improvement service cop facilitator's event 18th nov 2008

Being a Community of Practice Facilitator

18th November 2008

Tessa Darley

Agenda• Introductions and expectations

• Understanding your community – why is it there?

• The perfect facilitator – is there such a thing and what makes one?

• The Facilitator Tools Menu

• Techniques for raising engagement – what are we doing and what can we do?

• Identifying success factors and measuring success

• Summary, feedback and close

Introductions and expectations

• Your name• The group (s) you’re a facilitator for • The groups you’re a member of• What you hope to get out of the session today

Understanding your community

• Why does your community exist?• What’s it all for?

Understanding your communities

• Think about groups you’re a member of• What is their purpose?• What attracts you to these groups?• What encourages you to stay involved?

5 mins exercise

• In pairs/threes• Write down 5 key points on post its• Feed back to the group

What makes a good facilitator?

5mins exercise

• In pairs/ threes• Write down on your post-its 5 key attributes

of a good facilitator• Feed back to the group

The Perfect Facilitator…

….is like a host of a party!

• Circulate around• Introduce people to each other• Keep interesting ‘nibbles’ to hand• Make sure people know about your ‘party’• Keep conversations flowing (and make sure it

doesn’t dry up!)

The Facilitator’s Tools

• The Admin tab• Know your group members• Metrics• Know what’s important (and when)

Your group’s home pageAdmin

Metrics

The Admin Tab

Find out who’s registered and when they last visited. Get email addresses for direct mailings.

Change your group’s “window dressing” and welcome text.

Add/change facilitators. Add members.

Set up “themes” for forum and library, so content is grouped.

View, approve or deny membership applications.

Add useful/relevant websites that members can search automatically.

Ask your group members a simple question.

Raising Engagement

• Welcome new members• Action plan/engagement plan• “Backfilling”• Seeding• Hot seats• Polls• Add members• Educate your members • Regular emails

Specific strategies for involvement and participation

Specific strategies for involvement and participation

• Welcome new members– Send a personal email welcoming new members– Introduce yourself and explain how to get help– Remind them to set alerts– Summarise some key discussions and invite their

participation– Ask them to introduce themselves to the group

• Have an “Introduce yourself” sticky thread

Create an Action Plan/Engagement Plan

Specific strategies for involvement and participation

Action Plan

Purpose Identify needs

Raising engagement

• Backfilling– Asking others to post questions– Asking others to post responses– Summarising, anonymising and posting emails

• Seeding– Finding and posting new info (RSS feeds, Google,

news)– Playing Devil’s Advocate

Specific strategies for involvement and participation

• Hot seats– Identify and invite recognised expert– Prime your target audience– Establish time-scale and dates– Gather preliminary key questions– Backfill/seed– Monitor– Summarise– Publicise

Specific strategies for involvement and participation

• Polls– Identify/extract key question or issue– Set up poll– Publicise poll – Close poll– Summarise and act on results– Publicise action

Specific strategies for involvement and participation

• Add members– Identify value-added members– Actively recruit– Manually add to membership list– Notify

Specific strategies for involvement and participation

• Educate your members– Awareness-raising– Case studies/story telling/ narrative– Lead by example (post, respond, Profile)– Technical help and guidance

Specific strategies for involvement and participation

Specific strategies for involvement and participation

• Regular “off-line” email to members – Give “teaser” summary of new content– Include hyperlinks to relevant content– Welcome new members– Highlight successes of the group/community– Raise awareness of upcoming events

Sample email

What constitutes success?

• Choose your metrics• Monitor them• Act on them• Report on them (especially quick wins)• Think – WHO, HOW, WHAT?

Some keys to successful CoPs

Source: Leading the Way through Heads Together and Deputes Together presentation

What went well/not so well

• Were your expectations met?• What did you like about the session?• What could we do to make it better next

time?