INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS
New England Chapter

Memo from the Prez

Building A "Community of Practice"

Why am I so bullish on your joining us for our program events, breakfast brainstorms and other services available to members and affiliates throughout the year? Why do many of us feel that a professional association dedicated to advancing the causes of ALL New England’s consultants makes practical, bottom-line sense? Here’s a story I recently heard which says it better than I ever can:

There had been a movement afoot at a company that repairs copy machines to fine-tune how the repair crew spent their days so as to introduce efficiencies. So a new scheduling system was developed to streamline the assignment of repair calls and reduce the amount of time the crew spent at the home office waiting for the next assignment.

After the new system was introduced, management eagerly awaited the reports they felt sure would show clear upward trends in the number of repairs completed per day per person. Yet the reports showed just the opposite!
By eliminating the time the crew spent "waiting" together at the home office, the company had eliminated the time spent talking shop, swapping stories, seeking advice, and providing general collegial support. The company had eliminated the community of practice that was necessary for these workers to learn all those things that can’t be written in a manual or a procedure, all those things that come from experiences shared, all the things that come from living and learning in community.

The story illustrates what’s called a "community of practice," a social unit which enables its members to go beyond things that are written down, based on the premise that it can’t all be written down, that work — that life! — doesn’t always go as planned. It offers a space where activity can stop for just a moment and provide time to simply reflect on what all this activity means. In short, a place for learning, collegiality and renewal.

IMCNE’s mission is to foster such a community of practice and our programs and services are intended to offer you just such a "space." So please join us at an upcoming event and consider also becoming a full-fledged IMCNE member.

In the long run, where the nuts meet the bolts and the rubber meets the road, my prediction is you’ll be glad you did.

Ken Lizotte CMC
President

Note: Thanks to software expert Donna Davis for the above story and for her interpretation upon which I have based many of my comments here. She has done us all a great service by passing along this instructive, enlightening "oral tale."