Community of Practice
Collective Transitions’ Community of Practice (CoP) is dedicated to upgrading how we approach and handle profound and challenging societal change questions. To upgrade “the how” in our work, the CoP explores and refines ways to illuminate, cultivate and maintain shared capacities required for building competencies to meet the challenges of today and manifest the missions and visions of societal change work.
Individuals and organizations that dare to approach, implement and actualize systemic transformation work are often under-resourced, overstretched and exhausted by the enormity and intractability of the external challenges they are dedicated to resolve. Specifically, the CoP aims to address:
the problems of underlying divides and perpetuating patterns and dynamics;
the need to approach real-life challenges with a more resourced, mindful, and courageous personal and collective character; and
the need to belong and connect with like-minded people across place, sector, scale and rank.
This work is highly emergent, and creates potential for change leaders to step up, dare to navigate interior complexities in tandem with cultivating healthy, just, and sustaining inner and outer societal conditions. The CoP builds capacities by strengthening inner aptitudes and affirming one another’s unique contributions while deepening the artistry of how to approach and tackle existential and daunting issues, resourced by a grounded, refined and shared value culture.
3 focus areas
The Community of Practice focuses in three areas: practice spaces, action research and field work with clients. These three areas offer value by actualizing, articulating, and building evidence through research, practice, and application of how to meet and transcend challenging moments, including grief and conflict from within.
Together, these areas generate implementation frameworks, methodological tools and publications that enable leaders to apply these practices in their own contexts. Key insights from ongoing practice and iterative cycles of learning and articulation are shared with other practices to further catalyze social innovation.
Practice spaces invite participants to experiment with new postures (akin to “asanas”) for their beliefs and assumptions. The aim is to help participants fully inhabit their own deep experiences and to provide space for the experience to become embodied knowledge and emerging character traits.
Action research engages 16 co-researchers from 8 organizations located in different parts of the world and in different sectors. We invite them on a year-long participatory study to deepen the inquiry on how to illuminate and articulate the capacities that are needed for navigating complex challenges and how they can be cultivated and built in their organizational context. Participatory action research includes iterative stages of observation, reflexive inquiry, applied prototypes, meaning making and synthesis into tangible outputs. For more information, see Action Research and AR Projects.
Field work with clients involves the in-situ implementation of strategies into existing contexts that face complex and high-stake risks. Organizations or collectives that wish to participate in these strategy sessions may apply for partial or full sponsorship in exchange for supporting the refining of tools and generating applied knowledge within local, cultural and political contexts. Selected cases benefit from the supportive culture and diverse expertise generated through participating in the CoP and having access to dedicated support from the core team. Contact us to learn more.