Creating Knowledge Communities (2011)

CREATING & NURTURING
KNOWLEDGE COMMUNITIES
Marc Jadoul

COPYRIGHT © 2011 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

WHAT IS “KNOWLEDGE” ?

Knowledge is of
two kinds: we know
a subject ourselves,
or we know where
we can find
information upon it.
Samuel Johnson. 1709-1784


KNOWLEDGE IS PART OF OUR
DAY-TO-DAY BUSINESS

Knowledge is information,
applied and re-used,
not just collected …

Capture “knowledge work” as
daily work, instead of capturing
knowledge separately…


THE BUSINESS VALUE OF
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Knowledge workers spend up to 30%
of their working day looking for data.

Managers spend 2h/day
Only 44% of corporate searching for information,
users can find the (internal) 50% of found information
file they are looking for. is of no value.

“The average Intel employee

“If HP knew what HP dumps 1 day a week trying
knows, they would be to find people with the experience
& expertise plus the relevant
3 times more information to do their job.”
profitable.”

THE KNOWLEDGE CREATING COMPANY

“ In an economy where the only certainty is
uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting
competitive advantage is knowledge.
When markets shift, technologies
proliferate, competitors multiply, and
products become obsolete almost
overnight, successful companies are those
that consistently create new knowledge,
disseminate it widely throughout the
organization, and quickly embody it in
new technologies and products.
These activities define the “knowledge-
creating” company, whose sole business is
continuous innovation.


“EXPLICIT” VS “TACIT” KNOWLEDGE

Explicit Knowledge
Articulated knowledge, expressed and recorded as words, numbers, codes,
mathematical and scientific formulae, and musical notations.
Explicit knowledge is easy to communicate, store, and distribute and is the
knowledge found in books, on the web, and other visual and oral means.
Opposite of tacit knowledge.

Tacit knowledge
Unwritten, unspoken, and hidden vast storehouse of knowledge held by
practically every normal human being, based on his or her emotions, experiences,
insights, intuition, observations and internalized information.
Tacit knowledge is integral to the entirety of a person's consciousness, is
acquired largely through association with other people, and requires joint or
shared activities to be imparted from on to another. Like the submerged part of
an iceberg it constitutes the bulk of what one knows, and forms the underlying
framework that makes explicit knowledge possible.


KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IS
A CYCLIC PROCESS
tacit tacit

socialization externalization

tacit explicit

tacit explicit

internalization combination

explicit explicit
SECI model by Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995


THE KNOWLEDGE ‘SPIRAL’
IS POWERED BY COMMUNITIES
tacit
community
adoption externalization
socialization
informal
communities
tacit individual organizational explicit
learning adoption
formal
organizations
combination
Diffusion,
internalization application
& value realization
explicit


ESTABLISHING COMMUNITIES
OF PRACTICE
Communities of Practice (CoPs) are networks of individuals with common problems or
interests who get together to explore ways of working, identify common solutions, and
share good practice and ideas.
• Puts ou in touch with like-minded colleagues and peers
• Allow you to share your experiences and learn from others
• Allow you to collaborate and achieve common outcomes
• Accelerate your learning and provide the opportunity to innovate
• Validate and build on existing knowledge and good practice

CoPs are not about bringing knowledge
into the organisation but about
helping to grow (cross-
organizational) knowledge
that we can apply in our day-to-day business.


WHY DO PEOPLE JOIN COMMUNITIES?

Incentives for participating Obstacles for not participating
• Expressing themselves • Motivating people to engage
• Supporting others • Getting people to come back
• Listening & learning • Finding time to engage
• Sharing knowledge • (Perceived) missing features
• (Perceived) convenience • (Middle) management buy-in
• Recognition
• The culture of the organization
• Power


HOW TO INCREASE THE ‘ACTIVE’
PARTICIPATION RATE?
As a community’s knowledge The more members a
base grows, more members community has, the richer the
will join to seek out that community’s knowledge base
knowledge… becomes…

The easier it is for members to As you connect content to
connect, collaborate, and members and their profiles,
contribute, the more members the more members will
you will get and the richer the connect with each other and
knowledge base becomes… form their own networks…

A community usually needs at least 50 members,
with 100 being a better target.

KEY COMMUNITY ROLES
Endorses, enables and empowers the community, internally
Executive and externally. Is able to envision the value of the
Sponsor community over time to both the members as well as the
organization.

Define the community vision, focus, strategy, and direction.
Champion(s) or Energizes the collaboration process and provides continuous
Advocate(s) nourishment for the community. Communicate a sense of
passion and guide the community towards its goals.

