Survey results-Processes that are supportive

Sixty-nine percent of responses reported that there was formal leaders support for the initiative. This was illustrated in comments such as:

• The Dean was the key sponsor of the initiative and offered visible, time and financial support throughout. Leaders throughout the faculty contributed throughout and attended meetings and celebratory functions.
• The project nearly fell over during implementation because everyone assumed the project team could just get on with the job. In fact, they were operating in an innovative, creative space that needed more sustenance and sponsorship. It was identified after the group fell apart and help was provided to offer better leadership and support.

Fifty-eight percent of responses also identified support for collaboration through Communities of Practice and sixty-seven percent participated in formal meetings; and fifty-four percent engaged in other networking opportunities. This is illustrated in quotes such as:

• CoP facilitators were initially school based academics however general staff from disciplines and AOUs now fulfil some of these roles. Centre for University Teaching provides financial support to the CoPs and facilitators have access to professional development funds to attend conferences, etc. relevant to their CoP. Approximately three meetings are held every year centrally to hear from the CoP facilitators
• TATAL is a community of scholars sharing
• CoP Meetings of CoP facilitators are undertaken approximately three times a year, the CoPs were initially established (late 2009) to be open to staff of all levels and disciplines, all but one of the CoPs has both academic and general staff members representing multiple disciplines at meeting. While these collaborations have occurred formal encouragement beyond stating an expectation at initial meetings was the extent of encouragement

 There are formal procedures that were exploited (e.g. regular meetings of extant committees), but this was blended in opportunistic fashion with other networking opportunities, formal meetings