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How to Build Communities of Practice That Actually Work (In a Virtual World, With Real Impact)
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How to Build Communities of Practice That Actually Work (In a Virtual World, With Real Impact)

Learn how to build thriving Communities of Practice, avoid vanity metrics, and boost team engagement.

Originally recorded for: Comparative Agility Podcast with Dee Rhoda

In this episode, Dee Rhoda chats with Superpowers School host Paddy Dhanda (yes, that's me!) about how Communities of Practice (CoPs) can go from being side projects to powerful tools for collaboration, culture, and learning.

Drawing from my experience of leading one of the UK's most vibrant visual thinking communities, and creating a new Communities of Practice Health Check with Comparative Agility, I share practical insights on what actually keeps communities alive, what causes them to fizzle out, and how community leaders can stop chasing vanity metrics and start focusing on real impact.

Learn:

  • Why most internal Communities of Practice (CoP) fail within a year—and how to stop that happening to yours

  • The 5 dimensions of a thriving CoP: Purpose, Engagement, Collaboration, Leadership, and Impact

  • Why “reach” is a useless metric and how to talk to execs about real cultural change

  • What the 90-9-1 Rule can teach us about community engagement (and where to focus your energy)

  • How to keep virtual communities alive using cadence, conversation, competitions, and curiosity

  • What a visual thinking community taught me about consistency and co-creation

  • Why AI tools are helpful—but human connection is irreplaceable

Plus: why the most powerful question a leader can ask isn’t “What did you deliver?” it’s “Who did you help?”

Try the Communities of Practice Health Check from Comparative Agility: Click Here

This episode was first recorded for the Comparative Agility Podcast, hosted by the brilliant Dee Rhoda.

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