Community of Practice
Once there was a servant leader who worked for a large corporation that was not practicing servant leadership. This young leader was determined to share what he knew about serving first and so at every opportunity, including in the presentations he gave to his leaders, he talked about servant leadership.
After a while, the leaders in his division became interested and even when the servant leader transferred to another company location, his former leaders felt compelled to contact SLI to find out more about this engaging way to work.
The solution for this group was to form a Community of Practice. It is designed so you can have a servant leadership training program that is self-sufficient. It begins with a cohort of leaders, who after receiving some initial servant leadership training from the Servant Leadership Institute; commit themselves to learn about and practice servant leadership behaviors. They form a community of practice, expanding the number of leaders involved and bringing about gradual behavioral change in the organization.
“Lunch and Learn” mini workshops from SLI are the heart of this approach. We provide the curriculum while members of the community of practice facilitate one-hour sessions focused on each servant leadership behavior, first to each other and then to the next group of leaders, who learn the same material. SLI coaches can guide you through the facilitation of each session. This process can then be duplicated for each group of interested leaders.
Here are some learning outcomes for the community of practice approach:
Understand the definition of servant leadership, the qualities of a servant leader and why it matters.
Learn the behaviors necessary to practice servant leadership and the outcomes of practicing this type of leadership.
Gain an understanding of the definition of each behavior and how they are practiced.
Examine the relationship between personal and organizational values.
Examine the business rationale for cultural change.
Learn how to handle challenging situations and difficult conversations using servant leadership behaviors.
If you are looking for a way to introduce servant leadership in a very practical, budget friendly way, consider forming a community of practice and holding “lunch and learns” to get started on the journey to servant leadership in your organization. You can learn more by contacting us.