About the Course
COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE is a semester-long learning laboratory, a rare (in my experience) opportunity to cultivate, without fear of failure or punishment, practices associated with generative human collectives. How do I, you, and we co-create the kinds of collectives—workplaces, classrooms, clubs, families, dorms, committees, co-ops, and research teams—we dream of? Organizations that are adaptive and accountable … organizations that empower us to do good, engaged, meaningful work … organizations that uplift and challenge us to stretch into our unique human agency … organizations that foster connection, clarity, and growth out of the normal stuff of conflict, miscommunication, and mistakes. Being human together is inescapable; we must work and live together to achieve shared goals and to be part of something bigger than ourselves. Being human together is also complex and messy, sometimes frustrating, sometimes harmful. What organizational (un/re) learnings and restorations are possible when we intentionally muddle through the messiness? Let’s find out, by practicing together.
WHY?
More than anything, I want Community of Practice to be of service to you, a courageous organizational agent with many gifts to offer and many gifts to receive. Community of Practice is also for me. I have spent most of my years on this earth feeling like an outsider, embodying shame, precarity, invisibility, and bitterness. Belonging, power, and leadership were things other people possessed. Community, family, and school felt hazardous to my health. To be safe—to survive—was to hide, shrink, and hope for escape. As I build new truths about myself and the organizations I am part of, I hope that my ‘becomings’ will productively intersect with yours. This course is thus an invitation to reimagine and renew through practice.
May we commit to engaging deeply and abundantly in experiments that help us:
DISTINGUISH between generative and stifling human collectives–and recognize our contributions to both.
CRAFT a vision for generative human collectives–and be open to the frustrating and beautiful messiness of community.
ENACT our vision in the human world. How do we meet, with courage and grace, the ubiquitous challenges of white supremacy culture, racial capitalism, stubborn ego, inner critic, individualism, perfectionism, urgency, ‘interpersonal mush,’ misunderstanding, and fear as learning opportunities for all?
HOW?
Inside our classroom, we will:
- ENGAGE with people, ideas, and texts in a spirit of compassionate curiosity and human dignity.
- MODEL self-awareness, transparency, and courage as tools for individual and collective growth.
Beyond our classroom, we will:
- PRACTICE our craft with those we love and trust (or are beginning to love and trust or want to love and trust).
- TRANSLATE our vision into an accessible toolkit for our future selves and for future generations.