Works directly with the champion and platform owner.
Moderator or Responds to the needs of the community and promotes
Facilitator* tools, recurring events, regular communications, and
Contributions.
Selected subject matter experts that start disucssions, help
answer questions and assist the moderator to keep the
Key Contributors community active. Are expected to be present on
community calls and at meetings and regularly contribute in
threaded discussions


BEST PRACTICES FOR
BUILDING A COMMUNITY

1. Identify the purpose and define the community

2. Find a sponsor and attract champions/advocates

3. Launch the community and develop the practice

4. Facilitate, manage and moderate

5. Monitor, celebrate and persist


STEP 1: IDENTIFY THE PURPOSE AND
DEFINE THE COMMUNITY

What makes a good community? Questions to ask…
• Independent of organization • What is the goal of the community?
structure ― based on what — Sharing expertise/experience on a specific ‘problem’
members want to interact on or ‘solution’
— Sharing a common interest, passion or concern
• Different from teams ― based on — Need for a common platform for communicate and
topics, not on assignments collaborate
• Not sites, team spaces, blogs or • Are there overlaps with existing
wikis ― but people who choose to communities?
interact — Consider joining or expanding an existing community
instead of creating your own
• Span boundaries ― cross functions,
• Is there an existing team that could
organizations, and geographic
be the core of a new community?
locations.
— These can be the initial members
• Pick a broad a scope to start with ― • Is there an existing distribution list
separate communities can be spun of people interested in the topic?
off if warranted. — Use that list to invite people


STEP 2: FIND A SPONSOR AND ATTRACT
CHAMPIONS/ADVOCATES
What makes a good champion?
• Knows the subject
• Is a good communicator
• Understands cultures and behaviors
• Has energy and authority
• Understand social networks and
endorses enterprise 2.0 principles
• Is prepared to get his hands dirty
• Can spend sufficient time on:
― Promoting the community
― Increasing membership
― Lining up the members
― Initiating discussions
― Asking and answering questions
― Posting information which is useful
to the members


STEP 3: LAUNCH THE COMMUNITY AND
DEVELOP THE PRACTICE

Launch the community and develop the practice

Appoint a committed community moderator/facilitator

Launch the community collaboration platform

Recruit/invite the initial members

Communicate about the community

Provide initial instructions and contacts for getting help


IMPLEMENT THE COMMUNITY
COLLABORATION PLATFORM


PROMOTE THE COLLABORATION PLATFORM
TOWARDS COMMUNITY MEMBERS
1. Make yourself visible as an expert and finding your peers and
complements across the organization
2. Share information about innovation, technology, markets, challenges,
customers, competitors, solutions, best practices, business cases, etc.
3. A state-of-the art and easy-to-use Enterprise 2.0 collaboration platform,
already adopted by almost (number of users) of your colleagues...
4. (CoI specific value propositions, incentives and benefits)


RECRUIT COMMUNITY MEMBERS

• How to attract and recruit community members
- Frequent executive reach out by the sponsor and advocate(s)
- Post/submit articles on existing webpages, newsletters, blogs, etc.
that reach your target audience
- Use existing networks to inform possible members about your community
- Send a one-time broadcast message to the entire population containing
your target audience
- Suggest to those with questions or interest in your topic that they join
your community
- Participate to discussions in other communities, to promote you community
- Request that links to your community be added on all relevant web sites


“GETTING STARTED” INSTRUCTIONS

Make yourself searchable
Create a profile that contains basic information about yourself. It will
enable people to find you when they need an expert in your field. Be sure
to fill the fields related to your interests, your expertise and tags.
Manage your information flows
Personalize your Engage home page by adding “widgets” to filter and
follow activity in the groups you belong to, on specific keywords/tags,
certain people's blogs, discussions in groups you follow, etc.

Reduce email notification overload
By default, the Engage platform will send you an email message
when content you care about is added or changed. Engage
provides you with some easy to use tools to help you manage
Engage email notifications.
Connect – Collaborate - Contribute
Visit the “Getting Started” pages or contact (community
manager)


MORE RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR COMMUNITY MEMBERS…
Use Projects
Identify a formal activity launched within the community about a given topic. Projects
should have clear deliverables and milestones and must be used for tracking
associated activities, …

Use Discussions and Mark them as Questions
For very quick response and decision to a group of close questions: when a
Discussion appears, it should become the priority for community members to
come up with answers

Use Blogs
Share fresh information, news and updates e.g. markets and competition

Global groups Architecture
The Engage platform is not :
• Aiming to replace Sharepoint
• A document repository
• Our "New Intranet"
• A Project Management Platform
A group should have a flat architecture. The best tool for a structured
repository remains Sharepoint.


STEP 4: FACILITATE, MANAGE AND
MODERATE
• Keep the community active
- Regular community call with a scheduled speaker
- Face-to-face meetings of ‘local chapters’
- Training sessions on community subjects of interest

• Keep the collaboration platform alive
- Create sponsor and advocate blogs
- Sponsor and advocate replies and reactions to community posts
- Post thought-provoking documents and polls to stimulate discussion
- Publish a weekly summary of a community event
- Republish useful links & interesting content from other communities

• Increase content relevance and searchability
- Categorize and add relevant content tags
- ‘Move’ too old, irrelevant or obsolete information (don’t remove!)
- One2one discussion of irrelevant/inapropriate content with the authors


STEP 5: MONITOR, CELEBRATE AND
PERSIST
• Monitor and measure the success of the community
- Define and measure relevant and appropriate KPIs
- Adjust/intervene when necessary

• Recognize and celebrate
- Focus on people and culture, not on content
- Recognize key community members or contributions
- Extend community recognition to organization recognition
- Celebrate successes made possible by the CoI or the collaboration platform

• Don’t give up
- Recognize it will take time and resources, and that communities
are not established ‘overnight’
- Make sure the key stakeholders understanding social media and
get their hands dirty
- Advocates play a key role in promoting and growing the community


STOP REINVENTING
THE WHEEL!


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Creating Knowledge Communities (2011)

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