From the Leopold Center.

1. What are Communities of Practice?
Definitions, Discussion,
and Why We Started
Value Chain Partnerships

3. Communities of Practice
• “Groups of people who share a concern, a
set of problems, or a passion about a
topic, and who deepen their knowledge
and expertise in this area by interacting on
an ongoing basis”
–Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder (2002:4)

4. Tacit Knowledge
• Knowledge that needs to be
“thought about” to be shared

5. Arion’s Grandma’s Bread

6. Arion’s Bread

7. What do we do with all the learnings?
Information Junkyards Empty Libraries
From: Knowing in Community: 10 Critical Success Factors in Building Communities of Practice
by Richard McDermott, Ph.D.

8. VCP vs. eXtension
• Missions, not knowledge for it’s own sake
• “Experts” and “clients” come together as
equals
• Meet physically — more time for informal
interactions
• Geographically limited in scope (Iowa)

9. • What's your experience with
CoPs or similar models?
• What worked and what didn’t?

10. Which best describes your network?
Level of Risk
(to members)
Type of Systemic Change
network Potential How they operate
Cooperating Model best practices; test ideas
Low and learn different approaches;
Little chance convene problem-solving sessions
Coordinating Push established organizational
Low to Moderate boundaries; engage in activities
Good chance requiring greater mutual reliance
Collaborating Moderate to Methods in place to resolve
conflicts; pursuing long-term
High system creation; radical shifts from
past operation; fundamental
Best chance resource re-allocation
From Vandeventer, P., and M Mandell, 2007. Networks that Work

11. The current research/education
and technical assistance landscape
for local and regional foods
Difficult for farmers/communities to negotiate
consultants State Dept of Agric. & Health
Univ
NGOs
Bureaus
K-12
Extension Community
Comm. Colleges
Programs action groups
Departments Centers Colleges Dining Directives
Health
?? Organizations
Farm Organizations
Cooperatives
USDA
Marketing Policy
Production
Rural
Ag Marketing SARE Sustainable ag
Development Private centers
sector

12. Small Meat
Processors
Pork Niche
Market Grass-Based
Livestock
Value Chain
Partnerships
An Iowa-Based Network of Food
and Agriculture Working Groups
Regional Food Fruit and
Systems Vegetable
•Funded in part by the Wallace Center at Winrock International and the Leopold Center
•In partnership with ISU, ISU Extension, PFI, and the Leopold Center

13. Value Chain Partnerships
4 core functions
• Information hubs – “multi-organizational
extension service”
• Catalysts for cooperation – build trust and
capacity
• Magnets – leverage funding
• Scouts – cutting edge of new ideas

14. Why is Value Chain Partnerships
(VCP) Different?
A network orientation (Forces for Good; L.R. Crutchfield and H.M. Grant 2008)
Organization Network
Orientation Orientation
Mind-set Competition Collaboration
“Coopetition”
Strategy for Grow the organization Grow the network field
Impact
Typical Compete for resources Grow funding pie
Behaviors Protect knowledge Share knowledge
Hoard leadership/staff Disperse leadership
Structure Centralized Decentralized

15. Key Benefits for Producers and
CoP Functions Businesses Key Benefits for Organizations
Information hubs which •Greater awareness of wide range of support •Better grasp of real world challenges facing
create, capture, document, providers and services producers/businesses
leverage, and deploy •Access to larger "portfolio of expertise to •Greater awareness of complementary technical
knowledge to create draw from" and "tacit knowledge"-- assistance offered by other organizations
solutions for value chain information unavailable anywhere else •More effective organizations and employees
•Improved business skills/competencies due to improved knowledge/ work competencies
partners
•Opportunities to participate in research that •Participating organizations are better able to
creates new knowledge informing the manage "local politics" associated with food
industry/work systems/sustainable agriculture work
Catalysts for cooperation •Greater sense of teamwork and low level •More coordinated and efficient use of existing
of diverse interests that cooperation (low risk information-sharing) organizational and state resources
create solutions for food and •Opportunities for "high-level" cooperation •Participating organizations work more with
fiber producers and (where businesses share some risk, other groups and more apt to recognize other
businesses resources, and profits) organizations as assets/partners
•Access to support network •Deconstruction of organizational boundaries
•Private sector access to no or low-cost and negative organizational stereotypes
public sector support and services •Better relationships between unlike and
unlikely partners
Magnets that attract funding •Private sector links with research agendas •Projects with unlikely partners more likely to
and leverage, channel, and and consultants who initiate work that be funded
distribute funding for R&D of benefits producers and businesses •Increased credibility CoP brings to the work
differentiated products •Participating organizations invest more helps focus, coordinate, and leverage new and
resources such as money and staff time on wider range of support
work that supports the industry and benefits •Participating organizations are better able to
producers than otherwise possible. leverage their own resources to commit to work
Scouts that identify •Increased access to new markets •Participants better able to get attention of
emerging value chain •Increased production and sales elected officials and government agency staff
opportunities with potential to •Improved financial stability to get policy support for the work, producers,
deliver economic benefits to •More efficient operations businesses, and communities
stakeholders •Greater business viability due to better
decision making