Comms of Practice allowed to emerge/grow = energy, artifacts, ownership. Top down? Not so much. No surprise. http://t.co/nM0oqdamx9

I could be wrong, but after scanning through the journal article article I figured out that top-down isn’t so nearly effective a method for growing communities of practice as bottom-up. Would you really want or need someone from the executive suite to help drive Working Out Loud? The part where L&D trumpets was discordant to how I view social change. That’s what WOL is: a group of people, maybe just one or two, coming together and trying something different. That’s authenticity.

How did I happen to get to this place? Here’s my thought process. A couple years ago I was a training department of one in a far off corner of New Mexico. Some months went by before I figured out I was in one serious rut. It was bad. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, what I was missing. I took a chance, and went to an EdCamp (community of practice professional development event for K-12 educators). They definitely worked out loud. A few EdCamps later and I was hooked.

The catalyst, however, that breakthrough experience where someone picks up the trumpet, or ukelele, or whatever was completing an ATD Social Media course. It enabled me to question what I thought were beliefs but, it turned out, were fears. Slowly I started to WOL.

Anyway, way off on a tangent there. The point I’m trying to make is this: start out small. Get your circle to suspend disbelief long enough to try something different. Over a period of time your message will be picked up and a movement will grow. Or maybe nothing happens and you can try something else. Don’t try to sell WOL by shouting out its features. Let the people around you model it and begin to move others.

Cool post.