Careers

CQL Communities of Practice

CQL cultivates communities of practice.

“Communities of practice are groups of people who share a passion for something that they know how to do and who interact regularly to learn how to do it better.” Etienne Wenger, the researcher who first coined the term.

Corresponding with the development of the Quality Measures 2005 ^®, a community of CQL staff began discussions to learn together about the application of the new measures. The community develops the practice. The learning is organic. As more community members have the opportunity to apply the measures in a variety of settings from accreditation, training and certification, to community assessment, the more we learn about the best practice.

The practice is defined by the people who are out there doing the work. The community officially meets via teleconference monthly. Calls are recorded so that members who are unable to call in can still keep up with the community. Members of the community continue to contact each other and continue to learn beyond the more structured monthly meetings.

The community benefits individual members by supporting personal development and providing access to expertise and networking opportunities. CQL benefits from the knowledge sharing and innovation that naturally flows from the community.

“The Community of Practice has resulted in our members having a deeper understanding of the 2005 measures and adds a degree of reliability to ensure consistency in how each team member is interpreting and applying the measures. It’s a true example of how CQL can use its own data to understand the meaning, make change where it’s needed, identify needs, and develop new products or services. But it’s more than that. Our calls are always full of energy and invigorating dialogue – despite being on the phone without visual contact. Our members give up their evenings after a long day of work for these calls – that’s how much they believe in what is gained by our Community of Practice calls.” Albert Van Kleeck, Quality Enhancement Specialist