ABSTRACT
The central theme of the work, all three of people quickly agreed, remained a focus on long-term relationships, i.e. connections and conversations. A word of caution: while trust and goodwill take time to develop, they can be lost rapidly if the sponsoring organisation is inattentive or unsupportive. The good news, though, is that, provided there is no major rupture or falling out, the relationships and trust that grow up between people can live on for years and often outlast both the official existence of the community and the hierarchical structures of the organisations it is there to influence. In knowledge management circles, people have tried to emphasise movement by talking about ‘mobilising knowledge’, but even that expression implies that knowledge is a thing. Community meetings provide people with a space where they can explore their experience with others and discover new possibilities for their work as practitioners and influencers.
