Communities of practice as a social learning mechanism aren’t new, but they’re certainly under-utilised as a framework within the technology industry to encourage skills development and foster connectedness across workstreams.

It’s been five years since JPMorgan’s Ignite programme began establishing networks of communities of practice in Glasgow. Despite having the might of JPMorgan behind them, founders Phil Reid, Per Hammer and Heidi Madsen began the programme very humbly. Per says: “The concept we had at the start was, ‘What if we had a community in a box?’”

Ignite has since grown exponentially. Having started with 20 original communities after the initial launch in Glasgow, the programme now has over 170 communities across 20 locations.

It sounds simple, but it’s amazing what a few coffee cups, sharpies, a whiteboard and funding for cakes can achieve if the genesis is already there – a community or workforce of tech workers who are eager to learn new skills or reinforce old ones in a safe, social space.

In an interview with DIGIT, Phil and Per discuss the framework behind communities of practice and share how Ignite has helped tech employees combat feelings of isolation.

Engendering community within work is more important than ever

The remote and hybrid work models brought on by the pandemic have made isolation something of the norm in a working week – we’re more detached than ever. This has inevitably catalysed huge spikes in work-related anxiety.

A Westfield Health report, named Coping after Covid, released earlier this year, stated that around 20% of IT workers are finding it hard to adjust to the new ways of working, 34% are getting anxious about work, and 44% of workers’ mental health had been affected since the start of the pandemic.

Back in 2016, when moving into a new role at JPMorgan’s Glasgow technology centre, Phil found that joining a non-judgemental community of practice – even in a larval state – eased his transition into the role.

On this, Phil says: “It helped me to relax and immerse myself with new knowledge, as I got to learn about the role from people who were already doing it.” The process had such a profound effect on Phil that he felt compelled to expand the framework of these communities of practice.

He says: “A few months later, myself, Per, and a few others brainstormed a way that we could have more communities of practice in Glasgow where we had the technology centre consisting of around 1,500 technologists.” (Since then, the number of employees in JPMorgan Chase’s Glasgow technology centre has nearly doubled.)

The resulting Ignite programme proved popular in Glasgow and beyond – creating an intuitive system where employees can vote on proposed communities.

This has served to not just equip workers with new skills that coincide with digital transformation, but it acts as a foil to the inherent social isolation that we’re all experiencing as we come to terms with new ways of working.

Phil says: “When people are working remotely, having access to a network of other people allows you to step out of the immediate team that you’re on Zoom with every day.”

Essentially, the cross-functionality associated with communities of practice helps to reduce the effects of siloed workstreams and encourages employees to interact with people outside of their immediate team, department, or location.

The Ignite approach

Engaging with other colleagues that you maybe wouldn’t have before is a foundational tenet of Ignite.

It creates a dynamic learning environment that, as Phil describes, has had a transformative effect on many careers.

Phil relates one of his favourite stories, that of a bank teller at a JPMorgan Chase Branch who wanted to realign her career and become a technologist. Once she completed a tech accelerator programme, she was introduced to Ignite’s Java community in Columbus.

“In talking about her experience, she said she ‘immediately found a home’ because she had access to people who were highly experienced in Java. They shared topics that weren’t covered in any formal training she received and she had mentors she could ask questions of, safely.”

Per weighs in: “Engagement is a big one, and our communities of practice act like a fly-wheel – once they get some momentum they become much easier to maintain. This drives engagement, which drives continued learning.”

Beyond peer-to-peer, social learning, several Ignite communities host masterclasses where they bring in outside experts. They also facilitate trainings, where community members can voluntarily take additional courses alongside their normal duties.

What are the current skills trends?

“You can see in the ebbs and flows of membership reflecting technological trends.” So says Per – his position offering a fascinating insight into the skills zeitgeist.

He continues: “What we’re seeing at the moment is a hunger people have to engage with things like artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science and quantum computing.”

“Also, our own coding for non-coders communities – where people from the business or administrative roles who have a need for some simple automation of their daily tasks can seek help from software engineers.

“Across the business, more employees are adopting an innovative mindset, automating simple tasks and using that as a springboard to pivot their careers down the line.”

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What value can communities of practice have for your business?

Of course, what works at JPMorgan Chase can’t be copy/pasted to other organisations. Just like every person is unique, each organisation is different and therefore any initiative to support communities of practice will need to flex and adjust to its context.

But the essence of what it’s about can be applied to teams of any size. Creating a framework in which there can be collaboration across different people bringing different personalities and skillsets to a role will make people better at their jobs.

“Deliberate practice – where you do your job and you pay attention to how you’re doing it while having someone give you constructive feedback in non-official capacity is invaluable,” as Per says.

He adds: “Organisations have tended to erode the social rooting medium over time by implementing hot desking or flexible seating. With these arrangements, people lack a ‘home’ at work. Communities of practice help to bring back this sense of ‘home’ in the workplace.”

It sounds simple, but it’s easy to fall into rigidity with how you work and expect your employees to work.

If you’re interested in perhaps rolling out something similar to Ignite but don’t perhaps have the resources or workforce for a fully democratised system, it’s worth being cognisant of the kinds of skills people are gravitating towards and what value communities of practice bring.

Per says: “With Ignite, it’s not about quantitative data. The programme is qualitative and impact-oriented. Employees’ affinities for innovation and lifelong-learning have been essential drivers of the programme’s success.”