Had a great run with your community of practice / network? Is the momentum diminishing? Could it be time to pivot or wind down?
Introduction:
Over the past decade many communities of practice and networks have been created and also have ended. We have gotten better at creating these groups and nurturing them but we know that not all communities or networks are designed to go on forever. However, while focusing attention on starting and sustaining these efforts, we have not yet focused enough attention on how we wind them down when they’ve run their course without losing the knowledge they’ve produced.
While working on the ‘winding down’ of the Testing Change project (a state of the art project when it was created at the time, over a decade ago now) I started to search for lessons on ‘winding down’. Finding few readily accessible, I organized a discussion group on the topic, as well as researched some of the lessons from other initiatives that have wound down over the past years. This piece is the result of those efforts. Hopefully this learning will be helpful to others negotiating this journey.
Considerations
- When to ‘wind down’?
- How to ‘wind down’?
- What can be done to ‘save knowledge’ generated?
The two most common motivation factors for winding down seem to be:
- Momentum decreases
- Funding sources dry up
Ideally one wants to ‘see the signs’ early enough to allow time to wind down in strategic ways. This allows for planning to minimize the negative impacts on the people involved, share other resources members of the community can turn to, and find ways to preserve any new knowledge created.
I facilitated a brainstorming session on winding down networks to share some of what to consider. Here are some of the considerations that were discussed:
Making the decision to wind down – if you have a choice
- What are the clues that you are reaching that stage? You need to be in touch with your stakeholders and “read the room”. Is momentum slowing down? For what reasons?
- How to ‘let go’? Bridging to something else can help with this; Are there new role(s) for founder(s)? The experience of ‘serial’ social entrepreneurs may help.
Impact on the people involved
- Consider both individual and network-level impacts
- The importance of celebration and acknowledgement of achievements together with recognizing any sadness around the transition.
- Is there another community (or other options) for people moving forward to put their energy into next?
The importance of considering both human and knowledge “bridging” as networks wind down, to help people and information transition smoothly.
Knowledge sharing
- How do we harvest and package the learnings?
- Which learnings are important for what audiences and what purposes? – Determining what knowledge is truly important to retain and pass on, rather than trying to preserve everything can make the task more manageable.
- There are different cultural perspectives on permanence; how some indigenous cultures see impermanence as freeing rather than a failure can be helpful.
Three examples (there are many others that could be documented)
At the time we started the project (2013) there were not many initiatives like this that were global and virtual across issue silos. In the intervening years we have seen similar collaborative efforts emerge. The project was started as a project and not a new organization as it was not intended that it would go on forever. It functioned in many ways as a community of practice. After almost a decade it seemed to be the time to wind it down; we were losing the momentum we once had and many of the core members were moving on to other efforts.
We have had a practice of documenting and sharing our learning throughout the life span of the project, most often via blog posts or shared google docs. As part of our winding down we have held a virtual roundtable to reflect on our learning and have put together some summary writings which we hoped would find places to ‘live on ‘and be accessible to others starting similar initiatives in the future. One of those places, in Candid’s Issue Lab, can be viewed here.
Some lessons learned/tips around winding down:
- Time and/or resources put into an effort can be a barometer for how valued it is. When either start to diminish that may be a sign to consider evolving, pivoting or winding down.
- Take some collective group time to think about what your winding down activities will be so there is a sense of closure.
- Research platforms that retain information from similar initiatives to see where your knowledge generated can be stored. Having a number of platforms if possible may help with sustainability as various platforms change or go offline over time.
WiserEarth
Wiser Earth was an online community (from 2007 to 2014) of practitioners dedicated to environmental sustainability and social justice. At its height it had over 80,000 members. With its success came the growing needs of the community and challenge of maintaining a large social media platform. Its early strengths included: initial funding, being one of the first of its kind collaborative platforms, open sourced and multi-lingual. Over time the leadership faced the question of whether they continued to be the right platform to deliver on the mission and what a sustainable business model could be.
A special committee was created to look into what the options could be for ‘unfolding’ and a series of focus groups with community stakeholders was held. This was a core value of WiserEarth – to listen to the community and see what they wanted and needed. There was a focus on looking for potential collaborators or partners who could pick up some of what Wiser Earth provided ‘to ensure that all the hard work over the years is nurtured and continues to thrive in the hands of other community leaders in the field.’ Ultimately they decided to close their own platform wiser.org and transfer some of the data and knowledge created to partners who would take it forward and build on it (including TechSoup Global and Guidestar) as well as sharing recommendations of other networks members might want to join to continuing learning and collaborating communities (including Bioneers and Idealist).
Some lessons learned/tips around winding down:
- Every 2-3 years ask ‘are we still the right ones to be doing this work?’ If you determine you are not that will give you time to find partners who might take up the work, rather than having to close down in a hurry.
- Talk to your own community about what is wanted/needed to develop options.
- Think about the value added for your potential collaborators in addition to what you are hoping for.
Rhize
From 2014-2023 Rhize focused on strengthening coaching for movement activists and initiatives. Among other initiatives they developed a coaching and training model and a learning network to build scale through relationships.
When they wound down they published a 10 year look back.
As part of their winddown, they shared information about other movement support organizations for those looking for other ‘homes’ or sources of support. They also looked for places to ‘store’ the knowledge they had generated including sites with broader content and more specific ones such as the International Center for Nonviolent Content.
Some lessons learned/tips around winding down:
- With an intentional focus on building a community of alumni, some of the alumni were able to take aspects of the coaching program forward.
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