Class dates 1/24 and 1/26

Class dates 1/24 and 1/26

The reading entitled "Cultivating Communities of Practice" made a few statements about Communities of Practice. First of all,  Communities of Practice are defined as groups of people who share a common interest and desire to deepen their expertise/problem-solving by interacting with one another. It also said that these Communities of Practice can share a common sense of identity because of their shared interest. The practice of sharing information within a community of practice can be essential, in some cases, for financial growth within a business. This reading also states that not all information can be cataloged and that sharing information face to face is important for growing one's body of knowledge.

The group activity of the day required for me to work with people that I had never met before. I enjoyed working with my group and thought that they employed the technique "yes, and...?" very well. They were very welcoming to new people (even though they already knew each other).

After reading Tuckman's Stages of Development, I condensed what I think characterizes the different stages of development:
     1) Forming- safe discussion, dependence on each other and the group leader, discussion on how to approach the task
           must be comfortable enough with group to broach potentially conflict causing topics    to progress to the next stage.

     2) Storming - beginning to get an understanding of each other, using a "testing and proving mentality", needs structure (i.e. roles within the group, leadership)
           The ability to listen is necessary for the group to progress to the next stage

     3) Norming - group cohesion, shared leadership, conflict resolution, sense of group belonging, resistance to change
            True "interdependence" is required to reach the next stage. I imagine interdependence to  be when all group members fulfill their assigned roles.
          
     4) Performing - group is most productive, group unity, individual members are self-assuring

     5) Adjourning - to take care of any loose ends of the assignment, indicates that the group was productive/effective enough to finish their task.

Colvin's "What Really Makes Teams Work" overviewed the importance of "dense" social interactions and how it improves productivity in the workplace. While I respect the research of a MIT scientist, his statement that online communities were ineffective did not make much sense to me. I've known people that have begun some of the best relationships in their lives through online communities. Online communities combines the principles of Communities of Practice, where people seek others with similar interests as them, with removing some potentially troublesome cultural differences and allows the user to objectively analyze what the other person has said. This article also assumes that face to face interactions consists of effective/respectful communication and the members are bound in some way to work with one another, which definitely isn't always the case. Also, from anecdotal experience, real life groups can amplify bad ideas if people are not invested in the group or are afraid of social repercussions from a disagreement.