Creating Communities from scratch
Onyeka Onyekwelu MBCS
Innovator | Non-Executive Director | Diversity & Inclusion Advocate
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”?African Proverb.?
In my earlier blog - On your marks - I shared how important it was for innovators to understand the culture they were operating within. Knowing who does what, helps to reduce duplication. Understanding what products are being used, reduces unnecessary research or stakeholder engagement with [presumably] new leads. And an awareness of existing processes, cuts down the time wasted that could be better spent on developing successful business cases and products/services.
In light of my growing awareness of the disparate nature of operating (due to the sheer scale of the organisation), I jumped at a colleague’s suggestion to set up a community. From my experience to date, this would give me clarity on the questions points above, a lot quicker.?
To do this well, three things needed to be defined from the start:
Purpose
Thinking first about the purpose of this community. This was very clear; we needed to know who does what, with what? As I’ve shared prior, the No.10 Innovation Fellows spotted pockets of excellence around the organisation. But there was no structured/existing way of finding out the details. ‘Why is that important?’ I hear you ask. Well, case studies, glossy reports and final presentations are great, but without sharing the methodology behind successful pilots, it’s incredibly difficult to replicate (or more importantly, scale).?
Bringing people together from across the organisation, who were already using geospatial data to draw insights and inform strategic next steps, was critical.?
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Practice vs. Interest
My brief is to ‘help experts unlock the power of data and emerging technologies to address humanitarian crises.’ With this in mind, my focus should be on developing a safe-space for the doers aka a Community of Practice. And I agree, that should take precedent. However, one cannot truly develop user-centred products/services in a vacuum. Without the contextual intelligence, experience and expertise of the Humanitarian Advisers and in-post officers, the work of the Data Scientists in the lab is merely experimental. So it was important to do both, in time.?
People
‘You cannot boil the ocean’ is advice that held me in good stead in the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI), and it rings true here too. It was important, in light of the purpose, to focus on setting up one space first. Before peaking the interest of others who might wish to explore and experiment, we needed to get our house in order. To do that, we prioritised developing the Community of Practice prior to a Community of Interest. And I would advise others, in a similar position, to do the same.
Sustainability is top of mind in everything that I do as a No.10 Innovation Fellow. The Fellowship runs for a set period of time, so it's important that whatever I work on lives beyond me. For instance, ensuring that the lessons that I learn can be accessed by those currently working in the organisation, and those yet to do so. This is one of the many reasons why I chose to break with convention and share my learnings publicly on this LinkedIn newsletter, rather than privately via internal mail or on the organisation’s intranet.?
Thinking then about creating this community, it was important for them to be able to convene, discuss and share, beyond my Fellowship. I shared some suggestions on structure, timing, etc. but left it to the group to decide what worked best for them. Again, I would encourage this approach and for this to be kept under review for the first 3 months. The administration too, fell to my colleague. To avoid future technological hiccups in my absence, it was left to him to schedule the meetings and invite the first members. Lastly, leadership. I suggested that my colleague, Chair. During my time convening multiple communities of practice at LOTI, I learned that the role of Chair was pivotal to a community’s success. This light-touch approach would ensure that there was a sense of ownership from existing members of staff; a more collegiate atmosphere in meetings (rather than being told ‘how’ by innovators); and accountability over its success.?
This community of practice has been running successfully for more than 6 months now, and is growing. They know why they meet: to share what they’re working on, and what they’re using to do so. They know what they should keep discussing, and what their long-term goal is. And they have a desire to keep growing their membership. They have since run a teach-in, demos of software applications being used that might be of interest to other teams, saved duplication on the same work being carried out by two teams, and shared grievances on challenges they’ve faced operating within the confines of the current system. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.