Host Jeff Plumblee interviews Victoria Matthew, Senior Program Officer at VentureWell. The conversation starts with social learning and Communities of Practice (CoPs). Victoria shares her thoughts on selling executives on the concept of CoPs, shares tips on facilitating a CoP, and reveals her worst and best project experiences. Listen in to learn about psychological safety, speaking human to human, and measuring the benefits of a CoP.   Key Takeaways: Victoria explains social learning and where the best, most revenue-generating ideas originate in organizations. The way you can know what to do is by talking to other people like you who have done the things you are doing. Social learning is personal or professional, as in LinkedIn Groups. Victoria explores Communities of Practice from Etienne Wenger’s definition: “Communities of Practice are groups of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and they learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” Give participants something tangible and enticing, like a workshop. Set up a CoP as a pilot program and track the benefits to participants, such as applying ideas at work they learned in the Community, that then impact other people across the organization. Designing and operating a Community of Practice includes psychological safety and a group-driven agenda. Facilitators can interject and redirect the topic if some people meander too much or talk over others. Facilitators can highlight the expertise of individual participants. Victoria discusses vulnerability and collaborative problem-solving. Victoria shares her worst project experience, involving a management-mandated tool for which they didn’t have enough licenses to show project progress to outside stakeholders. Her best experience was very challenging, but she learned so much. Including how to manage questions so everybody feels heard.   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com Email: [email protected] Resources: Moovila.com VentureWell Ideas are Free: How the Idea Revolution Is Liberating People and Transforming Organizations, by Alan G. Robinson Victoria Matthew