Communities of Practice & Transformation

“What is the probable future given the magnetic pull of the past?” (incremental change)

“What is truly possible?”(transformation)

Why is a “Community of Practice” Approach Essential?A community of practice is a group of people who share a challenge, and accelerate learning around the challenge through regular engagement and thought partnership with each other, resulting in deepened impact in the region.

This approach to learning holds great promise for Executive Directors, as they face an increasingly complex and challenging external environment at a time when they must simultaneously lead through significant internal change.

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Regional/ “OneTFA”Challenges

Broader “Education Reform”

Movement Challenges

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4Thought Leadership

Powerful Learning

Diversity & Inclusiveness

Increased Individual & Collective Impact

Executive Director Communities of Practice

Year 1: Executive Director Communities of Practice are established and are viewed as high-impact learning structures that are transformative to individual members and the collective because of the culture, learning, and impact they influence.

Year 2: Executive Director Communities of Practice are embedded into broader/relevant structures (such as home teams) and support culture, learning, and impact.

Year 3: Executive Director Communities of Practice focus on supporting Executive Directors to strategically begin to develop Communities of Practice in and between their regions, supporting culture, learning, and impact of their regional and broader national teams.

Three Year Vision/ Arc of Development

Communities of Practice: Powerful Learning

Powerful Learning

Vision of What is Possible:Communities of Practice (CoPs) will accelerate individual learning by building a collaborative, authentic, and powerful community of leaders who orient to one another with care, challenge, and urgency, so much so that each community member feels deeply respected, understood, supported, and challenged in a way that enables them to take the necessary strategic risks to live out a bold and transformational vision that is truly and undeniably game-changing for the students and communities who we serve.

Year 3 • 90% of EDs who engage in CoPs feel that they are a part of an collaborative, authentic, and powerful community of leaders who orient to one another with care, challenge, and urgency.

• 90% of EDs who engage in CoPs feels deeply respected, understood, supported, and challenged in a way that they can directly connect to taking necessary strategic risks to live out bold and transformational impact in regions for students/communities.

Year 1 • All of the above & 75% of Executive Directors who engage in pilot CoPs can make a specific connection between new learning that has occurred as a result of CoP engagement that has positively impacted their leadership/region.

Q2 • 10 Executive Directors who engage in Communities of Practice/CoP approach feel that CoP meetings are collaborative, authentic, and powerful spaces and that their fellow CoP members orient to one another with care, challenge, and urgency.

• 10 Executive Directors who engage in Communities of Practice/CoP approach feel deeply respected, understood, supported, and challenged by their engagement in the CoP.

• 7 Executive Directors who engage in pilot CoPs can make a specific connection between new learning that has occurred as a result of CoP engagement that has positively impacted their leadership/region.

Powerful Learning

Communities of Practice: Individual & Collective Impact

Powerful Learning

Year 3 Executive Directors are leading the way in contribution of thought leadership within Teach For America but also within the broader education reform community; developing and evolving this thought leadership through engagement in powerful Communities of Practice that support individual and collective growth and increase impact across regional contexts.

Year 1 • At least 1 informal network amongst Executive Directors have been strengthened through engagement in Communities of Practice/utilizing CoP approach

• 1/4 of Executive Directors who engage in pilot CoP approaches in year 1 will be champions of the approach (as defined by strong belief in the approach & tangible evidence of impact as a result)

• 90% of pilot participants view them as a meaningful and powerful learning approach/lever.

Q2 • 2-3 pilot participants will be champions of the approach (as defined by strong belief in the approach and tangible evidence of impact as a result)

• 10 pilot participants will view them as a meaningful and powerful learning approach/lever

Individual & Collective Impact

Vision of What is Possible:Communities of Practice (CoPs) will unleash powerful collective leadership in ways that are disorienting to current frameworks; truly pushing the broader education reform community beyond current models, ushering in a new era in education reform that creates new and important frameworks so much so that our organization and student outcomes defy what we think is possible in such unexpected ways that respected business publications (such as The Harvard Business Review), national Media, and documentarians highlight/feature our team’s work/impact in our communities and across the nation..

Communities of Practice: Thought Leadership

Year 3 25% of Executive Directors who are champions of Communities of Practice (meaning that they deeply believe in the approach and have tangible evidence of impact in their regions) are viewed as powerful thought leaders within the broader organization, local community, and also the education reform community (as evidenced by a variety of qualitative and quantitative measures).

Year 1 • We have an intuitive knowledge management system in place (ideally in collaboration with a broader team) capturing the new knowledge that is being developed in each Community of Practice and working group that is embracing a Community of Practice approach

• We have identified 3-4 initial CoP pilot participants who are energized by thought leadership, and have supported an urgent/critical focus of their regional efforts by utilizing a CoP approach.

• We have identified 1-2 collaborations across the Strategy & Engagement team that will simultaneously strengthen CoP/other work stream impact on thought leadership/regional impact and have operationalized the learning cycle taking place between the work streams and regional leadership.

Q2 • We have developed a clear understanding of current/in the works knowledge management systems and have aligned how we capture impact to the strategic direction of knowledge management

• At least one executive director who is energized by thought leadership, and has an urgent/critical focus of his/her regional efforts will raise his/her hand to engage more intensively to pilot a CoP approach within his/her region

Thought Leadership

Vision of What is Possible:Communities of Practice (CoPs) will generate significant thought leadership relevant to the broader organization, local community, and education reform community, by leveraging the diverse/unique perspectives, experiences, regional contexts, and ideas of Executive Directors in service to our collective mission.

Communities of Practice: Diversity & Inclusiveness

Powerful Learning

Year 3 • Executive Directors will be viewed as visionary and strategic cultural leaders within the organization and also externally in their communities.

• We have powerful thought leadership coming from Communities of Practice (CoPs) that feeds back into, and is informed by, the learning cycle of the broader organization by fueling powerful reflections and strategies from on the ground leadership experiences of Executive Directors.

Year 1 • We have explored and captured the learning from several Community of Practice approaches to the Diversity & Inclusiveness work at the Executive Director leadership level, including at least one CoP focused on D&I challenges of practice that Executive Directors experience and grapple with, and at least one affinity-based CoP focused on a shared leadership challenge of practice.

• We have documented the best practices and challenges of 1-2 regions attempting to strengthen clarity and impact in Diversity & Inclusiveness approach & practice.

Q2 • We have identified 2-3 regions attempting to strengthen clarity and impact in Diversity & Inclusiveness approach & practice where Executive Directors have elevated and prioritized Diversity & Inclusiveness in their regional vision and strategic planning process and will partner with the Executive Director to leverage the CoP approach to support their regional vision for D&I.

• We establish connections across other teams to fully explore what a learning cycle could and should be as it specifically relates to a Communities of Practices approach that focuses in on Diversity & Inclusiveness learning and development.

Diversity & Inclusiveness

Vision of What is Possible:Teach For America Executive Directors will be perceived as visionary and strategic cultural leaders within the organization and also externally in their local communities.