improvement service cop facilitator's event 18th nov 2008
TRANSCRIPT
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?