Curiosity and Discovery case study - Project Management Community
Formed in 2020, our Project Management Community of Practice brings together colleagues interested in joining up to explore and share new knowledge. The members commit to taking the time to discover new ideas and develop their own thinking along with their peers.
Communities of Practice often focus on a role or function that unites the members. 
The UofG Community recognises that ‘project management’ has many different forms at the University (see graphic on the right showing the different types of projects members work on), so keep membership is open to all, not just those with “Project Management” in their title. The Community Leads for 21/22 (Anna Morris and Ruth Leach) describe this as a real strength for the community: having a diverse range of members helps keep minds open about ‘how to do project management’ and means there is a huge breadth of experience to draw from.
Members and Leads alike have found the Community particularly valuable when working remotely during the pandemic, a time when discovering new connections felt difficult. The Community has and continues to be a great opportunity to meet people from across the University.
As time can be short for their members, the Community Leads along with the support of a core group of organisers have developed a programme led completely by community interests, such as the topics of their ‘Lunch and Learn’ series which came from a members’ survey. Staying close to what motivates members’ curiosity makes it easier for colleagues to prioritise time on development with the Community.
Sarah Quinn, sponsor for the Project Management Community and Director of Programme Delivery in The Transformation Team, is keen that the Community explores how it can challenge how we do things, and explore and test doing things differently: “The Community is at its most powerful when it works together and leads the discovery of how we can improve our ways of working. My role is ‘having their back’ when the Community takes its ideas about how we could be doing things to the wider University.”.
Even with their programme for learning and knowledge sharing planned out for the year, the Community Leads remain curious about what’s working well. The group would like to have more regular communication and support among the members out with the formally arranged events, and so the Leads are exploring how else the Community can help members to make new contacts, as well as being keen to discover how those then develop over time. From here the Community hope to support more of this type of activity in next year’s plans.
Like the Project Management Community, there are other staff communities and networks at UofG available to support your curiosity, discovery and development. Ranging from Leadership and Management, to Communication, to Sustainability in Learning & Teaching, find out more about UofG’s Communities and Networks and how you can join.