Who do you have in your learning circle? Do you have a learning tribe of people who help you grow and develop to be your best professional self? Last weekend, I realized that I was missing a small group of professional trainers who had common interests in making learning extraordinary. My solution was to create the Rescue My Training Virtual Community of Practice (CoP)!

I don't know why I didn't think of it before now. I have created CoPs for other organizations, so why not create one and build my learning tribe! I want to learn, grow, and share too :-)

The Learning Revolution

Although I think social learning is a highly effective way to learn, I didn't create the CoP concept. It's a fairly new term that was coined by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger in their 1991 book Situated Learning (Lave & Wenger 1991).

Every professional needs a tribe of people with whom they can interact on a regular basis to swap ideas, share information, freely use industry jargon, and learn how to be better by . It’s important to continuously grow in your profession, so that you don’t slip into irrelevance.

In the Rescue My Training Virtual CoP, we are beginning to solve each other’s challenges, share successes and failures, and make recommendations for more in-depth professional development opportunities. We are all passionate about making learning extraordinary for others and changing mindsets and behaviors of people with whom we share our expertise. I have already benefited from the intimate setting with those in my profession.

So far, we have 48 members are steadily growing. I can’t believe the expertise in my learning tribe! The primary benefit of having professionals from diverse backgrounds and sharing a common passion is that it gives us multiple perspectives to explore and gain knowledge from real-world experiences. Our learning tribe has people from different industries that are all experts in helping others learn through exciting and engaging experiences.

Specifically, we have ICF-certified coaches, CPLPs, instructional designers, facilitators, career counselors, speakers, authors, an acting coach, business consultants, IT specialists, performance consultants, an adjunct professor, content developer, and a publisher. Wow!!! I think we have each ATD area of expertise covered in this group.

 How Does This Virtual CoP Work

I’m so excited about this group of learning revolutionaries!!! To join, all you have to do is click the Join link from the Facebook group page. Once you’re approved, you can begin to share, learn, and grow! It’s that simple.

I can’t believe the level of commitment in this CoP. We’re all busy helping others learn, but find time to enhance our knowledge, skills, and experiences by being a part of the group.

Talk about modeling the behavior that we want from our learners...that’s what we do, walk the talk!

When time allows in our busy schedules, we share expertise based on the day of the week. For example, we will be starting #MakeoverMonday. On Mondays, we will share an real-life story of how a learning experience was turned around by improving the design, development, or delivery. Some Mondays we will be making over some of our members’ learning events.

The other days are below.

• #TrainingTipTuesday...We share a training tip or concept that leads to extraordinary learning.

• #WisdomWednesday...We share a learning quote that inspires us or represents our philosophy.

• #ThrowBackThursday...We share a training success or failure story.

• #FeelTheLoveFriday...We share what we love about helping others learn and fuels our passion for training.

• #LearningRevolutionSaturday...We share our learning tribe with at least one additional person who can benefit and contribute to our tribe.

• #ShareAndLearnSunday...We share training challenges and help other members with solving those challenges. Our help comes in the form of an article, tool, or resource.

Staying on Top of Our Game

We are really starting a learning revolution by creating a central source for trainers to grow and develop in specific areas of interest. The great thing is that we’re all there to learn more about our profession of sharing knowledge, skills, and expertise to others for action and achieving results. Our purpose is to learn from each other, tackle real-life challenges that impact the learning and development community, and make learning extraordinary for others.

We know, probably better than any other profession, the importance of continuous learning. Learning is our business! The Rescue My Training Virtual CoP is a group of passionate learners who train others to be their best.

Our mission is to create actionable and inspiring experiences that change the world’s view about learning!

Join the Learning Revolution

If you are a professional trainer, who shares your expertise with others by designing, developing, and delivering engaging and inspiring learning activities that lead to actionable results, this group is for you. Consider joining the learning revolution so that you can share, learn, and grow with us!

Although we’re just getting started, here are a few comments from members to show the excitement in the group…

“I love the idea of a virtual community of practice!”

“I'm looking forward to share and learn from all the L&D professionals. Very exciting!”

“I'm excited to be a part of your group!”

If you’re interested, click here, and we’ll see you soon...I want to join the Rescue My Training Virtual CoP!