Communities of Practice for Regional Knowledge Brokers

The Knowledge for Regional NRM Team, with input from regional bodies, identified the need to establish a community of practice to support regional NRM practitioners and knowledge brokers. A community of practice is a network of people that share a common interest in a specific area of knowledge or competence and are willing to work and learn together over a period of time to develop and share that knowledge.

A community of practice of NRM knowledge brokers links knowledge brokers across Australia in sharing learning and personal experiences to adapt and effectively respond to changing circumstances. It will provides a wide pool of expertise to draw on. Much of this ‘know-how’ has not been captured, written down or stored in databases. Other benefits are described below.

The NRM Navigator (www.nrmnavigator.net.au) is a great place to find NRM communities of practice in Australia. 

Benefits of a community of practice

There are many benefits associated with communities of practice, as they:

• provide a valuable vehicle for developing and sharing specialist knowledge
• provide a non-threatening forum to explore and test ideas or validate courses of action
• have access to broad networks and expert help
• enable rapid problem solving
• generate new knowledge in response to problems and opportunities
• can be more flexible than traditional arrangements
• cut across organisational boundaries and formal communication lines
• provide early warning of potential opportunities and threats
• can be a vehicle for cultural change (creating a knowledge sharing culture)
• are largely self-organising
• allow for professional skills to be honed through sharing of ideas and discussion.

Projects

Publications and Resources