Doing this simple practice at the beginning of each meeting brings a moment of
centering.

In both Culture Weavers and Culture Ripples communities of practice, we intentionally build pathways to belonging,
"When we deliberately by implementing clear action steps. One way of deeply connecting with each other in our community is by doing
practice being fully appreciative interviews. In our Culture Ripples CoP, we asked members to interview one or more people in their
present as individuals, respective realms. We used the qualitative data themes to inform our Innovation Quarter events. The results also led
we are available to
connect with one to the co-creation of a new Innovation course, taught by one of our faculty members.
another and with what's
coming into the field." To start and grow your own community of practice, it is vital that you help people get connected to themselves and
each other. Also, ask your members to come up with ways, over time, to continually weave and integrate what they
-Christine Whitney
Sanchez, learn in your community into their day-to-day work in their respective units. I emphasize presence and connection;
Culture Weavers & when we deliberately practice being fully present as individuals, we are available to connect with one another and
Culture Ripples CoP with what's coming into the field.

28
Tips from CoP Leaders
Addressing conflicts & co-creating norms

We launched at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, because we wanted faculty to have a CoP where they
can learn, connect with, and support each other. However, learning technology businesses have been volatile;
sometimes, they go out of business without warning. In several cases, we had adopted learning technologies that
went out of business. So when we started transitioning to new technologies, faculty thought we were taking
something away from them. There were a lot of negative, angry feelings; it was very contentious.

We then asked the community to co-create our purpose statement and norms. We asked: are our actions and
"Co-creating norms
helped shift the tide of words contributing to our purpose? They then realized that accusations were not helpful for building progress or
adversarial trust. Together, we created and agreed upon a list of norms, including speaking respectfully with one another.
relationships to
collaborative ones."
From then on, we began each meeting by stating our purpose and norms. Now the community is much more
-Allison Hall, understanding and collaborative. Our community understands that being part of our CoP is not a transactional
Learning Experience experience; it's really an ongoing transformation experience.
CoP

29
Tips from CoP Leaders
Saving costs through collaboration
Early on, when we first started meeting, we realized
that two of our members were working two disparate
projects: one for parking, and one for fleet
management. The parking project manager wanted to
implement a new software program that tracks
vehicles in ASU parking lots. At the same time, our
fleet services staff was evaluating technology solutions
for tracking where our ASU vehicles are at any given
"We provide a forum time.
for people to meet and
network and not have
So this is what happens when you get people sitting at
to reinvent the wheel."
the same table together talking. Even though they're
-Susan Wynn, working in disparate units, they might end up being
Project Management connected. This was one of our goals: to provide a
Network CoP forum for people to meet and network and not have to
reinvent the wheel.
The result? Some savings were realized because the
two project managers learned--through talking with
each other--that they were able to use the same
solution for both of their projects.
Developing professional skills
Between Fall 2016 and Spring 2019, a total of 131
of our CoP members completed our PMP (Project
Management Professional) exam training. This
counted towards their eligibility for the CAPM
(Certified Associate in Project Management) and
PMP certification exams. When the Project
Management Institute announced that the PMP
exam outline was significantly changing, we
"I noticed a gap that decided to forgo the course and offer a study
the Network could fill: group instead.
offering education
hours required for
PMP exam eligibility." Of the 24 study group participants, 9 earned either
their CAPM or PMP certification. One member
-Danielle B. Steele, shared: “At every step of the process, from
Project Management completing my application, to memorizing
Network CoP
formulas, to knowing what to expect on exam day,
the members of the ASU PM Network generously
shared their wisdom and experience." Not all
participants choose to take the exam; some simply
wanted the education so they could apply it
directly to their jobs. 30
Tips from CoP Leaders
Using events-based programs to learn & practice new skills

Our Organizational Excellence CoP wanted to do things better, faster, smarter across ASU. It's easy to gather people
to meet, but we knew we needed to be events-based because it just works better in terms of engaging members. We
also wanted to see a business result from our efforts: how can our ASU community think about things differently,
learn new technologies and tools that they can use in their respective roles?

To find the bandwidth to get this done right, we ensured that our operational structure supported the CoP. I garnered
support from my leadership, and it became part of the roles and responsibilities of my Organizational Excellence staff.
"The stronger the It's the only way we can sustain our CoP. We also partner with other ASU units such as American Change
community is--the Management Association, Project Management, Leadership & Workforce Development, Global Outreach & Extended
more that we can do Education, and Business Analysis; and we have volunteer committee members who help us plan and execute our
for our students,
faculty and others-- annual events.
the stronger the
university will be.." Each year we have a theme. We then plan events that teach practical skills people can use immediately. Throughout
the year, we offer "One-Hour Skill Mastery" workshops that are taught by ASU faculty and staff on a voluntary basis.
-Clayton Taylor,
Organizational Once a month, we host a networking event attended by 20-40 people across the university, intentionally teaching
Excellence CoP techniques and opportunities to practice their elevator pitches. People make good connections, meet senior leaders,
and sometimes end up collaborating on new projects.

