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Is a community right for you?

Setting up a community of practice is a long-term commitment and involves a lot of work. 

So, it’s important to know whether a community is the right approach for the outcomes you’re trying to achieve. 

Here are some of the things you’ll need to think about when deciding whether a community is the right approach for you.

What are communities good for?

Communities support organisations to understand and learn from the views of members.  

They value the importance of members’ direct experience around specific subjects and support them to develop this further together. 

By supporting communities to build relationships and collaboration, organisations can learn about where they might best act to deliver their long-term aims.

What does a successful community look like?

Developing a sense of security, belonging, consistency, continuity, purpose and achievement will create a welcoming and safe space for a community to thrive.  

Communities need to be nurtured and inspired in order to support members to learn from each other and to reach their full potential.  

People join communities of practice to take advantage of sharing and building their knowledge and understanding, through regular communication with people doing similar roles or with similar interests.  

Communities can enable people to collaborate with others outside of their own organisations and expand their experience. 

They work best when you have a longer-term aim or vision. For example, to reach a particular goal over time but without the immediate knowledge of what it will take to achieve it. 

Communities are great ways to be open-minded about the best ways to achieve your goals and working that out together. 

They work best when people are actively involved and feel a level of responsibility for supporting each other. This helps them to learn through sharing knowledge and experiences with each other. 

Communities of practice come in many shapes and sizes. Some might not even be called communities of practice. You might also see them called communities of interest, action or place. 

When a community could help

Setting up a community might be the right approach for you if:  

  • you're already working with a specific group of people, but interactions with the group are limited to short or occasional meetings and you think that more regular contact could help drive collaboration
  • you're working with a group of people who are keen to share knowledge and learn from others with similar interests or on a specific theme
  • you have an idea for a long-term vision, but there are different ways you could work towards that goal
  • you want to learn about and from people who could help you achieve your goal
  • you're working in a complex area and need to be able to adapt to, respond to, and take advantage of changes to the area you’re working in.

How a community could help

By setting up a community, you can: 

  • focus on relationships, connections and create more opportunities to interact, such as through events or an online platform  
  • make more opportunities for members to share their knowledge and learn from each other through sharing ways of working, case studies or real-life examples
  • develop ways for members to provide feedback, and make changes based on that feedback
  • plan in small increments (known as an agile approach) to allow flexibility and make it easier to manage change.

When a community might not be the right approach

The effort it takes to bring a community together, and then grow and sustain that community, means that there are situations where a community may not be the right fit.

These include when:

  • you have a specific activity in mind, or a project with a set end date, such as a task and finish or working group. Members of these groups are likely to need to work together at a set time, so a meeting format might be the best approach, with the opportunity to collaborate on documents using online tools
  • you’re delivering an intervention with a small group of people over a number of weeks, such as a well-being intervention for practitioners. You may need your group to get to know each other in a safe space, so regular meetings may be a better fit in this case
  • you’re looking for input into new initiatives from a range of stakeholders, where their opinions might be passed on to bodies implementing new policies or initiatives. Consultation activities like these might be better suited to focus groups, forums or questionnaires
  • you want to promote an initiative, policy or activity. This kind of activity might require input from communications staff to identify audiences, work on content, agree communication channels and develop ways to let people know
  • you're working with a smaller group (fewer than 20 people). If you have a very small community, the amount of effort needed to maintain the community might outweigh the benefits. You could consider holding regular meetups or using an online messaging platform in this situation
  • you don’t need investment, a sense of accountability or deeper relationships to form between members, but you want to share information such as good practice, or want to provide an opportunity for people to build contacts in a particular field.  This may be better suited to a formal network or forum where people can dip in and out of activities.

What next?

If you’ve decided that setting up a community is the right approach for you, you can apply for support from our team of community managers by completing our online form.

Need more information?

You can find out more by visiting our main communities of practice support and development page, or by emailing communities@socialcare.wales.

You might also find the information you're looking for by reading our frequently asked questions and terms and conditions.