Assessment and recommendations for a community of practice on Foresight
Knowman worked with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) to characterise a recently-formed community of practice and make recommendations for its success.
DG INTPA wants to create a Foresight culture and promote the use of Foresight tools to inform its work. To that effect, it launched an internal community of practice.
For this project, Knowman worked in partnership with Maria João Freitas, Consultoria Colaborativa, Lda., both companies as subcontractors of Abilways S.A.
Together, Knowman and Maria João Freitas, scanned the young community of practice to:
create a picture of the community;
identify opportunities, challenges and risks;
become an initial benchmark to support the ongoing evaluation; and
inform the necessary actions to ensure the community’s impact, vitality, longevity and autonomy.
The final report included:
information of members profiles (e.g., members characteristics, motivations, expectations, type and levels of participation);
data of community dynamics (e.g., complexity, contents and activities, agendas, vitality, drivers and obstacles);
details about community operation (e.g., organisation and communication, platforms, facilitation practices);
considerations regarding the strategic placement of the community within the DG itself;
risks and opportunities for improvement and development; and,
many recommendations.
Some elements in the report
6 members’ interactions with the community since the community was launched. Each line represents a member and each dot an interaction. Different colours represent different spaces / channels of interaction (e.g., synchronous sessions online, Microsoft Teams)
Members engagement and participation in the community. Each gray circle represents a community member. Each coloured circle represents a different kind of “activity” (e.g., participation in a synchronous session; post, comments or “likes” in Microsoft Teams). The size of the circles is proportional to the number of interactions. There are many members whose interactions with the community are only through synchronous sessions.
Map of interactions in a Microsoft Teams channel used by the community. An arrow from node A to node B means that B interacted with A’s post, either by “liking” it or by commenting it.