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Tips from CoP Leaders
Including students & influencing decision-makers
User Experience (UX) is a newer field: five years ago, my unit had one designer; now we're a team of 40. Our UX
Collaborative community of practice, which now has 250 members, as well as my team have grown dramatically
because of several things: 1) student engagement in our work, 2) leveraging data, and e) the support we've received
from senior leaders. We hired students, and gave them challenging work. We asked them to present to university
leaders, so we were able to show administrators that we could do more with more staff.

The most important piece is data. We partnered with an Analytics staff to figure out: how do we quantify the design
"We leveraged our and development to show people who have a business mindset how the work generates outcomes? We integrated
extra time innovating Google Analytics and other tools, to help prove the value of UX to our senior leaders.
and bringing new
ideas to senior We also do more than what's requested of us. Executive staff don't always understand what our capabilities are. A lot
leaders."
of units are constantly asking us to do very tedious things. One of the things we did to address repetitive requests is
-Amanda Gulley, building a design system. We asked ourselves: how do we become more efficient with our time, so we can have more
UX Collaborative time to innovate? So we built a design system with one designer and one developer, which automated some of the
CoP requests.

The design system and automation freed up our time. As a result, we leveraged our extra time innovating and
bringing new ideas to senior leaders. We are constantly asking ourselves, how can we work smarter so we have time
to solve bigger problems?
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Tips from CoP Leaders
Practicing skills and co-creating new knowledge
It's easy to become learning and development communities as opposed to practice. It's easy to bring experts to talk about
best practices, but how do you build spaces to practice in a safe way? Our members didn't know how to take what they've
learned and apply it in their respective environments; some were not in a position of authority to implement the changes
that our experts had suggested. So we pivoted this year to address this. For example, we shared our Appreciate Inquiry
tool and provided opportunities to use the tool during one of our sessions. Then they tried a couple of interviews in their
respective organizations. This enabled them to use appreciative interviews to help strengthen community bonds, elicit
strengths an common values of their organization.

"Our members were

able to craft their role What’s inspiring for me is the empowerment that I’ve seen happen. Two of our members felt like they were the only lonely
in a way that they person in their unit who wanted to focus on helping colleagues feel like they are welcomed or belonged. Being part of our
never have before. CoP gave our members the vocabulary to help make the case that culture work is important: it can impact retention and
They didn't have the people’s productivity levels where they actually experience happiness at work. We were able to give some vocabulary and
language for it before;
but now, they felt evidence-based practices that they can share with their bosses. Our members were able to say, "I want to add this formally
empowered to do the to my role. Here’s what I believe the benefits are for our unit." Their bosses agreed and formally changed their job
work." description! Our members were able to craft their role in a way that they never have before. They didn’t have the language
for it before; but now, they felt empowered to do the work.
-Cary Lopez,
Culture Ripples CoP
These two cases are our prototypes; we are now thinking through how we can do this for more members.

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Tips from CoP Leaders
Influencing senior leaders
When ASU Open Door started nine years ago, it
was a huge success. It initially started as an open
house to promote our College of Liberal Arts &
Sciences. Eventually, it became so large that it
became a university-wide event. Today, all four
campuses participate, and we have built a
community of 500 people who deliver annual
interactive activities across all campuses during the
month of February.
"Use data to show how
awesome your efforts
are as a community. What made us successful is using data to get
Get administrators senior leaders excited and on board. Every year we
and deans excited and track the number of activities our community offers
get them on board." to the public and the number of attendees; and we
gather feedback from participants. Our surveys
-Darci Nagy, ASU
Open Door show how awesome our program is: annually, up to
45,000 people attend ASU Open Door, and they
love it! One child attendee said, "It's better than
Disneyland!" We use our data to demonstrate to
administrators and deans that we can take it up a
notch.
Iterating a CoP
Years ago, a colleague tried start a CoP for
business analysis staff across our university. It
had no support from senior management, so it
failed.
Over a year ago, those who were interested in
revitalizing the CoP. We worked on registering
it as an employee organization at ASU.
Through brown bag sessions, social activities,
"Because of their
and new initiatives such as a book club, our
involvement with our
CoP, business analysts
CoP now has more than 105 members. With
across the university their new knowledge and skills, our members
are becoming more are becoming more confident, serving as
confident and leaders in various projects.
becoming leaders."
Now we have the support of management:
-Lesa King, some are now paying for IIBA (International
Business Analysis
CoP Institute of Business Analysts) institutional
memberships for their staff, which allows our
CoP members to access to really great
resources for business analysts.
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Life Cycle of a Community of Practice
Every community of practice takes time to grow and develops at its own pace. Communities of
practice will typically experience the following five phases of development:

Phase 1: Inquire
Identify the audience, purpose, goals, and vision for the community.

Phase 2: Design
Define the activities, technologies, group processes, and roles that will support the community’s
goals.

Phase 3: Prototype
Pilot the community with a select group of key stakeholders to gain commitment, test assumptions,
refine the strategy, and establish a success story.

