Communities of Practice

Since 1995, the University System of Georgia (USG) has seen the interest in collaborative problem solving specifically conflict management prosper.  This prosperity is due in part to the way in which knowledge is exchanged amongst champions of the Initiative and Policy Direction on Conflict Management.  While serving on various committees such as the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution and Campus Conflict Resolution Committees, these champions repeatedly demonstrate leadership in the development and implementation of Conflict Management (CM) programs and personally encourage collegiality, trustworthiness, and collaboration on their campuses.

Knowledge about CM was initially managed by more traditonal ways of capacity building such as various training and educational activities.  As more and more individuals shared a common knowledge about conflict prevention and resolution, networks formed within and across the 36 institutions of the USG.  These networks, sometimes referred to as "communities of practice", connect people who share information, insight, and advice about solving problems and improving CM programs/services at the individual, institutional, and system level.  Members of these communities through mutual engagement and joint enterprise are managing both the social and dynamic aspect of learning.  They are interacting with each other and sharing their expertise and experiences about managing conflict.  This interacton has been critical to further articulation and sense-making about conflict management.

While some communities of practice are intentionally designed such as the earlier committees, professional conflict management practitioners and "natural problem solvers" also belong to communities of practice.  USG's conflct management practitioners include campus liaisons, mediators, and ombudspersons.  "Natural problem solvers" are individuals with excellent listening and communication skills who encourage cooperation, empathy, and dialogue.  They are sought out by others because they can be counted on to make matters better, not worse.  Although mostly invisible, these communties of practice have over time developed a unique common knowledge, practices, and approaches to collaboration.  Cultivating these unrecognized communities of practice in strategic areas has great potential for the teaching, research, and service mission of our universities.

For more information about communities of practice, please refer to:

Wenger, E.  "Communities of Practice:  Learning, Meaning, and Identity."  New York:  cambridge University Press, 1998.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R, and Snyder, W.M.  "A Guide to Managing Knowledge:  Cultivating Communities of Practice."  Boston:  Harvard Business School Press, 2002.