PKM, cooperation, collaboration, and communities of practice...

Currently I am taking the Personal Knowledge Mastery 40-day workshop with Harold Jarche. There was some discussion on cooperation, collaboration, and communities of practice.  Thinking of my own work in environment I think I work in a collaborative environment.  While it is sometimes necessary to each take a part of project and work cooperatively, I would say that if there is more than one person on a project we each bring our skills and perspectives to the table to make something great.  I find this to be an agreeable way to work.

Collaborative work does have a tendency to go slower.  It takes time to come to agreement of what to do and how to go about.  While at times this discussion and pace can be frustrating, it does force us to really look at a problem and usually make well thought out discussions.  The team I work with is small and have worked together for years and I find that as an advantage for us to work collaboratively.  We've had to explore many different ways of talking to one another and have employed many different systems to facilitate our discussions, but we got there.

As for participating in a community of practice, I would say that my team operates as a small one.  We each bring things we encounter and learn back to the group and incorporate what we can.  I have yet to take part in anything external, but I am working on changing that.  In part, that is why I am taking the PKM workshop.  I am looking forward to making more outward facing habits. I have pulled information for quite some time and now I am looking at pushing some of it back out there.