Phase 4: Grow
Engage members in collaborative learning and knowledge sharing activities, group projects, and
networking events that meet individual, group, and organizational goals while creating an increasing
cycle of participation and contribution.

Phase 5: Sustain/Transform Adapted from Wenger et al (2002)

Cultivate and assess the learning, knowledge, and products created by the community to inform new
strategies, goals, activities, roles, technologies, and business models for the future. Does your CoP
need to retire or change?

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Just Like Trees...
“Go into the forest, you see the birch, maple, pine. Look underground and all those trees
are holding hands. We as people have to do the same.”
– Charles Labrador, Mi’kmaq Spiritual Leader, Healer, and Chief of Acadia First Nation, Nova Scotia (McMahon, Griese & Kenyon, 2019)

At the University Design Institute, we harness the wisdom of nature and become inspired by
its strategies to help solve the most pressing challenges of our time.

Take, for example, how trees behave. When you step into a forest, you will notice trees
standing quietly and independently; but look underground, and you’ll see vast networks of
mycorrhizal fungi that connect these individual trees together, allowing them to communicate
and share an enormous amount of information and nutrients, such as water, carbon, nitrogen,
and minerals. Yes—trees talk with one another and form networks! (Simard, 2016;
Wohlleben, 2016). And instead of competing for resources, trees cooperate with one another
so that all of them can thrive.

Just like trees, human beings that belong to a community of practice share knowledge and
expertise with one another, united by a common concern or goal. We hope that this book will
help your own communities of practice harness their collective intelligence in order to
transform universities, and the world.
Mycorrhizal networks. Circles represent tree nodes, sized according to the
tree’s diameter, and coloured with four different shades of yellow or green
that increase in darkness with increasing age class. Lines represent the
Euclidean distances between trees that are linked. Line width increases
with the number of links between tree pairs (Beiler et al., 2009).

36
About the University Design Institute
Founded in 2019 at Arizona State University, the vision of
the University Design Institute is simple yet profound: that
universities around the world emerge as powerful engines
of social transformation and economic impact.

Our mission is to become a catalyst for transformation in

higher education. We do this by reimagining the future, co-
designing solutions with various stakeholders to move from
ideas to implementation, and advancing innovative,
scalable, and sustainable models.

Our growing team is driven by six values:

37
About the University Design Institute
The work that we do is centered around six design imperatives that are critical to
transformational change in higher education:

To date, we have engaged with 90 institutions in 20

countries, offering leadership programs, facilitating
co-design sessions to transform various aspects of
their universities, and engaging diverse stakeholders
—including funders, policymakers, university leaders,
and students—to work towards systems-level
change. Now more than ever, it is vital that we
intensify our work together in addressing the
complex challenges that our world faces.

Learn more at https://udi.asu.edu/

38
More Resources
Articles
Cambridge, D., Kaplan, S. & Suter, V. (2005). Community of practice design guide. Educause.
Snyder, W.M. & Briggs, X. (2003). Communities of practice: A new tool for government managers.

Books
Wenger, E., McDermott, R. & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice. Harvard
Business School Press.
Vogl, Charles H. (2016). The art of community: Seven principles for belonging. Berrett-Koehler
Publishers, Inc.

Websites
Building Effective Communities of Practice by Arizona State University-ShapingEDU.
Wenger-Traynor, E. & Wenger-Traynor, B. (2015). Introduction to communities of practice: A brief
overview of the concept and its uses.

39
References
Beiler, K.J., Durall, D.M., Simard, S.W., Maxwell, S.A. & Kretzer, A.M. (2009). Architecture of the wood-wide web. Rhizopogon spp. genets link multiple Douglas-fir cohorts. New
Phytologist, 185(2), p. 543-553. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.03069.x

Arizona State University. (2022). Building Effective Communities of Practice. ShapingEDU. https://shapingedu.asu.edu/communities-of-practice-intro

Cambridge, D., Kaplan, S. & Suter, V. (2005). Community of practice design guide. Educause.

McMahon, T.R., Griese, E.R. & Kenyon, D.B. (2019). Cultivating Native American scientists: An application of an Indigenous model to an undergraduate research experience.
Cultural Studies of Science Education 14, 77-110.

Simard, S. (2016, June). How trees talk to each other [Video]. TEDSummit. https://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_simard_how_trees_talk_to_each_other

Snyder, W.M. & Briggs, X. (2003). Communities of practice: A new tool for government managers. IBM Center for the Business of Government.
https://www.businessofgovernment.org/sites/default/files/Communities%20of%20Practices.odf_.pdf

Vogl, Charles H. (2016). The art of community: Seven principles for belonging. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Webber, E. (2016). Building successful communities of practice: Discover how connecting people makes better organizations. Drew London Ltd.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R. & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Harvard Business School Press.

Wenger-Traynor, E. & Wenger-Traynor, B. (2015). Introduction to communities of practice: A brief overview of the concept and its uses. https://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-
communities-of-practice/

Wohlleben, P. (2016). The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World. Greystone Books.

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