Assertion - Code Dojos and similar group sessions are powerful learning experiences, and whet our appetites for more information. Unlike reading a book, you can discuss ideas and techniques directly with someone else, and get their perspective on how well it worked in their context. Sharing your own experiences in the context of solving problems surfaces new ideas on how to improve as well.
This should address the Collaboration, Self Improvement, Supportive Culture and Technical Excellence skills in the inventory.
Planning Activities
Obtain support from your organization if this will be done during business hours if if you want to use their facilities. This is not usually a hard sell, even if you want to invite developers who work elsewhere.
Get a handful of individuals at your workplace together who also wish to grow their skills, and ask them to help host the group. This avoids the problem of requiring that one person always be available.
Include people from outside your organization to obtain a variety of perspectives. This includes doing some promotion / outreach if possible. Many cities have active user groups centered around a language or toolset (Java User's Group,SPIN, ALT.NET, BarCamp) where you can post information.
Success will be determined by:
Participation - if group participation grows or is stable over time, participants perceive it as useful and interesting.
Group skill level - this is very subjective, but the ultimate goal is to improve skills across the board.
Get all interested parties from your organization/city together and grow your skills in the context of solving programming problems. The focus can be on developing a specific skill (such as Refactoring or TDD), or it can be on solving a particular problem.
The central ideas are:
Meet regularly. Weekly is best, every month at worst. (I haven't tested this assumption out.)
Do hands-on work. If not all participants at once (not sure what this format is called), then all participants should cycle through doing hands-on work /experimenting.
Vary the format to see what works and what doesn't work. Strike a balance between a prepared topic and ad-hoc discussions.
What were the results? (Someone else jump in if you have done this - the author won't have any results until the 2nd week of January.)
What will you do again? What will you change? (Ditto)